RightSignature Blog

Multi-User Accounts: RightSignature for Teams

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:30:00 +0000

RightSignature Business and Enterprise plans include access for multiple users on a single account. Who from your team needs a RightSignature login? What extra benefits can you expect when your whole team uses RightSignature together? Let’s take a detailed look at the collaborative side of RightSignature with Multi-User Accounts.

Who on Your Team Needs RightSignature?

Anyone on your team who sends documents to clients, partners, or other employees will be more productive with a RightSignature login. In many companies, RightSignature logins are issued to team members in sales, legal, business development, vendor management, legal, and human resources.

Each RightSignature user profile, identified by a unique email address and password, verifies the identity of the sender and ensures that only authorized parties send documents for signature on behalf of your company.

Multi-user accounts bring all RightSignature users on your team together under one roof – administrators can monitor signature activity and access user document archives for greater visibility, and all users can share Reusable Templates and Online Forms for increased efficiency.

Extra Features on Multi-User Accounts

Here are a few things you can do with two or more RightSignature users working together on a multi-user account:

Share Reusable Templates and Online Forms

Do all your salespeople need to send the same sales contract template for signature? Do you want your entire organization to be able use the same approved NDA template, photo release form template, or permission slip template? With a RightSignature multi-user account, you can setup these important documents once and share them with your entire team.

Reusable Templates and Online Forms created by any member of your team can be viewed, sent, and edited by any other member of your team. To access your shared Templates, go to Send a Document, then click the Templates button in the Choose a Document section. Every Template created by one of your team members will appear in the menu.

To access shared Online Forms, simply click Online Forms from the RightSignature dashboard. Your team members’ Forms will appear alongside your own.

Administrative Privileges

Users designated as account administrators can set account permissions, add and remove users, view documents sent and signed by all users, export data, see team performance graphs and reports, and more.

Administrators may also create and send documents like any other RightSignature user. However, some businesses prefer to give the administrator role to a team member focusing only on the administrative tasks.

Combined Reporting and Analytics

All RightSignature accounts come with our powerful reporting suite, where you can review data such as your document volume, cycle time, and efficiency – all at-a-glance, illustrated with beautiful charts and graphs. Multi-user accounts take this feature a step further by collecting and comparing statistics from your entire team.

Administrators can quickly check the performance of the whole team to see who gets the highest percentage of documents signed and whose documents are returned the fastest. Managers can use these statistics to identify top performers and transfer their best practices to the rest of the team.

Another crucial reporting feature for teams is our Data Exporter, which exports the text, dates, and other signer input from each document or Template sent by your team. The exported data can be opened in your favorite spreadsheet program or input to a database or other system for complete data management. For more information, read the Data Exporter feature announcement.

How to Add Users to Your Account

Navigate to the User Management section in your Account Settings.
Enter the name and email address for each new user.
Use the Edit (gear) icon next to each user to view that user’s documents, promote the user to Administrator status, or remove the user.

Save Money with Multi-User Accounts

The RightSignature Business plan includes up to 10 document senders at no additional cost. So you can add 10 members of your team to your RightSignature Business account at a fraction of the cost of 10 Personal accounts—and at substantially less cost than older solutions in the market too. Your business works best when it works as a team, and value-packed multi-user accounts with RightSignature help make that happen.

Create a Fillable PDF Form for Free

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:05:00 +0000

PDF forms are the standard method for businesses and government agencies to create professional documents that accept user input such as text, radio buttons, and more. Also known as fillable PDFs, PDF forms are enormously popular in part because they can be viewed and completed on nearly any type of computer or mobile device. Unfortunately, as freely accessible as the PDF format is for viewing, up until now if you needed a fillable PDF form creator you had to purchase expensive installed software such as Adobe Acrobat Pro.

The advent of online software, however, has drastically shifted many old software standards for the better. For every crucial tool your business needs—from sales management to word processing—there is now a online app that forgoes the substantial up-front investment and a difficult installation of old-school, desktop software. For businesses looking to create fillable PDF forms, RightSignature is that revolutionary app.

Fillable PDF Form Creator — Using RightSignature Step by Step

Step 1
First, sign up for your free RightSignature account, and navigate to Create Online Form. Select and upload the document from your computer. RightSignature accepts all major file formats including Microsoft Word and standard (non-fillable) PDFs.

Step 2
Place your form fields onto your new fillable PDF form. You can place text fields, checkboxes, signature fields and more, simply by clicking and dragging them from the tools menu and onto your document.

Step 3
Share your form! Once your fillable PDF form is created, you have 2 simple options to share your form. First, you can generate a code to embed the form directly in your website. This is useful if your form needs to be publicly available, or if you may not know beforehand who needs to complete your form. Alternatively, if you prefer to communicate by email, you can generate a web link to your new Online Form and send it to one or many recipients.

Once you’ve shared your brand new Online Form, your recipient can access it and fill out all the fields you’ve designated. RightSignature’s exclusive NaviGuide tool leads your recipient to each required field, ensuring that every item is completed correctly on the first try. The recipient can even sign the document online with a hand-drawn, legally binding electronic signature. Finally, the recipient returns the completed form back to you with a single click.

Compared to the old model of buying expensive software to create a fillable PDF form, then attaching it to an email which might get lost or hacked, the RightSignature solution is faster, cheaper, easier, and more secure. Watch this video to see how it works, or try it yourself.

RightSignature is the best, easiest, and cheapest way to create a fillable PDF form on the web today. Try a free trial of RightSignature and create your own PDF Form in minutes!

The Right Way: Holden Moss is the CPA of the Future, Powered by Electronic Signatures

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:55:00 +0000

Our series “The Right Way” profiles RightSignature power users, revealing their success secrets and the technology tools they use every day.

Going above and beyond the scope of a traditional CPA firm, Holden Moss offers accounting, consulting, and coaching services to small businesses of every size and profile. This creative approach to helping clients succeed has proven to be an effective model: with 6 offices across North Carolina and clients around the globe, Holden Moss may be the CPA of the future.

Holden Moss melds the strength of tradition with new and innovative ideas and technology—the futuristic antique clock at their headquarters symbolizes this mission. RightSignature’s Steve Stormoen caught up with Steve Moss, Partner at Holden Moss, to learn what makes their business tick.

Tell us about Holden Moss. How is your approach to being a CPA unique?

Years ago, we realized that our business clients needed and wanted more than just to have a tax return or a financial statement thrown at them—they wanted help running their businesses. If a client simply wants tax and account prep we can do that, but we can also go further, and help them grow and expand with our consulting and coaching-type services.

What we’re doing is fairly unique in the accounting world for a firm our size. Larger firms offer these services to publicly held companies, or a big private company getting ready for IPO. This level of service offered to local, mom-and-pop businesses is quite unusual. It’s a lot of fun to have someone walk into your office and beam at a win or a success that they’ve come through with.

You have a story on your website about your historic antique clock, updated with a shiny new microprocessor. Why is the clock important to you?

Back in 1999, we were renovating an old brick building for our office. It was my job to go find an unusual architectural element to make the building stand out. We decided on an antique clock—the type that used to hang outside of banks and other financial institutions. So we went ahead and bought this old clock over eBay. It was a real adventure to get the thing crated so it could be shipped here, never mind hanging it and getting it zoned, but we got it done.

One day, about a year later, the old movements in the clock caught on fire, and some of the fine components melted down. Good thing we were very adequately insured. We got new movements for the clock from the original manufacturer, except the new parts included a microprocessor, gps, special glass, the works. It’s still an antique, but now it keeps perfect time and it always looks good.

We recently moved to a new building and everyone knew the clock was coming with us. It’s something old with something very new and cool on the inside, and we like having that as a symbol for our business.

How does RightSignature help Holden Moss succeed?

As CPAs, we handle many, many documents that require signatures. We do a lot of business all over the US, and we even have a growing number of international clients. We needed a way to be able to send documents, get them digitally signed, and returned to us in a way that would be really easy and quick.

The big thing that compelled us to go ahead and get electronic signature software, though, were the disclosure consent laws. Both the IRS and many state laws require that we obtain written consent from our clients before we do certain things, like send a copy of their tax returns to a third party. If you can imagine thousands of these disclosures, and having to use mail, fax, or email, then chase down the signature for each one? Ah! It’d be maddening!

I researched many of your competitors and felt very confident that RightSignature was the way to go. Today was a pretty typical day, and I used RightSignature to send 7 or 8 documents—a consent form, an engagement contract, some financial statements. RightSignature handles sequential signing, multiple signers, everything we need it to do. It’s a great product, just a great product.

The whole team uses it, too. It’s been very easy to implement. One of my coworkers came in this morning and said we should have a competition to see who can use RightSignature the most. She says she once used it 121 times in a day, though, so that might be cheating.

As an accounting firm ahead of the tech curve, which other online tools do you use?

We use a great project management software called Action Method. It splits things up into action items so you can delegate really simply—any time you think of something that needs to get done, you can quickly hop in and assign it to a project or groups.

