Electronic signatures for contract documents in SAP CLM

Electronic Signatures for SAP Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) is an integrated web-based On-demand solution that enables enterprises to significantly accelerate the contract management process by allowing business users to electronically sign contract documents.

SAP CLM helps companies realize full savings and revenue through contract visibility & awareness and lowers legal, financial and regulatory risk through the use of standardized contract language and reporting. At the same time it accelerates time to contract from contract creation to execution. As a final step in the contract lifecycle, contract owners require the stakeholders in the contract to sign the contract documents.

SAP has partnered with a third party software vendor, EchoSign (www.echosign.com) (Recently acquired by Adobe) to deliver the e-Signature functionality in its CLM solution. The integrated e-Signatures functionality in CLM offers the following features to contract managers.

• A single click capability to send a contract document to multiple signers
• Easy user interface to add multiple signers (i.e. signers from both within and outside the company and having a valid email id) to the contract document
• Ability to send the document both for E-Sign and Fax Sign
• Ability to monitor the current status of the document after it is sent out for signature
• Final pdf version of the signed contract document

The solution offers document signers with the following features.

• A customized email from the contract owner with a link to the contract document
• A single click capability to access the contract
• Intuitive user interface to electronically sign the contract
• No login or user account needed on the EchoSign platform

Once the E-Signature process is initiated, the document is sent out to different signers in a sequential order as defined by contract owner. At any stage in the process a signer can refuse to sign owing to any inaccuracies in the document, in which case the E-Signature process is aborted and must be re-initiated by the contract owner after making the necessary changes. Throughout the process, EchoSign maintains a copy of the contract document. However on completion of the process, the document is purged from the EchoSign system.

Below is a step-by-step walkthrough into the E-Signature capability in SAP CLM

• Contract Manager enters the names and email id’s of signers who need to sign the contract document

• Contract manager clicks the ‘Send Document’ button. This actions sends the document to the first signer in the list for signature.
• ‘Signature Status’ in the screenshot below shows that the document has been sent to Christian Chan.

• First Signer receives an email that contains a link to the contract document.

• The signer clicks on the link in the mail to navigate to the e-Signature user interface.

• Signer enters his name or draws his signature in the signature box provided in the contract document.

• A signed copy of the contract is generated and sent to the next signer in the sequence for signature
• When all the signers sign the contract, a final signed copy is uploaded back into SAP CLM

This feature is available as of SAP CLM On-Demand Wave 8. It is currently not available in any of the On-Premise versions, but will be availabe in CLM’s next On-Premise release (Version 9)

I hope this blog is helpful to understand the E-Signature functionality in SAP CLM.