As we looked for better ways to support the various integrators and developers coding against our software, the AssureSign engineering team realized one of the typical ways we ourselves approach obtaining technical support is through forums and web searches.  So we introduce the AssureSign technical forum, located at http://forum.assuresign.net.

If you are an active user of DocumentNOW® interfaces, DocumentTRAK™ notification services, AssureSign for Salesforce, or have technical questions regarding AssureSign, please visit http://forum.assuresign.net.  You will be required to register in order to use the application.  If you have any questions about the use of the site, please contact your AssureSign account representative.

The AssureSign support staff will also be occasionally posting information on the forum, including sandbox update notifications and release notifications.  We may also solicit user feedback on proposed features and development plans. And your answers to any technical questions posed by other registered users are encouraged and will also contribute to the value of this site.

The AssureSign integration development team has developed a model for integrating Microsoft Dynamics® CRM, Microsoft SharePoint and AssureSign.  As Microsoft Certified Partners,  AssureSign developed this model as a pattern for Microsoft integration developers working on extending Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Visual Studio Team System provides an easy entry point into starting to extend the Dynamics CRM platform, offering out of the box templates for creating Microsoft Dynamics plug-ins.  Extending the plug-in application to connect to AssureSign DocumentNOW® services is as simple as adding a DocumentNOW .NET service reference.  For an integration provider that already understands the Microsoft Dynamics CRM entity model,  the only thing to learn may be the DocumentNOW methods for mapping data to AssureSign Document Templates.

The AssureSign engineers started with a basic standalone Microsoft Dynamics CRM installation using SharePoint services for storing documents.  A simple plug in was created in Visual Studio to perform the operations of pulling a selected document out of SharePoint, and attaching it to be streamed in to the AssureSign DocumentNOW web services.  The metadata on a selected entity in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is queried and matched to AssureSign template parameters.  AssureSign DocumentTRAK™ services are used to push data back to Microsoft Dynamics CRM and trigger the application to pull the completed document back into SharePoint, while updating the Dynamics entity with standard AssureSign document history.

The Microsoft Dynamics CRM end user experience is seamless.  In this model, a contract matching an AssureSign template is chosen to be sent out for signing.  All data from the contact entity is sent along with the document behind the scenes, and a signing invitation is sent to the signatory.  Upon signing, the DocumentTRAK™ services trigger updates to the document and the history displayed in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, where the user receives real-time information about the document status.

If you are a Microsoft integration provider, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer, or are evaluating AssureSign or Microsoft Dynamics CRM, please contact the AssureSign sales team at sign@assuresign.com for a demonstration of this application.

New version provides extended inter-connectivity with existing business systems

AssureSign LLC, a leader in electronic signature technology, today announced the official release of the latest offering of its AssureSign product, AssureSign v2.0.4. With this new release, AssureSign delivers a higher degree of automation and enhanced document tracking capabilities via the introduction of DocumentTRAK™ web notifications.

AssureSign is a web-hosted service that facilitates the managed processing of documents in an all-digital, highly secure environment. Since its inception, AssureSign has included a rich event model that enabled email notifications of document status to be triggered by various workflow events throughout the signing process, such as beginning and completion of steps and completion of document signing. 

The new DocumentTRAK component enables users to send communications to their own web-accessible applications, which are triggered by specified events defined in a document template workflow configuration. The DocumentTRAK wizard, launched from within the workflow editor, walks users through configuring the AssureSign system to send data according to their schema, to a specified location, at a specified point in the signing process, including Document Started, Before Step Started, After Step Completed, Landing Page Visited, Document Completed or Document Pre-Expiration Warning. DocumentTRAK notifications may be generic data-only communications or document transmissions, which may only be triggered by a Document Completed event.  The entire signed and completed document, or information collected in the signing process, can be sent to existing business systems for appropriate workflow integration or storage.

“With the introduction of DocumentTRAK, AssureSign users have the ability to integrate the management of document tracking into their existing business processes. ” said David W. Brinkman, AssureSign’s Chief Executive Officer. “DocumentTRAK simplifies and expedites the process of integrating a new technology into an existing business process.”

AssureSign Version 2.0.4 is currently being qualified for release in early July.  In regards to this release, we have already been sharing documentation with certain clients in regards to one of the most compelling components we have added lately to the application: the DocumentTRAK™ component.