Another tool we use frequently with clients is a billing program called Bill.com, which allows someone who doesn’t want to be tethered inside an office to scan, fax, or upload an invoice for electronic approval and payment. It respects our process of approval from the initial clerk to the Executive Director, too, and protects us well with smart internal controls.

Next is Fathom, a nifty reporting and analysis software which we use together with our favorite accounting software, Xero. We love Xero, it’s like the alligator getting ready to bite QuickBooks. Fathom, though, is too, too cool. Fathom makes it easy to drill down and ask, what’s my break-even point on sales? If I increase this month how much will be my profit? You can print out reports or play out these sorts of scenarios right on screen, and it integrates directly with Xero. We use those two with our consulting clients, but also our own monitoring.

What’s the greatest challenge you faced with Holden Moss, and how did you overcome it?

The biggest problem both in my business and in consulting with other businesses is there’s no shortage of great ideas. The challenge is always in executing those ideas. Without good execution, you’re just spinning your wheels.

One strategy we use is to implement a daily huddle. Once a day, we gather the team together for a 10-minute meeting. We go around the room and each person shares some piece of good news, what’s going on, what they’re working on. Next round, each person gives a key performance indicator for the day. Our bookkeeper may say, I’m going to reconcile 2 bank accounts today. Sales may say, I’m finally gonna chase down this one prospect and make 20 cold calls. It’s a way to quantify our success for the day. For the last circle around the room, each person tells if they’re stuck in what they’re trying to do, and how. This makes everyone accountable, and gives you a chance to deal with group dependencies right there.

We make sure to take the little bit of time to do a huddle every single day. It really helps focus everyone on their day’s work, and reminds everyone of the overall strategy.

Digital Signature Software Comparison: RightSignature on Top

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Online business coach Virtuallinda did a comprehensive digital signature software comparison and put RightSignature on top.

The article says RightSignature is a must-have productivity tool and explains why digital signatures are critical for a modern business – streamlining sales and eliminating paper for good:

“All businesses have documents that need signing. For years I've used electronic PDFs via email but the process of getting them signed was still a bit slow. I tried creating forms from Adobe Acrobat, but people would get confused. I’d get back some scanned via email, some sent by mail and some faxed, which meant my office organization was a bit sloppy. My problem is totally solved thanks to RightSignature.com!”

After reviewing a variety of solutions, she determined RightSignature was the best digital signature software:

I selected RightSignature after doing a comparison to other digital signature software and liked the feature list the best.”

-Linda Schenk, Virtuallinda.com

Read the full article on Virtuallinda.com, with a digital signature comparison using a number of key factors, including features, API, support, and price. Then sign up for a free trial of RightSignature today!

Custom Logo Branding

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 20:59:00 +0000

Tailor the RightSignature signing experience for your customers and partners using our Custom Logo Branding. With this feature, your logo appears prominently on the signing page along side each of your documents, reinforcing your company brand and image.

Custom Logo Branding strengthens your professionalism, with your logo a clear indication that you are in full control of the document cycle. Additionally, it increases signer confidence, proving to even the most hesitant recipients that the document they’re viewing online is the same one you sent them.

Read on to learn how to activate Custom Logo Branding in your RightSignature account (Business plans and higher), as well as some other tips to help you brand RightSignature for your company.

How to Add Your Logo to RightSignature

To upload your logo, follow these simple steps:

Login to RightSignature and click Account in the top-right corner.
Click the Branding tab.
Under Company Logo, click Choose File, and select an image file from your hard drive.
Finally, click Upload to begin using this image as your custom logo!

You may change your logo whenever you want by repeating this process, or click Remove Logo to remove the logo altogether.

Extra Tips for Better Branding

Here are a few additional tips to help your logo look as good as possible in RightSignature.

Remove all white space around your logo before uploading. Crop your image carefully to make sure your logo takes up the full allotted space in your gif or tif file, and there are no white pixels around the borders of the image.
Wide logos work better than tall logos. The space reserved for your company’s logo on the Document Signing screen is wider than it is tall. Choose a similarly proportioned logo to maximize your brand’s visibility. All logos uploaded for Custom Logo Branding will be resized for display at 210 pixels wide and 50 pixels high.
Utilize our Email Customization options, too. On the same Branding tab, you will also find Email Customization options that allow you to designate the subject, greeting, and signature of the emails your signers receive.

Desk.com + RightSignature: Easy e-Signatures for the Happiest Customers on Earth

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:13:00 +0000

Desk.com is the intelligent, team-based approach to making your customers happy. Managing all your customer support tickets on one elegant online platform, Desk has basically reinvented customer service.

Desk starts by expanding your customer support system to be accessible by anybody on your team, so the hard questions can easily be assigned directly to people who have the answers. To make this possible, Desk can be accessed from any web browser and on any mobile device, so anyone on your team can help with support, wherever they are. The end result is fast, flexible customer support for businesses of any size.

We are pleased to announce the new Desk add-on for RightSignature. Now, whenever you need to get a document signed by one of your Desk contacts, simply login to RightSignature. Your Desk contacts will be available directly within RightSignature. This is especially useful when you need a customer to agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement or a Waiver of Liability—with RightSignature, these documents can be signed in minutes, even while you’re still on the phone.

To use the new RightSignature + Desk.com integration, just follow these simple steps:

Login to RightSignature and go to the Desk.com integration page. Follow the instructions to activate your Desk integration.
Navigate to your RightSignature dashboard and send a document.
After choosing your document, begin typing the name of your Desk contact into any Signer or CC text field and RightSignature will automatically suggest your Desk contacts.
Simply select the contact you would like to send your document to, and RightSignature will automatically fill in the user’s full name, email address, and other relevant data.

Rand Lutomski of Desk.com, says:

Desk.com is a trusted member of the Salesforce product suite. The Desk.com and RightSignature integration has allowed us to bring an innovative signature solution to the small business community whom we serve."

Using Harvest & RightSignature Together: Featuring Crowd Interactive

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:21:00 +0000

RightSignature’s ever-growing portfolio of integration add-ons empowers you to use your favorite online software together for even greater functionality. In our series Better Together, we deliver stories from our users on how to put these add-ons to work.

Crowd Interactive is a leading Ruby on Rails consultancy based in Colima, Mexico, near the Pacific Coast, with clients across the US. Both flexible enough to augment an existing development and design staff and powerful enough to tackle large projects on their own, Crowd Interactive builds beautiful web apps for startups and small businesses.

Crowd Interactive’s sheer talent allows them to be discerning when choosing clients. “We pick our clients carefully, and we work only in projects we believe in,” says Esteban Cortes, Business Development Director at Crowd Interactive. However, he adds that Crowd seeks a challenge as much as they seek a successful project. “Technology is fast-paced, so we have to match it—we make it a point to keep up with every new development.”

To help propel their business and their service to their clients, they make use of RightSignature electronic signature software and Harvest time tracking software. Here, Esteban walks us through a typical case to demonstrate how these powerful web apps help Crowd achieve new heights.

As a near-shore company, there is a natural barrier—a border, actually—between us and most of our clients. We have to trust our clients and they have to trust us, and we build that trust based on our delivered products. Our greatest tools are communication and results.

From the very beginning of a relationship with a client, Harvest and RightSignature are crucial. Early in the process, before we even have a mockup or a demo version of the apps or websites, we need to report our services and our progress in very specific and understandable items. Harvest provides professional estimates and invoices to establish that trust. Immediately, our clients know how long those tasks took and what they cost.

RightSignature helps turn that trust and communication into results. Using the RightSignature integration with Harvest, we can send our Harvest estimates directly from RightSignature. I also can see when our client has opened the document, as well as once it is signed, leaving no room for doubt on what the client expects to see in the monthly invoice.

Once a client has viewed one of our estimates, we can expect to have their feedback or signature within the hour. RightSignature is so fast and easy to use, we can be sure that no document gets lost. This leads to more certainty in the dev team, and a quicker turnaround for each project.”

Digital Signature Software Reviews – RightSignature in the News

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:05:00 +0000

The cloud software revolution has arrived. Businesses around the world are increasingly turning to RightSignature digital signature software as a faster, more efficient way to obtain signatures on important documents. A search for the best digital signature software turns up a variety of options, some that are proven and trustworthy and others that are not. Review the media for digital signature software reviews, however, and RightSignature emerges as a consensus favorite.

Whether it’s praise for RightSignature’s unbeatable design and ease of use, unmatched legal defensibility, or innovative mobile apps, RightSignature shines in review after review. Check out this series of digital signature software reviews from articles across the internet, then sign up for a free trial of RightSignature.

Praise for RightSignature Digital Signature Software

RightSignature is a powerful web and mobile app that makes it simple, seamless, and secure to execute legal documents online."

Fox Business
"Spending Less Cash on Going Green"

Having worked in user experience for many years, RightSignature ranks above the competition in terms of user-interface. The dashboard is clean and intuitive and document build is a well-thought-out drag’n’drop affair. Once the document is ready, clients are emailed the document you need signed and presented with a clever mouse pen tool. Once they sign it on the screen and hit the ok button, the document is locked and archived. It’s a neat, practical process that functions exactly as you expect it would."

