Coupa and DocuSign: Partnering to Link Contracts and Digital Signing (But is There More to Come?)

Earlier today, Spend Matters covered the Coupa and DocuSign partnership for our Plus/PRO members. We explored the various benefits of both the initial partnership (Coupa Contracts with DocuSign Digital Transaction Management/DTM) and potential additional downstream linkages between the two providers.

The two parties have initially limited the integration rather than focusing on the broader suite. According to the announcement, “Coupa Contracts customers will enjoy a comprehensive contracts management solution with the integration of DocuSign’s DTM platform. At each step of the contract creation and renewal process, each approver will be able to DocuSign the contract safely and securely – anytime, anywhere, on any device.”

From some perspectives (e.g., legal), the 80/20 rule might apply to integrating e-signature and related signing transaction management workflow. But the broader benefits of linking source-to-pay tools and digital signing are quite significant indeed. Moreover, DocuSign brings a suite of capabilities, including workflow and routing, which really make it a platform-as-a-service for overall signing rather than simply a point tool to ink a deal more quickly. One could certainly argue that this is an opportunistic partnership since both firms basically partner with each other’s competitors (DocuSign partners with Ariba, and Coupa just announced a partnership with Box.com, a content management infrastructure provider that is used to power a few e-signature tools – although nothing at the scale of DocuSign).

Thomas Kase interviewed DocuSign’s CEO (and ex-Ariba CEO) Keith Krach here and here, and we also were invited to participate in DocuSign’s procurement advisory council meeting last month. After speaking with a few advanced customers of DocuSign, the use of a firm like DocuSign to support the “final mile” in e-sourcing and contract management (i.e., the contract signing process) is an absolute no-brainer if you want to crush cycle times and stop chasing approvers and babysitting fax machines. In this morning’s post delving into the partnership and DocuSign’s capabilities for procurement, we cover this and related topics in significant detail. Spend Matters Plus/PRO subscribers can read the brief by clicking the previous link. Not yet a member? Try Spend Matters Plus today for a week without obligation, or contact Sheena Smith (ssmith@spendmatters.com) to sign up for a trial to our broader membership program, Spend Matters PRO.