With its versatility making it a handy solution for businesses, individuals, and families alike, Microsoft 365 is one of the most used office suites. It provides an excellent collection of applications for creating documents, securely sharing and storing files, communicating, and more.
For companies, the apps are convenient for collaboration and managing contracts, translating into productivity increases and cost savings. Another advantage is that Microsoft 365 can be used for electronic signing, speeding up the process of closing deals.
Having said that, Microsoft 365’s e-signature features are rather basic and offer little in terms of cybersecurity, not to mention that there’s no way to track whether third-party signers have signed the contract. As such, integrating a dedicated e-signature platform is a viable alternative thanks to its user-friendliness, security, and complete signing transparency.
To sign or not to sign? That’s the question that runs through everyone’s mind when presented with a contract. This is usually because there’s not enough time to read it through.
Moreover, traditional wet signatures can be easily forged. Thankfully, this is impossible with electronic signature software like signNow, as all of the software’s customizable signatures are legally binding, where a number of compliances protect documents from signature forgeries.
Furthermore, the company provides robust malware security for any uploaded document and lets users define the authentication methods for signers. The multiple integrations signNow supports elevate the experience to the next level.
All this is offered for reasonable prices, starting at $8 a month per user, and subscriptions always kick off with a 7-day free trial.
From PDF to photo editing, Adobe seems to have a solution for everything. Adobe Acrobat Sign is the company’s take on electronic signature software, and it’s one of the most feature-packed platforms in the industry.
In addition to offering the means to create legally binding e-signatures, Adobe Acrobat Sign also showcases long years of experience in PDF editing with its comprehensive document customization tools. The software’s advanced signature placeholders, such as payment collection fields, are particularly noteworthy.
The platform also helps both individuals and companies with various reusable contract templates. Adobe Acrobat Sign even has a couple of pre-made business form templates, such as W-9 documents.
The e-signature software is secure, too, protecting its users by enforcing strong passwords and offering knowledge-based authentication. The cherry on top is Adobe Acrobat Sign's free trial and fair prices, which start at $12.29 a month.
DocuSign was founded not long after former U.S. President Bill Clinton signed the ESIGN Act allowing electronic signatures to be legally accepted in the U.S. Every aspect of the software, such as its user-friendly design, is a testament to the company’s years of experience in e-signature technology that dates back to 2003.
The platform makes contract management a breeze by providing a variety of customizable e-signatures and a thorough text editor. Companies can also benefit from DocuSign’s reusable contract templates and follow a document’s signing process with audit trails. As the cherry on top, the software lets users set up several identity verification methods like two-factor authentication, making it highly secure.
All DocuSign has to offer comes at reasonable prices that start at $10 a month with annual billing. It can even be used for free forever, while paid subscriptions are essentially risk free for two months via the trial period and the company’s refund policy.
If integrating with Microsoft 365, e-signature platforms typically have separate add-ins for all apps within the office suite. This has numerous benefits, such as an integration for Word that lets you add advanced signature fields to a document.
Meanwhile, integrating e-signature software with Excel is perfect for setting signing roles for recipients, such as whether they’re accountants, heads of HR, and more. Teams also enjoys integration with electronic signature software, which can be used to track signature requests in real time.
An electronic signature platform also offers specified cybersecurity for each document. Other than encrypting contracts end-to-end, many providers protect files with passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA).
Considering Microsoft 365 can’t authenticate third-party signers, incorporating e-signature software into the signing process is a must-have. Biometric authentication and knowledge-based verification are just a few tools electronic signature platforms are using to verify signers. Pair these methods with Microsoft 365’s robust security, and malicious actors will never get their hands on classified data.
Integrating e-signature software into Microsoft 365 starts with signing up to the chosen platform and downloading and installing all the necessary add-ins. Fortunately, they’re often similar or entirely identical to use.
E-signing in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is straightforward, as you can either upload documents to the chosen platform and sign them there or do the following:
Integrating e-signature software into Outlook lets you hit two birds with one stone, as you can e-sign attachments and send them back right away. All you have to do are four simple steps:
An e-signature add-in for Dynamics 365 lets you track and timestamp agreement status in real time. However, e-signing itself is also possible in the following way:
The best electronic signature software smoothly integrates with various other platforms besides Microsoft 365. Offering an add-on for a CRM platform is essential for streamlining the preparation of contracts, making signing an integral part of business processes.
Businesses that need to receive a payment the moment a contract is signed should go with a platform that integrates with a payment processing platform, such as Braintree or Stripe. These add-ins are usually needed to insert payment collection fields so third-party signers can conduct a financial transaction easily.
Zapier is another handy add-on for integrating natively unsupported apps into an electronic signature platform. For example, if your company is using an online project management platform that the chosen e-signature software doesn’t pair with, Zapier can be the bridge between the two.
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