Outright
"RightSignature: An Outrighteous Product Review"

With RightSignature you can upload contracts and have them signed in a faster, cheaper, and more secure way than paper documents."

American Bar Association GPSolo
"Widgets and Apps"

Squarely ahead of competitors in terms of functionality and ease of use. Embed forms on the Web complete with digital signature functionality. The creation of online forms is simple and straightforward. Users upload a document, place text fields as desired, and save it. RightSignature works its magic behind the scenes to generate code that can be embedded on the user’s website or a link that can be emailed to signers."

PandoDaily
"RightSignature Might Let Me Finally Toss Out My Scanner"

The RightSignature user interface is elegant. It has a flow that makes it simple to complete the signing of documents through the automation of tasks such as adding initials to each page, a requirement of most contracts. A flag follows the user, similar to a tab on a printed contract that shows you where to sign. The flag follows the user as he completes signing the document. Photo authentication is included so the person signing the document may be identified."

ReadWriteWeb
"RightSignature: Sign Away...With Your Mouse"

RightSignature ... has authentication and security technology that make the digital signatures binding and legally enforceable."

Virtual Law Practice
"Online Document Signing for Your Virtual Law Practice"

One thing that put me off with getting contracts signed for smaller projects is the time required to send the contract to the client, wait for them to sign it before finally receiving it back. That was until I discovered RightSignature, which takes out all the hassle. You simply upload your contract to RightSignature, send an e-mail to the client with a link to the document, and they then digitally sign the contract. The final document contains signatures from all parties with a unique reference number and is legally binding. RightSignature have a 30 day trial so give them a go!"

The Web Design Blog
"Essential Tips to Ensure You Get Paid For Your Work"

RightSignature allows you to authorize multi-million dollar transactions from your computer.”

Business Insider
"How to Buy and Sell Shares of Private Companies"

Many business documents have gone digital, but signatures on contracts are still a sticking point. Digital signatures are perfectly acceptable – it's just a matter of making it work. Take that step with RightSignature and Google Docs. No pesky printouts required."

AOL Small Business
"4 Google Apps That Can Make Your Smartphone Smarter"

I think the size of the iPad is no accident and its parallels to a standard piece of paper make it a compelling device for document management. I’d expect people to consider using RightSignature on the iPad even more than on the iPhone because of this."

Tablet Legal
"Lawyers: Use an iPad to Close the Deal"

RightSignature provides a way to obtain a legally enforceable digital signature on a document without your client having to own a scanner or having to go to the trouble of printing it, signing it and emailing or uploading it back to you. You can try RightSignature for free to see how it might work in your practice. The process is simple for your clients to execute and may actually be faster than requiring them to upload a traditional, scanned-in signature on a document."

North Carolina Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division
"Website of Interest: RightSignature"

RightSignature allows your clients to sign your estimates and invoices in seconds - removing the pain and hassle of waiting for a client to physically sign and mail back. What’s especially nice about RightSignature is they allow your clients to sign in a human recognizable form: the handwritten signature. By simply waving their mouse or putting their finger on their iPhone, they can sign their name the old-fashioned way. Slick."

TechVibes
"FreshBooks gets signature approval"

References:
Fox Business, Spending Less Cash on Going Green
Outright, RightSignature: An Outrighteous Product Review by Steven Fisher
American Bar Association GP Solo, Widgets and Apps by Anita Fuoss, Jason Beahm, and Aaron J. Rittmaster
Pando Daily, RightSignature Might Let Me Finally Toss Out My Scanner by Michael Carney
ReadWriteWeb, RightSignature: Sign Away... With Your Mouse by Alex Williams
Virtual Law Practice, Online Document Signing for Your Virtual Law Practice
The Web Design Blog, Essential Tips to Ensure You Get Paid for Your Work by Phil Matthews
Business Insider, How to Buy Facebook Stock Before the IPO by Nick Saint
AOL Small Business, 4 Google Apps that Can Make Your Smartphone Smarter by Amanda Kooser
TabletLegal, Lawyers: Use an iPad to Close the Deal by Josh Barrett
North Carolina Bar Association, Young Lawyers Division, Website of Interest: RightSignature
TechVibes, FreshBooks gets Signature Approval by Rob Lewis

Photo Release Form Template

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:39:00 +0000

A photo release form, also known as a model release or photography waiver, is a document signed by the subject of a photograph. The signed form grants permission for a photo to be published for certain uses, such as promotion or advertising.

Generally, it is the task of the photographer to get model release forms signed for their photos. However, lugging around a stack of paper contracts can be onerous during a photography shoot. If a shoot requires heavy equipment, easy mobility, or exposure to the elements, paper photo release forms are a burdensome distraction. To address this problem, new technology such as RightSignature online signature software makes getting your model release forms signed easier than ever.

Read on for a sample model release template, as well as some tips to write your own and get it signed online or on a mobile device, quickly and easily.

4 Keys to Crafting the Perfect Model Release Form

Contrary to a popular misconception, photography release waivers are not required when a photograph is taken, but when it is published. In addition, these waivers are only required if the published photograph is used in an advertisement or endorsement for another product or idea. However, the photographer's access and proximity to the subject most often make it their task to collect these documents. For professional photographers, a model release form template is a must, as these forms greatly expand the range of markets in which a photo can be sold.

Also consider that your photo release form template will change slightly based on your use. If your photos include subjects under 18 years old, the photo will have to be signed by their parent or legal guardian. If the photo contains multiple subjects, you must get signatures from each person—either on separate photo release forms or all together on the same document.

When creating a model release form template, be sure to include the following necessary clauses:

Release of likeness. This is a sentence in which the subject consents to have his/her likeness published.
Discussion or waiver of compensation. Photographers may choose to allow for compensation for their subjects in the event that the photo is sold or published. Otherwise, this clause can be used to acknowledge a waiver to any claims for compensation.
Acknowledgement of age of consent. This clause certifies that the model is above 18 years old, and legally able to sign the document independently.
Permitted uses. Since photographers often don’t know in advance to where their photos will be sold, this clause usually provides a range of permitted uses. Additionally, some model release forms specify whether cropping, retouching, or other editing of the photo may be allowed.

View a Sample Photo Release Form Template

Professional photographers have a constant need to get photo release forms signed—sometimes dozens in a single day. For these active professionals, paper documents can become uncomfortable to carry, expensive to print, and easy to mix up. Electronic signature software can help solve these problems, as well as cut down on duplicated work: with an electronic signature service such as RightSignature, you can set up your model release form template once, then use it as many times as you need.

This sample photo release form template, hosted with RightSignature, turns your release form into an online, fillable, and signable pdf file.

To use our photo release form template, you can click the link above and select the “PDF Download” button, or sign up for a free trial of RightSignature. Then you’ll be able to:

Send links to your models via email so they can sign your release online
Embed your release in your website
Collect signatures in person on your iPad using the RightSignature electronic signature iPad app.

A concise, legally-defensible photo release form is an important part of a successful photography business. By including the most critical clauses, and using clear language to avoid confusing the subjects of your photos, you can preserve the right to sell your photography to new potential markets. Online signatures provide a vital next step, allowing you to efficiently build a photo release form template and get it signed—quickly and easily—with a legally binding signature.

Disclaimer: This was not written by an attorney and does not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions about the legality of your photo release form, please consult your attorney.

Nimble + RightSignature: Simple, Social CRM with Digital Signatures

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 19:44:00 +0000

Nimble is the simple, clean CRM for your connected team. Social from the ground up, Nimble augments the basic CRM experience of managing sales contacts with innovative features such as a unified inbox and native connection to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Using Nimble, you can easily develop greater connections with your customers and take your sales productivity to the next level.

Thanks to the new integration between RightSignature and Nimble, this efficiency now extends to contract signing as well. Using these two popular apps together, you can seamlessly send a document to your Nimble contacts in RightSignature, then view its signing status from within Nimble. Now, you can take any potential sale from the initial contact to closing the deal with a legally binding e-signature, entirely from your web browser or mobile device.

Here’s how it works:

In RightSignature, go to the Send a Document screen and select the document you wish to send your Nimble contact.
When specifying your document recipients, begin typing the name of one of your Nimble contacts. RightSignature will automatically recognize and suggest your Nimble contacts in a drop-down menu below.
Select your intended Nimble contact. Your Nimble contact’s name and email address will be automatically filled into the relevant fields. Click Send for Signature, and they will receive a link in their email with instructions to sign your document online using RightSignature digital signature software.
Finally, log in to Nimble. Access any contact’s Profile, and you can view your RightSignature dashboard inside Nimble to see all the documents you’ve sent for signature to that particular contact. This brings real-time document statuses, as well as a full history of your signed documents, precisely where you need it the most.

Jon Ferrara, Nimble CEO, says:

Nimble simplifies sales and customer service with a powerful, flexible approach to social relationship management. RightSignature shares these values as the fastest, easiest way to get documents signed online. At Nimble, we use RightSignature internally and we love it. Nimble and RightSignature each succeed in helping businesses operate more quickly, more efficiency, and with better customer satisfaction – and we’re pleased to announce integration between our services."