From our first design of AssureSign, we have always had a rich event model that allowed email notifications to be triggered on any number of events.  In addition, for some clients we have built custom export components that send status updates and push down documents based on their unique needs.  A do-it-yourself model for wiring AssureSign events to custom web services has been a goal of our development team for quite a while.   

DocumentTRAK provides just such an environment.  In a nutshell, the DocumentTRAK wizard walks you through configuring  the AssureSign system to send data according to your schema, to your location, at a point in the signing process that you choose.  (If I was in marketing, that might have been written “Your Data.   Your Location.  Your Time.”).

For the techies among our clients who may wonder what this entails, setting up a notification endpoint can be as simple as pointing us to your service definition (got WSDL?), telling us which method to call, specifying security, and telling us where to populate the data.  After you have defined the notification simply edit a template workflow definition and assign the DocumentTRAK notification to an event.  Want to send the completed document along?  Embed it in a web service call or send it via SFTP; we have a wizard for that as well.

More information will be coming from our sales team as we prepare for the release.  Want more information now?  Contact moreinfo@assuresign.com for a more detailed description of the possibilities.

As I have said many times in my entries – the ‘electronic signatures’ market is a very exciting place to be.  Electronic signature solutions are being adopting more rapidly than ever before and AssureSign’s growth is astounding.  Customers and Partners continue to compliment us on flexibility, ease of setup, ease and sophistication of integration and ongoing support – all things we are very proud of. 

These are great reasons to be excited, but another, which also happens to be very flattering, is to see how other product offerings in the market are starting to take notice – not only are our customers seeing where the market is going,  other vendors are enhancing their products to include features that we have had for years!  We have always believed that our customers (and theirs) should have options in the way they initiate and sign documents.

• In 2003, AssureSign (then under the 3PV brand) was the first electronic signature vendor to work with the FCC to provide an ESIGN-compliant Electronic Letter of Agency (eLOA®) for our voice service provider customers.  It is still provided today, as it was the genesis of our product offering.
• In 2006, AssureSign was the first to offer a signing process that replicates pen and paper – stepping a signatory through a document and placing signatures where they belong, not just on the top or bottom of a page or ‘creating a type-written signature’ or rubber stamping a signature throughout a document.
• In 2006, AssureSign was the first to collect a mouse-based signature requiring no add-on software or hardware- the market and others vendors seemed to really like this one!
• In 2007, AssureSign was the first to offer customers the choice of per-document or per-seat pricing models.
• In 2007, AssureSign was the first web-based/SaaS application to provide multiple signatories in a document – in series or parallel. 
• In 2007, AssureSign was the first to provide email templates and custom workflows to notify interested parties of the status of documents.
• In 2007, AssureSign was the first to provide custom signature and data collection points in a document (known to us and our customers as JotBlocks).
• In 2008, AssureSign was the first to offer an open API and Toolkit for partners and customers, known as DocumentNOW®.
• In 2008, AssureSign was the first to offer web-based document creation – signing documents while in the same web-session.
• In 2008, AssureSign was the first to merge data from Web or CRM applications (such as Salesforce CRM) onto AssureSign templates and send for signature.
• In 2008, AssureSign was the first to provide immediate presentment for face-to-face signing scenarios that did not require email notification.
• In 2008, AssureSign was the first to expose document status to Web or CRM applications (such as Salesforce CRM) for tracking of document workflow.
• In 2008, AssureSign was the first to introduce Flying Screaming Monkeys to trade shows and customers - if you’ve received one, email us to tell us where your monkey is now.
• In 2009, AssureSign was the first to provide a sophisticated Security Best Practice initiative with flexible rules for each customer implementation.
• In 2009, AssureSign was the first to offer data output and integration back to external applications from data collected in the signing process.

And the firsts will continue; by year’s end, AssureSign will be the first to have enterprise-wide SAS-70 Type II certification (not just our own world-class in-house data center, but the whole enterprise).  If you know SAS-70 you will certainly appreciate this initiative!  In a few months, we will be the first electronic signature vendor to be integrated with Salesforce using 100% Force.com Apex code.  We will also release our new DocumentTRAK™ API that will provide an easy to use GUI and ‘Wizards’ to post document status changes to just about any external application.  We’re glad that the competition appreciates the same features our customers have always enjoyed.   Follow the leader – follow AssureSign.