Digital marketing and media software vendor, Adobe, will sell its EchoSign solution through its Australian and New Zealand (A/NZ) channel from October 1, with intent to make it a channel-led business following an initial six month transition period.
EchoSign is a Web-based electronic signature solution which Adobe acquired in July 2011. The software is designed to accelerate business cycles and reduce delays by allowing customers to sign documents instantaneously from all operating systems and mobile platforms. It integrates natively with Acrobat, PDF, Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics and SharePoint, and other CRM solutions.
According to Adobe A/NZ head of channels, Steve Martin, more than 400 customers – which bought the solutions direct from the developer – are currently using EchoSign in A/NZ. While legacy agreements are likely to stay with Adobe, new contracts will be pushed through the channel following six months of enablement and education of the vendor’s partners.
Martin claims the opportunity for partners lies in the vast number of verticals into which EchoSign can be deployed, and the range of services that can be added as part of an end-to-end, value-added solution.
“If a partner sells $1000 worth of EchoSign, there is potential to sell another $5000 worth of services, consulting and so forth around the solution as the partner engages with its customer and helps them redesign their business processes,” Martin told ARN.
He said this can be achieved by first understanding a customer’s existing document signing processes and the pain points surrounding these, and then assessing how EchoSign can replace these traditional methods.
“This often involves the addition of things like Adobe Acrobat to help put those contracts into PDF format to manage the process in a 100 per cent electronic environment,” Martin said. “Then what do you do once you have a signed and executed document; where do you store that? It might be integration into Salesforce.com, where you are attaching the document natively with the customer account.”
Examples of target verticals include: education (overhauling a school’s permission slip and form system for more efficient communication with parents); real estate (sale and rental agreement efficiency); local councils and governments (transforming paperwork into a purely electronic business model).
As part of the shift of EchoSign into the channel, Adobe is taking to the road to educate A/NZ partners on the product through 90-minute training and enablement sessions. The vendor will visit NZ in the coming week, and move to Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney on October 1, 2 and 3, respectively.
Adobe channel partners can register for the sessions via the vendor’s Web site.