One-Time Setup:

To sync your Nimble contacts inside RightSignature: Login to your RightSignature account and activate the Nimble integration.
To view your RightSignature dashboard inside Nimble, login to your Nimble account, navigate to Settings, then click Integrations, then enable External Web Pages, and add a new webpage named “RightSignature” using this special URL:
https://rightsignature.com/dashboard#/dashboard/?object_type=documents&query={email}&state=completed%2Cpending&time=alltime&document_view=document&nimble_user_id={nimble_user_id}

RightSignature iPhone App Updated

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:30:00 +0000

The brand new, rebuilt-from-the-ground-up RightSignature iPhone app is now available in the iTunes App Store. This free app brings the full core functionality of RightSignature to the iOS mobile platform:

• Monitor and manage signature requests on your Dashboard
• Send Reusable Templates for signature
• Receive Push Notifications for real-time updates on all pending documents.

The new iPhone app works with your existing RightSignature account. If you don't have one yet, you can sign up for a free trial of RightSignature e-signature software.

And—just a reminder—your document recipients can still fill out and sign documents on their iPhones: no app or account necessary for signing.

Managing E-Signature Requests on iPhone

Once you've downloaded the new RightSignature iPhone app and logged into your RightSignature account, you’ll be able to choose between your Documents, Templates, and Settings. The screenshot above shows the Documents listing, where you browse and search your documents – both those that are executed and those still pending. You can also sort by document sent date or most recent activity.

Additionally, you can check each party’s signing status, review the audit log, and read the document on your phone in PDF format. For pending documents, you can send reminders or trash the document before signing if necessary.

Sending Templates from iPhone

Perhaps the biggest feature in our new app is the ability to send Reusable Templates for signature. You can browse through the Templates you've set up in your RightSignature account, and select one to send for signature.

The rest of the signing process works exactly the same as if you’d sent the Template from your computer’s web browser.

Sending Templates from your iPhone enables you to:

• Request a signature on an NDA on the way to a meeting
• Pre-fill and send an Estimate while you're still on site with a prospect
• Send an Employment Agreement to a new hire while you're waiting for a latte!

Document Signing Push Notifications

Also new – now you can enable Push Notifications to be instantly updated whenever there is a status change on one of your document requests. When a recipient views or signs one of your documents, you’ll receive an automatic notification directly on your iPhone home screen. No more refreshing your email waiting for that important signature! These updates come to you.

With the new RightSignature iPhone app, you have a new tool in our suite of mobile e-signature apps. Business accelerates when your important documents get signed and returned quickly. The easiest, fastest way to get documents signed now goes everywhere you do—in the office, on the road, or even on the beach.

Non-Disclosure Agreement Template (NDA)

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:30:00 +0000

A Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a document signed by two or more parties in which they agree to keep certain information privileged or confidential. Non-Disclosure Agreements are common in many businesses and industries, but can often be bewildering for a first time writer or signer. To provide the best Non-Disclosure Agreement template for your needs, this article help will you:

Learn the 6 most important clauses to include in your NDA
Review a Non-Disclosure Agreement template to use in your own business
Discover how to easily and painlessly get your NDA form signed using RightSignature digital signature software

The purpose of using a written, signed document is to help establish clear expectations and guidelines for confidential information as well as creating a legal record for the agreement. To this end, Non-Disclosure Agreements—also known as Confidentiality Agreements, Proprietary Information Agreements, or Secrecy Agreements—are often made between an employer and a new employee or independent contractor, or between two companies agreeing to partner on a project.

6 Important Clauses for your Non-Disclosure Agreement Template

The purpose of an NDA is to have a legally binding agreement on record that establishes certain information—often trade secrets or the nature of the partnership itself—as confidential, defines what that confidentiality entails, and states the consequences of breaking that confidentiality. The agreement must also state whether the NDA is unilateral (binding on one party) or mutual (binding on both parties). The following is an overview of the 6 most important clauses for any non-disclosure agreement:

Definition of confidential information. This clause outlines which information must not be disclosed by the agreeing parties.
Permitted use of confidential information. If, for example, a company signed to an NDA to publish a book needs to contract a graphic designer to design the book's cover, this would be included in this clause.
Duration of confidentiality. For how long is your agreement to remain confidential? A duration may be a set amount of time, such as 5 years, or conditional upon the completion of a product or event.
Jurisdiction or court in which the Non-Disclosure Agreement is governed. In case of a breach of your NDA, the agreement should also specify which court will hold jurisdiction over any resultant legal action.
Responsibilities from each party towards legal fees. If legal fees are required to enforce the NDA, this clause identifies which party would be responsible for those fees. For example, this may state that, in the event of an unpermitted disclosure of information, the disclosing party may be responsible for all legal fees that result.
Provisions for confidentiality in case of subpoena or court notification. In some circumstances, such as under order of a subpoena, you may need to specify whether it is acceptable to disclose the confidential information specified in the NDA.

Getting Your Non-Disclosure Agreement Signed with Digital Signature Software

All signed paperwork comes with its own pitfalls—limited availability of the signing parties, rushed deadlines, expensive shipping, and the risk of losing an important document. To ensure that the limitations of paper don't impede the promise of a budding new relationship, businesses have turned to new technological solutions, such as digital signature software.

It's not surprising that Non-Disclosure Agreements are some of the most commonly sent documents using RightSignature digital signature software. RightSignature enables users to send their NDA template to each signer as easily as sending an email, either to sign all at once or in a specific sequence. Each recipient receives a link to the document, and is given step-by-step instructions on how to fill out all the required fields. They then sign the document with a hand-drawn, legally binding electronic signature, after which the finished document is automatically returned to the sender..

Users are able to get these documents signed online in minutes, avoiding the delays and expense of printing, shipping, and faxing. RightSignature digital signatures also offer even greater legal protection than paper documents, in compliance with the ESIGN Act and other laws worldwide, ensuring your NDA will hold up in court, if need be.

View a Sample Non-Disclosure Agreement Template

Before setting out to write your own Non-Disclosure Agreement, try referencing some samples online to get a feel for the structure of the document and how these clauses work. To that end, we've provided our own sample Non-Disclosure Agreement Template using this demo of RightSignature Online Forms.

RightSignature also allows you to set up your Non-Disclosure Agreement as a Reusable Template, so you can send same document as many times as needed. And if, for example, your NDA is one of many employment forms you use for new hires, you can send any and all of your important documents together for lightning-fast signing online.

These Non-Disclosure Agreement template guidelines are designed to help your business put together an effective NDA and get it signed quickly and easily. Getting your NDA template in shape protects both you and your counterparties, and making the signature request process simple with RightSignature ensures you'll have an executed document in place for every important business relationship.

Disclaimer: This was not written by an attorney and does not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions about the legality of your NDA, please consult your attorney.

Electronic Signature Software Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:28:00 +0000

Why are people so passionate about RightSignature electronic signature software?

The truest words are spoken by actual users. These are the people who have spent hours upon hours with RightSignature, whose stories illustrate the enormous benefit RightSignature online document signing has brought to their businesses. After you read them, try RightSignature for yourself.

RightSignature Electronic Signature Software Reviews

AppFog is a rapidly growing startup and this means we've got a LOT of legal documents to get signed by folks all over the world. RightSignature has been an absolutely invaluable tool for us to make sure these docs are signed quickly and painlessly – and that we don't lose documents in the paper shuffle during crunch times. I highly recommend RightSignature – it's a brilliant solution to a very difficult problem.”

Richard Kotulski

VP Operations, AppFog, Inc.

Portland, OR

We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE RightSignature.com. Contracts, proposals, and other types of signed correspondence are all part of the work we have to do to grow our brand. RightSignature removes the chore of downloading, printing, signing, faxing, blah blah blah. We just upload, and RightSignature does all the legwork. It's like a digital legal assistant! Even attorneys have said that they think it's pretty cool to have a service like this. This website has become part of our business workflow and we cannot be happier about the service!”

Chris Tillett

Kroma Makeup

Orlando, FL

RightSignature is perfect ... simple and intuitive. After you start using RightSignature, you'll never go back to the fax machine or overnight mail. It's an absolute necessity for sales agreements, NDA's, HR forms, anything that needs a signature.”

Dennis Strieter

President, LDP Associates, Inc.

Phoenix, AZ

Absolutely brilliant - and our customers love it too! RightSignature allows Apex to offer a very streamlined 'after hours' service by enabling our customers to electronically sign their car rental agreements prior to pickup.”

Ricki Shaw

Director, Apex Car Rentals

Christchurch, New Zealand

RightSignature is by far the easiest to use document signature tool for real estate agents. It has been such a success with our busy clients, we now promote that we have the tools available which helps reduce the number of face to face meetings required. Our clients love it!”

Brad Officer

Brad Officer Real Estate, Re/MAX Specialists

Jacksonville, FL

We simply love this product. It is such a nightmare to get clients to sign contracts that we often let it slip. Not only does RightSignature make signing contracts a breeze, but it also makes keeping track of them something you don't even have to think about.”

