Every business has agreements between or among it stakeholders, customers, vendors and lenders and some businesses have more than others. An electronic document management system or digital transaction management (DTM) are magic wands for business agreements. A paperless office strategy makes you look great and move quickly. Let's conquer this deeply rooted business function like we do all the rest of them. 

 

The Thick of Thin Things 

If your business doesn't have a document management system which includes both processes and technology, then it's going to have some nasty Invisible Expenses™. Every employee or subcontractor responsible for managing any of the 19+ business agreements will get buried in the thick of thin things, spin wheels and waste company resources without acing the execution. 

 

At the Mercy

Stephen Covey talks about getting stuck in the thick of thin thingsk in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He says you're letting things which matter most be at the mercy of things which matter least. In this case the agreement between your business and your customer matters most, but fumbling with the execution of it matters least. The execution is at the mercy of the fumbling. 

 

Examples of Common Business Agreements:

 

1) Leases

2) Contracts

3) Engagement Letter

4) Letter of Intent

5) Non-Disclosure Agreement

6) Non-Compete Agreement

7) Employment Agreement

8) Contractor Agreement

9) IRS Forms, e.g. W-9, W-4

10) Subscription Agreement

11) Partnership Agreement

12) LLC Operating Agreement

13) Authorizations

14) Promissory Note

15) Agreement of Sale

16) Addendums

17) Affiliate/Referral Agreements

18) Power of Attorney

19) Applications

And many many more....

 

Example of Document Chaos

Bob is an attorney whose firm, Spagnu, Miller and Associates, and professional ethics requires him to execute an engagement letter whenever a client needs legal services. When the same client has a new legal matter Bob needs to execute another engagement letter. This is a great example of an agreement intensive business. There are lots of engagement letters flying around. Let's do a walk-through of the rusty but still typical way this gets done. 

 

Bob asks his secretary, Sally, to put an engagement letter together for his new client, Tim, who ironically is having a business dispute with a supplier from a poorly executed agreement. 

Here are the steps that bury Spagnu in The Thick of Thin Things:

 

1) Sally opens a word template engagement letter and "saves as" renaming the file for Tim.

2) She drafts an email to Tim with CC to Bob and attaches the engagement letter. 

3) Tim gets the email opens the word doc and "saves as" to his own folder.

4) Tim reads the doc and emails Sally another version with some changes.

5) Sally opens the engagement letter makes changes, saves and resends to Tim.

6) Repeat #3 

7) Tim gets stuck signing his name electronically:

a) Tim doesn't have Adobe Pro to insert a digital signature

b) Spagnu didn't send the document with Adobe or DocuSign

c) Tim prints the document and signs it with a pen

d) Tim doesn't have a scanner 

e) Tim snaps a picture and emails a .jpg to Sally

f) Everyone has a degraded copy of the engagement letter

8) Sally opens the email attachment and "saves as" to a folder

9) Magnify this by the number of parties in digital transaction

10) The engagement letter is complete

 

Chaos Stats:

a) 6 document versions created

b) 6 different file names

c) 4 emails

d) Spanned 5 business days

e) Chewed up 5 man hours

f) Fumbling cost $985 

g) Poor quality result

h) Deferred chaos for future document fumbling

 

Not having the right tools is like the electronic version of paper fumbling. 

 

The 4 Questions for Identifying the Cost of Chaos™

 

a) How many different agreements does your business use?

b) How many total agreements does you business execute in a year?

c) How much time is spent fumbling? 

d) How much does the fumbling cost?

 

Example of Spagnu's Cost:

Spagnu is basically in the business of selling very important documents.

 

a) Spagnu uses 187 different agreements (after all they are a law firm)

b) Spagnu executes a total of 4,462 documents

c) Spagnu spends 15,617 man hours fumbling (just executing not creating the legal value of the document)

d) Spagnu spends $1,561,700 on the Cost of Chaos™

 

Cost of Chaos™ Calculation

Average of 3.5 wasted hours per document X 4,462 documents = 15,617 hours.

Average cost of $100 per man hour X 15,617 hours = $1,561,700 wasted cash (80% of the total spend)

 

Slashing Waste

The Cost of Chaos™ can be slashed by 80% with killer document management software like DocuSign. If you were Spagnu would you spend $15,000 to save $1,561,700 a year? Rational partners should gladly welcome this savings yet Bad Business Habits will prevent many organizations from committing to the obvious. 

 

Example of Document Paradise

Spagnu eliminates Invisible Expenses™ and the Cost of Chaos™ by using DocuSign to create and sign all it's documents. The example above using Bob, Sally and Tim would look like this:

 

1) Sally logs into DocuSign 

2) Sally sends an engagement letter template to Bob and Tim

3) Sally only needs Tim's full name and email to send the template. (she already knows Bob's)

4) Bob gets a DocuSign email, adds a brief scope to the live document and signs with a click.

5) Tim instantly gets a DocuSign email next, reviews and signs with a click.

6) Bob, Tim and Sally instantly get a final signed pdf copy.

 

Paradise Stats:

a) Single document version

b) Single file name

c) Zero emails (DocuSign sends emails automatically)

d) Spanned 2 hours 

e) Used 45 man minutes

f) Zero Cost of Chaos™

g) Best quality document

h) Zero future document fumbling

i) Meets HIPPA standards

j) Held up in court 100% of the time

 

Professionalism

Even a microbusiness can't afford NOT to have DocuSign. It provides peace of mind and exudes professionalism. A microbusiness and any business who sends a DocuSign agreement will be more professional than the receiving party. (assuming they don't use Docusign) 

 

Benefits of DocuSign's Document Paradise

1) Only need a name and email to send a template

2) All parties sign a single document version

3) DocuSign instantly routs documents from one party to the next

4) Eliminates all emails among parties 

5) Eliminates file attachments and multiple file versions

6) Sends automatic reminders

7) Slashes document execution time and cost

8) It's a "set it and forget it" tool

 

Chaos to Paradise

A March 2015 Forrester whitepaper titled, Digital Transaction Management Emerging As Key Solution, is a shocking reality to the Cost of Chaos™. Decision makers at all levels said poor digital transaction management cost their organization dearly:

a) 37% said lost revenue was between 11-15%

b) 32% said lost revenue was between 16%-50%

Spagnu looks conservative compared to the Forrester research. This might be the best ever example of Invisible Expenses™, the kind you don't know about that are killing your profits™. We've given you the path to freedom so give up electronic document fumbling and take your first step here.