Casimir Loeber

Managing Director, Base-10 Design & Development Inc.
Vancouver, BC

The combination of affordability and usability makes RightSignature a must for our nonprofit organization. Before RightSignature, we were constantly chasing papers; now, every document is secure and only one click away!”

Rachel Mairose
Director, Secondhand Hounds

Edina, MN

RightSignature's features—from my saved signature to the auto-emailed PDF of the signed contract—make the process so simple. I sign most deals remotely from my neighborhood Starbucks, proving the convenience of the application. I think everyone should use RightSignature, as it makes the world's legal matters a bit easier.”

Jon Nordmark

Founder, eBags and CEO, UsingMiles

Denver, CO

RightSignature is my choice over Adobe's Echosign. A simply and easy-to-use interface along with actual instructions on how to create your digital template. When you hover over an item, a detailed explanation pops up. This is where Adobe's Echosign falls completely on it's face! As a new user to electronic document signing, I had a heck of a time trying to figure out how to create a document with Echosign, and I couldn't get a legible signature at all ... RightSignature made signing the document with a mouse easy and my signature looked normal.”

Karol Peake

Peake of the Northwynds

Vancouver, WA

Signing up with RightSignature was one of the best things we ever did. Now it is so easy for our trainees to fill out our Online Enrollment Form and sign it as well. It is so easy to use that everyone using it for the first time is amazed. Bye bye to fax machines, printers and scanners ... welcome RightSignature.com.”

Alok Kumar

Training & Placement Director, Zarantech LLC

Waukee, IA

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Or read comments from more fans on our Buzz page.

And if you're still not convinced, read reviews from users who compared Docusign vs Echosign vs RightSignature.

RightSignature Reusable Templates: Create Once, Send Forever

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:23:00 +0000

RightSignature is dedicated to providing the easiest, fastest way to get documents signed. That’s why, instead of having to set up a new document each time you need a signature, you can create powerful Reusable Templates to save even more time. Reusable Templates are a core RightSignature feature, allowing you to build a document once and use it over and over.

With RightSignature Reusable Templates, you can …

Send your most frequently used documents for signature in seconds, from one screen—with no drag ‘n’ drop required.
Set up your online sales contract, freelance contract, or employment form once, then select it in your Template library whenever you need to use it.
Customize a Template each time you send it by inserting custom text, using Merge Fields.
Export text and signing data to a CSV or spreadsheet for all the documents you’ve sent using a particular Template.

Creating a Reusable Template

On the Send a Document screen, under the “Choose a Document” section, select the “Templates” button. In the menu that opens, click the “New Template” button, as shown below.

Roles
When creating your Reusable Template, you specify roles for each signer and cc involved with the document. Rather than the names or titles of an individual contact, these are the generic roles for each party on your template. For example, if you are creating a Reusable Template for a Credit Application, the roles might be Applicant (signer), Credit Manager (signer), and Accounting Manager (cc). When sending that Template for signature later, you will have the opportunity to fill in these roles with the personal information (name and email) of your individual signers and cc’s.

Subject and Message
During Template setup, you will also have the opportunity to write a default Subject and Message which will be used in the email inviting your contact to sign the document. The default Subject and Message can later be customized individually each time you send the Template for signature.

Text Fields vs. Merge Fields
Next, you will be taken to the Document Overlay screen. This Overlay screen is similar to the regular Overlay process you go through to send any RightSignature document. You can place signature boxes, text fields, date fields, checkboxes, and initials boxes. Please note that if your document contains multiple roles, each field must be assigned to a particular role. On Templates, the primary difference is the ability to add Merge Fields as well.

Merge Fields are text fields that are filled out by you, the sender, before sending the document to your recipient. Merge Fields allow you to customize your document with the recipient’s name, business, or other details unique to your individual transaction, such as the service plan selected, price, or duration of the agreement.

Please note that, unlike normal text fields, Merge Fields must be named when they are placed on the document. This is critical because each time you send a Template, you will be prompted to provide the text you would like inserted into the Merge Fields right on the Send a Document screen, so the Merge Field name provides the context of which field refers to which information.

For advanced users, merge fields also include additional custom options. The Acceptable Values option creates a drop-down field, and the Default Values option enters default text to your merge field, which can later be edited.

Save
After completing the document overlay on your new Template, save it. You can now select this template from your Templates menu on the Send a Document screen.

Sending a Reusable Template

On the Send a Document screen, click the Templates button, hover over your newly-created Template, and click the Select button. Note that you can also edit or delete templates from this menu.

If your Template has Merge Fields on it, you will then be prompted to fill in these fields before sending it off for signature. Note that filling in merge fields is optional—you can choose to leave them blank if appropriate.

Next, fill out the name and email address of the person or people to whom you will be sending the Template. You may also write a short document description and a message to the Template’s recipients. Finally, click Send.

Your Template’s recipient will receive an email with instructions to sign your Template, just as they would for any regular, single-use RightSignature document. And if your Template contains Merge Fields, when your recipient clicks the link to sign your Template in RightSignature, your Merge Field information will already appear in the document.

Then, after sending your Template off for signature, you can return to the Send a Document screen and select the same Template over again. Using Reusable Templates, you can send the same Template for signature as many times as you want!

More Tips and Tricks with Reusable Templates

The following are a few more hints and tips to get the most out of Reusable Templates:

Merge Fields can be used flexibly to make a single Template fit many purposes. Instead of having several different contracts for different services, with minor variations between each, replace key words and phrases with Merge Fields. Just be sure to name your fields clearly enough that you will be able to remember them all!
Export, search, and sort signing data from your Reusable Templates in a spreadsheet or database with the new Data Exporter feature.
If you’ve set up the perfect Reusable Template, then find you need to change the wording on the original document, there is no need to worry. You can replace PDFs in your Reusable Templates.
On Business and higher level accounts, multiple users on the RightSignature account can access a shared Template library. This makes it easy for the entire sales team to access the same Sales Contract Template, for example.
Many RightSignature add-ons and integrations work well with RightSignature Templates. Using RightSignature’s integration with BambooHR, for example, RightSignature Templates for employee handbooks and other HR forms can be accessed and sent for signature from directly within BambooHR. BambooHR also integrates with RightSignature Merge Fields, allowing your employee’s information to be merged into your RightSignature Template automatically.

Reusable Templates are a RightSignature innovation and a powerful way to streamline your repetitive business processes. Setup your most frequently used documents as Reusable Templates—and send them for signature again and again and again.

DocuSign vs EchoSign vs RightSignature – User Reviews

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 03:22:00 +0000

"I love RightSignature and I'm ready to sign up, but my boss asked me to compare RightSignature to the other signature services first."

We receive this type of inquiry frequently, so we thought it would be helpful to highlight why thousands of new users choose RightSignature every week instead of the older solutions. RightSignature leads the market through a passionate dedication to:

Beautiful, easy-to-use online signature software
Continuous innovation
Exceptional support
Unbeatable pricing

Save yourself some time – read these detailed reports from actual users who compared DocuSign vs Echosign vs RightSignature. Then sign up for a free trial of RightSignature to experience it yourself!

DocuSign vs RightSignature

At the end of a very frustrating demonstration of Docusign, I stumbled upon RightSignature. I was blown away by the product, the ease of use, the customer service, the price. RightSignature had every feature we needed and made the process simple. It was an easy choice.”

Jennifer Bell

Sunlync

Jonesboro, Arkansas

I have been using Docusign in our short sale real estate business. Bank after bank started saying that they would not take that version of e-signature upon submission of the short sale file. With RightSignature our sellers and agents actually sign with their mouse, leaving a more realistic impression and an actual signature. That combined with the ease of use, setting up other team users with their own login, and great customer service has increased our production by decreasing busy work. I have just cut our turn time down from weeks to days. I cannot say enough about RightSignature, make the switch.”

Jason Baker

Short Sale Sync

Hamilton, Montana

The RightSignature UI is intuitive and simple, something Docusign just isn't. I have no trouble figuring out how to make changes and set up fantastic features such as the Online Forms and Templates. RightSignature truly is unmatched when it comes to signing. My clients have found the RightSignature forms to be truly easy to navigate and their submissions are now mistake free, something that they were usually unable to accomplish with Docusign."

Rob Gomez

Unified Health Solutions

San Jose, California

EchoSign vs RightSignature

We started out using EchoSign but it didn’t have the flexibility we needed. Somebody introduced me to RightSignature, and the product was just so much easier to use, so much more flexible in terms of setting up the forms. I send out RightSignature packages maybe 20 times a week.”

George Kellerman

500 Startups

San Francisco, California

We made the switch from Echosign to RightSignature because it offered us the ability to create and manage merge fields across a number of our client agreements more intuitively and with greater ease. RightSignature also offers greater user account flexibility and a more cost effective pricing model, thus making the decision to change an easy one in the end."

John Lombard

HR National

Melbourne, Australia

We used to have a different e-signature company we worked with, but they had a sort of dinosaur system. It wasn't accurate, and it allowed people to pass the things we needed them to fill out. We finally got rid of it and now use RightSignature for everything. So we've had experience with RightSignature as well as with other companies and we can honestly say that RightSignature is the best."

Ericka Tate

Support.com

Lakewood, CO

RightSignature Electronic Signature for Google Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Our awesome integrations with Google Docs, Google Drive, and Gmail are among the most popular RightSignature add-ons, so we’re excited to announce even more Google goodness. Now, in addition to the current Google add-ons inside RightSignature, we have released a new RightSignature app for Google Apps that brings quick access to e-signatures inside your Google screens.

With the RightSignature app installed, sending your Google Docs for a legally binding signature with RightSignature is easier than ever. After the app is installed, click on the “More” link in your Google Drive navigation header bar, and RightSignature will be listed as a link in the menu at the top your screen.

Click the RightSignature link to open a RightSignature new document page, already logged into your RightSignature account – thanks to the magic of our Google Apps Single Sign-On (SSO). You’ll see a button to access your Google Documents listed within the “Choose a Document” options. From there, simply select and send a document like normal.

One-Time Setup

The RightSignature app is available to Google Apps administrators in the Google Apps Marketplace. Once your admin installs the RightSignature app for your company’s Google Apps environment, the app will be available for use by the whole team. This makes team-wide implementation of RightSignature practically effortless for the millions of businesses using Google’s cloud-based productivity tools.

The Right Way: IVF1 Conquers Infertility with Technology and Patient Service

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Our series “The Right Way” profiles RightSignature power users, revealing their success secrets and the technology tools they use every day.

Dr. Randy Morris is the physician in charge of IVF1, a groundbreaking center for reproductive and fertility medicine. IVF1 is best known for their expertise with a new treatment known as In-Vitro Maturation (IVM), and were the first practice in the U.S. to achieve a live birth using that treatment.

To maintain their status as a top-of-the line, pioneering practice for reproductive medicine, IVF1 constantly stays abreast of the latest technological developments in a field of medicine that is rapidly growing and changing, and uses that same drive and innovation to provide the best possible service towards their patients, as well. RightSignature’s Steve Stormoen caught up with Dr. Morris to talk about IVF1, their successes, and the role of emerging technology in medical care and service.

What’s the story behind IVF1? What drew you to this line of work?

RM: IVF1 is an advanced reproductive treatment center. We treat patients who have infertility, recurrent miscarriage, and certain other types of reproductive endocrine problems. We were established in 1999, and I am the physician in charge of the practice—I’m a board certified reproductive endocrinologist with 20 years of experience. We’re in Illinois, with three locations: Chicago, Naperville, and Plainfield. We treat thousands of patients each year—most of them for infertility, but also for the other services I mentioned.

We like to pride ourselves on always staying a few steps ahead of the competition. We want to make sure we have the best possible customer service, for example, as well as our ability to implement new technology. We’re constantly innovating in order to do this, so we can always be sure we’re providing the best possible care to our patients, and the best, most advanced medical care available today.

One of those innovations is in our consent form process. As I mentioned above, we offer many different types of treatments, and all of them require filling out consent forms. That used to entail bringing the patient into the office, having them read through consent form, and answering questions, sign it. And since our medicine involves fertility treatments, we often need both partners, with their various schedules, to make a trip to our office together.

Now, that worked fine in the past, but it was also very time consuming for myself and the staff. Not to mention inconvenient for the patients, who might not even live in the area, and would have had to make a special trip to do that. It was this problem that led us to RightSignature.

As for what led me to this line of work, well, it happened pretty organically. After testing out different fields in Medical school, I ended up subspecializing in high-risk obstetrics and reproductive endocrinology. I enjoyed the opportunity to use advanced technology, the constant innovation in the field, and the variety—in reproductive medicine, I can do a little bit of surgery, some consultation, and some intellectual review as well. Finally, I just enjoyed working with the patient population in reproductive medicine—often young families, and people looking to start families.

What is one thing all people should know about In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) medicine?

RS: The main thing people should know is that infertility is much more common than people realize. 1 in every 7 couples will have trouble achieving pregnancy. IVF treatment is not the only possibility for these couples, but it is the most successful. IVF treatment offers highest probability of pregnancy, as well as the highest probability of a successful pregnancy that’s carried to term. All told, there have now been over 5 million babies born worldwide from In-Vitro Fertilization, so it’s a very common treatment as well.

That said, there’s no right or wrong approach to reproductive medicine, and there are quite a few options, these days. Some patients start out more conservative, others more aggressive—it’s simply a matter of choice.

You said you use technology to stay a step ahead. How does RightSignature help, and which other online tools you use?

Well, like I said before, we use RightSignature as an alternative for your standard, old-style paper consent forms. We thought that was something we could easily improve to make our practice better, so we started looking to do that through the internet.

Now, you can email forms, but turns out to not be a good method. For starters, you can’t verify who is signing the document, and that verification is very important to us. When we stumbled across RightSignature, it seemed to offer everything we needed—we could upload Word documents, PDF forms, all sorts of different files, and then adapt them to RightSignature and put our necessary fields in.

RightSignature provides other things, too, besides just signing names: the ability to add checkboxes and text fields, for example. Not only that, we could put easy instructions right there on the form, and it opens up an avenue for clear communication with the signers. This is especially true for our out of town and out of country patients. They love it. With RightSignature, we can go ahead make sure all the paperwork was done correctly ahead of time. It turned out to be a perfect remedy—exactly what we were looking for.

As for other tech tools, we use PracticeHwy to create an electronic medical record for all our patients. Each patient gets a personal login into their patient portal through our website. From there, they can fill out their medical history questionnaire online, and we can go ahead and refer to that ahead of time to prepare for them, rather than pull it up in the moment in our office. The patients can also use it to see their lab results, follow treatments, and so on. This is something many practices are starting to incorporate, and we’ve been using one for several years now. It helps us out quite a bit, because we don’t have to worry about getting patients on the phone for every little thing.

What has been your practice’s biggest success, and how did you get there?

There’s a little known technique that we practice for implementing in-vitro fertilization without also using fertility medicine, which some women cannot use. This treatment is called IVM, which stands for In-Vitro Maturation, and instead of stimulating the ovaries to produce eggs, it allows these eggs to mature in-vitro instead. We didn’t invent IVM, but we were the first practice to use it in the US to get a live birth. This got us on the CBS Early Show, and we received a lot of media attention—I’d say it’s definitely the one thing that we’re most well known for.

How do you see technology impacting the medical field in the next 5 years?

We are in the midst of a revolution in our understanding of and ability to test for genetics. As you can imagine, this is especially important in reproductive medicine.

Humans are, on the whole, inefficient reproducers. When we reproduce, the majority of embryos we humans make are actually abnormal. We are supposed to have 23 pairs of chromosomes, but often you will find embryos with too many or too few, which in most cases do not implant and are rejected by the uterus. The ability to assess the normality of embryos is something that’s we in reproductive medicine have desired for a long time, because it can lead to a much higher success rate. Five years ago we had a system called FISH, which allowed us to take a look at 7 or 8 chromosomes, but a number of large studies showed that FISH wasn’t really improving our odds to help couples have a live-born babies.

Today we have microarrays instead. Microarrays are like entire little laboratories on a computer chip: they can take a cell sample and analyze it with computer algorithms to record all sorts of data. Microarrays represent a potential for a revolution in the performance of IVF because they give us the ability to look at all 23 pairs of chromosomes in a relatively short period of time. The data that is emerging right now suggests that there are many, many abnormal embryos produced in any couple’s reproductive life. By selecting for fully matching embryos, you can greatly improve the chances of implantation and pregnancy, as well as reduce miscarriage.

This has been called the second wave of genetic revolution, and it has all taken place in just the last 2 years or so.

RightSignature + Nutshell: Managing Sales from Leads Through Contract Signing

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Nutshell represents a new breed of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, with a fluid user experience standing front and center. Nutshell allows users to track potential sales from the initial contact to the deal close on any web browser or mobile device – then goes the extra mile for true portability and personability. Nutshell’s innovative feature list includes voice and video updates so your team can log immediate reactions from in-person meetings with their leads, as well as a local weather forecast and twitter feed for each contact, making relationship-building social conversation effortless.

With the new Nutshell-RightSignature integration, you can now nurture those leads all the way to a legally signed online contract without ever having to leave your web browser.

Andy Fowler of Nutshell says:

RightSignature is the 21st century way to get documents signed online, and Nutshell is the modern CRM. Our customers across a huge range of businesses use Nutshell to manage sales processes, all of which need a signed contract to seal the deal. We love how RightSignature extends Nutshell’s user experience all the way to contract signing, and we’re excited to bring this integration to our users.”

RightSignature inside Nutshell

With the integration installed, a RightSignature button will appear in Nutshell for each of your leads, accounts, and contacts. Simply click this button to jump to your RightSignature dashboard, pre-filtered to show the documents sent to that particular person for signature.

Nutshell inside RightSignature

Additionally, your Nutshell contacts will be available directly within RightSignature for easy document sending. Just follow these easy steps:

Login to RightSignature and install the new Nutshell add-on.
Click “Send a Document” and select the document you want to get signed.
Under “People Involved”, begin typing the name of one of your Nutshell contacts into the Signer or CC fields. RightSignature will recognize and automatically suggest your Nutshell contacts. Select that contact from the menu below and their name and email address will auto-complete.
Click Send, and RightSignature will send your contact the document to sign online – without any paper, printing, faxing, or scanning necessary.

Permission Slip Template

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Permission slips are documents a parent or guardian must sign for their child to give their permission for an activity such as a field trip or day care function. They are also an unexpected but popular document for RightSignature users.

Permission slip forms present a unique problem as paper documents: usually, these slips travel to and from the adult signer via their child, who is likely to lose the precious piece of paper. Some parents work nights and odd hours, or have another reason for not being available to sign a piece of paper in a timely manner. Or if the child is crafty and slightly unscrupulous, as was this author as a young lad, they might even attempt to forge their parent’s signature.

These problems can be easily solved with digital signature software, however. Using RightSignature, a teacher, daycare provider, or other activity leader can send a permission slip for field trips directly to the signing parents or guardians online. That adult can then sign the document using any computer, tablet, or smartphone, and return the signed copy immediately to the document sender. Read on for a permission slip example, and learn how RightSignature can help you send the best permission slips around.

Most Important Clauses to Include

Description of Activity and Permission. The first part of a permission slip form is a description of the activity and the type of permission needed, as well as the name of the attendee receiving this permission.
Waiver of Liability. Next, a waiver of liability section is necessary, as it releases the specified adult from any legal liability in the event of a lawsuit. It is for this reason that it can become important to ensure that the signature on a permission slip is fully legally binding, such as those provided by RightSignature. To learn more about on how RightSignature is used to send waivers of liability in a slightly more extreme situation, see our interview with Wicked Wingsuits founder Simon Repton.
Medical Treatment Release. Finally, a permission slip for field trips often includes a section for medical release. In case of emergency, this form allows the child to receive medical treatment under the guidance of the adult to whom the permission slip specifies.

Electronically Sign a Permission Slip Sample Template

To build your own permission slip template, try borrowing relevant clauses from a variety of publicly available templates. Be sure to include the sections above, as necessary. For inspiration, you may want to reference the permission slip examples hosted by Education World, the Education department at Cal State Northridge, and the American Forum for Global Education.

Once you’ve finalized your permission slip template, create a Reusable Template in RightSignature. Then, you’ll be able to send the same document as many times as needed. Your recipients will receive a link in their email to open your permission slip, where they will be guided step-by-step with instructions to ensure they fill out and sign the form correctly. Once they do, it is automatically returned to you.

Another option, however, is to use RightSignature to create an Online Form, such as this permission slip template, out of your permission slip. With an Online Form, you only need to create the document once: after that, you simply email the link to each adult who needs to sign the document, or embed the form on a website.

However you choose to create your permission slip, RightSignature electronic signatures are the perfect tool to help you build the perfect permission slip form. Try it for free today at http://rightsignature.com.

Disclaimer: This was not written by an attorney and does not constitute legal advice. If you have any questions about the legality of your permission slip, please consult your attorney.

New Feature: Google Single Sign-On

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Whether you’re collaborating on a Google Doc, checking your mail through Google Apps or Gmail, or using Google Analytics to evaluate your sites and ads, Google’s services have quietly become an essential part of the modern work day.

We’re excited to announce easy Single Sign-On (SSO) to enable users to log in to RightSignature using their Google credentials. Now, whenever you access RightSignature, you’ll see a new button on the bottom of the Login screen giving you the option to sign in using Google.

If you’re already logged into your Google account (using the same email address as your RightSignature account), clicking the “sign in using Google” button will log you into your RightSignature dashboard.

If you don’t already have a RightSignature account, you will be taken to the RightSignature new account signup page with your personal information from your Google account automatically filled in.

Note that you may be directed to enable Third Party Single Sign-On in both your Google and RightSignature account settings. In RightSignature, log in to your RightSignature account and go to your Settings. At the bottom of the page, under “Advanced Settings,” check the checkbox for Enable Third Party Single Sign-On to allow this feature.

The Right Way: Sharing Spree is Social Shopping with a Charitable Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Our series “The Right Way” profiles RightSignature power users, revealing their success secrets and the technology tools they use every day.

Sharing Spree is a daily deal site that gives back to the community. Offering users significant deals from local businesses and vendors, Sharing Spree then donates a portion of every purchase to a local charity or non-profit. RightSignature’s Steve Stormoen tracked down Sharing Spree COO Megan Sapp to learn the secrets behind Sharing Spree’s success.

What’s the story behind Sharing Spree? How did you come up with the idea?

Megan Sapp: Prior to Sharing Spree, my husband and I initially co-founded MyEZdeal.com in the summer of 2010, with Steve and Tim Moorehead. It offered an identical group-buying business model to Sharing Spree. The site built up quick momentum, and made a real difference for a number of schools and non-profits—we donated more than $30,000 to schools and non-profits during roughly six months as MyEZdeal.com.

But, we knew we had only just begun to accomplish our larger goals. We believed the company was capable of reaching an even larger audience and achieving greater results. The first step was rebranding to make the company and its message known to an even larger and more receptive consumer audience. In January 2011, our website became Sharing Spree.

Sharing Spree donates between 10 to 15 percent of every deal to a local non-profit or school. Every day, the featured non-profit receives 10 percent of the proceeds of the daily deal. On top of that, buyers choose an organization from about 150 participating non-profits that receives 5 percent of every deal they buy. Every deal goes back to charity, every time—while buyers enjoy a sweet discount.

Also, rather than only focusing on the high-dollar, touristy-type businesses, Sharing Spree strives to drive business to the smaller, lesser-known business names. We currently offer deals in Portland, OR, Nashville, TN, Birmingham, AL, and Seattle, WA, and will soon be expanding to Dallas and Austin, TX.

You seem to pull together a lot of moving parts—daily deals, social shopping, and, of course, the charitable donations. How does Sharing Spree bring these elements together?

MS: The motivation behind launching Sharing Spree in January 2011 was to be able to benefit local communities by promoting businesses, giving to non-profits and offering great deals to consumers—a triple win.

The partnerships with non-profits come about in several ways. Sometimes, we choose non-profits according to the good that they do in a community. In those cases, we actively seek the partnership. In other cases, non-profits will contact Sharing Spree asking to be a non-profit partner.

Occasionally, merchants have a specific non-profit in mind they want to raise funds for. In this case, we’ll contact that non-profit with the special request from the merchant and work to set up the partnership. The same situation can occur when a customer has a special request for a non-profit, either in that a specific non-profit has touched their lives or that they are intimately involved with the non-profit. New organizations and non-profits can join at any time.

What has been your biggest success, and how did you get there?

MS: I would say our biggest success is the community participation and buy-in. We have great partnerships with non-profits and merchants and the best buyers. Everyone is in it for the greater good and I think that is what makes us the most successful!

Who do you look up to/who inspires you in the tech business community?

MS: We respect Facebook and Groupon for changing the way consumers communicate and buy, but I believe Sharing Spree and the things we will be doing in the future will be the next big thing we can't live without, because it will incorporate more than just communication amongst community and daily deals. Keep watching as Sharing Spree evolves!

Tell us how you use RightSignature, and which 4 other online tools you use the most?

MS: We use RightSignature with merchants to sign agreements, for new hires to sign employment agreements, and current employees to sign for new policies and procedures.

We have been using Highrise and Basecamp and recently implemented C2CRM. In addition to that, we use the Sharing Spree website to create and market deals, while ExactTarget handles email delivery to customers.

RightSignature Android Signature App is Live

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:37:00 +0000

The new RightSignature for Android app is beautiful. It's free. And it’s available now, in the Google Play marketplace.

Now you can send, manage, and receive notifications about your documents from anywhere with the new RightSignature app, compatible with most current Android devices. The app plugs directly into your existing RightSignature account, bringing the full power of RightSignature into the palm of your hand, anywhere you go. For those who don’t already have a RightSignature account, we've got you covered: you can also sign up for a free trial from directly within the app.

As a reminder, your signers can sign RightSignature documents on their Android devices too, using the native web browser—no app or account required.

We've been hard at work to bring our critically acclaimed UI and our powerful, user-friendly document sending experience to the Android platform. We think the end result is spectacular, and we're extremely excited to be able to show it off. Here's a look inside:

Send Documents for Signature

The first piece of major new functionality is the ability to send out documents for signature directly from your phone or tablet, using RightSignature’s Reusable Templates. The app lets you browse through the Reusable Templates you've already set up in your RightSignature account, then send them for signature to anybody, just like you would in your web browser.

Manage your RightSignature Documents Anywhere

The new RightSignature for Android also replicates your full RightSignature dashboard from directly within the app. View all your sent, signed, and pending documents and signature requests from one easy screen, with your recipients names and the dates your docs were sent and signed all available at a glance.

Push Notifications to Track Documents in Real Time

With the RightSignature Android app installed, you'll be notified of any activity on your RightSignature documents as it happens. Whenever you’re sent a new document to sign, or when anyone else has signed a document you sent, the RightSignature app will show you Push Notifications—whether you're inside the app or not—so you can multitask and still keep track of your important documents in real time.

Install the new free RightSignature app on your Android phone or tablet today, and see how digital signature software can bring you to a new level of productivity. Check the status of that big contract as you're boarding a plane, sign an NDA at lunch, or send a prospect an estimate… while you're still sitting with him. The easiest, fastest way to get signed is now on your Android.

Power User Tip: Drop-Down Fields

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:04:00 +0000

Want to have better control of the data your signers input on your RightSignature documents? Try changing your text input fields to drop-down fields. Instead of the signer typing out “California”, potentially misspelling or committing a typographical error, with a drop-down field they will be able to select “CA” from a convenient list. Or, take a look at this example of a signer selecting a particular service plan from a drop-down field.

Drop-down fields present several advantages for you and your signed documents. First, drop-down fields are easier to use than type-in fields, faster for signers to complete, and error-proof. Second, drop-down fields help keep your data in a manageable format for using the Data Exporter to extract data for use in another system or spreadsheet.

To add a drop-down menu to your next RightSignature document, follow these instructions:

Login to RightSignature and choose to send a new document or create a new Reusable Template.
On the Document Overlay screen, click the “Text” box from the Tools menu and drag it onto your document, to the area where you would like to place your drop-down menu.
In the Options menu that opens, click on the “Extras” tab.
In the “Acceptable values list,” type out the values you would like your signer to be able to choose from, separated by a comma. For example: “Personal, Business, Enterprise”
Click Save.

That’s it! Now, when you send that document, the sender will see a drop down menu in the area you placed your text box, with the values you defined available.

RightSignature + FreeAgent Integration: Send Estimates for Signature Online

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:14:00 +0000

FreeAgent proves that accounting doesn’t have to be a nightmare. It’s a versatile, powerful online suite for managing not only your company’s bookkeeping, but time tracking, online banking, IRS filing, and creating and sending estimates and invoices to your clients as well. FreeAgent is accounting software, evolved.

And now, with the new integration with RightSignature, you can collect fast, easy, legally binding electronic signatures on your FreeAgent estimates.

Next time you need to send a project estimate to a client to sign, don’t fall into the time sink of creating a brand new document, printing it out, and faxing it back and forth. Instead, choose a great looking template in FreeAgent and plug in the appropriate data. FreeAgent will produce a clean, professional invoice or estimate for you in seconds.

Then, after installing the integration, login to your RightSignature account. Select your newly created FreeAgent estimate or invoice, choose your fields and senders just like you would for any other RightSignature document, and click Send. Your recipient will receive an email with a link to sign the document—as soon as they’re finished, it will be automatically delivered back to you, so you can get on with your business.

And here’s the best part: after the estimate is signed, RightSignature automatically marks it “approved” inside FreeAgent. Quick, effortless, and painless.

Ed Molyneux, CEO of FreeAgent:

FreeAgent removes the hassles of accounting busywork for freelancers and small businesses. Our online software takes care of bookkeeping, billing, banking, and more, all in one package. Our customers often need to have their estimates signed by clients and coworkers – and this new integration with RightSignature closes the loop, bringing the entire estimate approval process online without a shred of paper. This is a fantastic feature, and we’re excited to be able to share this with our users."

The Right Way: Provident Security Responds to Alarms in 5 Minutes or Less

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Stormoen) — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:59:00 +0000

Our series “The Right Way” profiles RightSignature power users, revealing their success secrets and the technology tools they use every day.

Based in Vancouver, Canada, Provident Security occupies a unique niche in the security industry: Provident handles every aspect of your security themselves, from alarm installation to dispatch to response, and guarantees a 5 minute in-person response to any alarm for all of their 6000+ customers. RightSignature’s Steve Stormoen recently caught up with Mike Jagger, Founder and President of Provident, to talk about security, technology, and his 16 years of fully-bootstrapped success.

What’s the story behind Provident Security? What do you do, and how did you come to start it?

Mike Jagger: We’re a full service security company. What that means is, we install alarm systems and camera systems in people’s homes and businesses, and we have our central alarm station where we receive that. Additionally, what’s unique about us is that we also have our own response teams to those alarms. We guarantee a 5 minute response to any alarm or any call for all of our customers.

Above and beyond that, we also have a full concierge service. So if you go away for the weekend, we’ll come by and pick up mail, feed cats, walk dogs, and so on. If you’re going to Disneyland for the weekend, we’ll drive you to the airport in one of our vehicles. We have an office and a station in Whistler (a resort town about 80 miles north of Vancouver –ed.), and if you’ve got a cabin up there and you need your fridge filled up before you go away for the weekend, we can do that too.

So yeah, it’s a different approach to security, and it works. I started it in 1996 when I was going to university. For our first jobs, we were doing security at high school dances. At that time, Provident was just myself and a few friends. But those high school dances led to private parties, which led to hotels paying for our services, and then retail stores and private residences, and it just snowballed from there.

What do you think the three keys to your success have been?

MJ: First of all, now that our service offerings are so well defined and we have a clear idea of what we do, we are able to say “no” to things. We go to great effort to provide a remarkable and unique service, but to do that, we have to be restrictive about which areas we can cover. So if there’s a neighborhood that we just can’t give that 5 minute response time guarantee, we’ve developed the discipline to just say, “no.”

A second key to our success would be our overall perseverance. This is a slow growth industry, if you compared to, say, a tech company. To get to where we are, with 170 employees and over 6000 customers, we could only get here through 16 years of hard work and determination.

Third, we do a good job of looking for inspiration outside our industry; of going on tours and meeting with business owners and learning what they do, then applying what works for them to improve our operations. We looked at Toyota’s lean production systems. We went to Memphis to take a look at FedEx’s disaster recovery and automation systems. This has helped us in particular with our new client installations, nailing everything down as efficiently as possible.

You started Provident Security in 1996, right as the internet boom was taking off. How do you think this generation of technology has shaped your business?

MJ: Our use of technology has been a definite competitive advantage of ours. When we first started, there were no companies that did what we did. The security industry is dominated by massive companies that provide a part of the service, alarm systems perhaps, but not the full thing. So when we went out to look at monitoring stations—very expensive monitoring stations—we found out that there was nothing available anywhere that took an alarm signal from one of our alarms and brought it to the people who could do something about it. We had to design those systems ourselves and build them in-house.

That embrace of technology carried over to other aspects of our company. We were one of the very first security companies on the Palm Pilot, back when that was a big deal. Then we were one of the beta test accounts on a cell reception carrier. And we were the first to use fully wireless data reporting, back when the only way to do that was to plug in a cable to your cell phone and your palm pilot.

Having employees and team members who are OK with new technology, with our operations changing all the time, gave us the capacity to try new things, but we’re also conscious we don’t want to recreate the wheel. Using RightSignature is a good example—if someone else is an expert at something we need, we hop on to what they do and take advantage of what’s there.

What has been the biggest challenge Provident has faced?

MJ: The biggest challenge for us has been keeping with our priority to remain completely independent. Most security companies, especially local companies like us, are directly affiliated with a much larger business. I started Provident because needed a way to pay for university tuition and for books; there was no capital whatsoever. Our initial investment was a $500 Mastercard I got, and it was the only thing I had. And since day 1 we’ve been completely bootstrapped—that 500 bucks went to paying for insurance and shirts for our first event. The cash from that event went to the next one.

Down the line, when we put together our operations system, that was a 7 figure installation. But everything we’ve done has had to come from creating—creating cash flow, and finding ways be able to afford to grow on our own terms. Certainly in those first years, that meant writing checks to myself that I wasn’t able to cash, or doing overnight patrols on my bicycle. But through it all, we were able to stay independent, and that flexibility has been invaluable to get to where we are today.

Tell us how you use RightSignature, and which 4 other online tools you use the most?

MJ: We use RightSignature most importantly for our customer contracts. There’s a lot of liability in our business: we provide monitoring for theft, burglary, fire, and so on. Our contracts are extremely important because we need to spell out what services we’re providing, and just important that we spell out the ones we’re not.

RightSignature is a great way to speed up the process of getting contracts signed with new clients. I know that any time I get a contract through RightSignature every page is going to be initialed, nothing in the contract has been changed, and every field has been filled out appropriately. When I’m travelling I use the phone app all the time, and we use the online forms as well.

We also now use RightSignature for employee documentation, since we’ve been on a push for a few years to go completely paperless. Our technology solutions are focused on identifying and eliminating waste, so we can kick out any step of the process that doesn’t provide direct value to our customer. RightSignature really comes in on the head of that.

As for other tools, Google Apps is a big part of what we do. We’ve built out pretty extensive wikis for all our different teams using a ton of video—with so many different services we do, having those procedures and policies online where our own employees can update them has been a big tool. We also have the mobile reporting systems we built ourselves, using iPhones and Blackberries. And personally, I use Evernote and Instapaper all the time.