How to Use DocuSign With Microsoft

With their robust functionality, Microsoft programs are among the most commonly used in business today, and a natural fit with contract workflows. Because of this, DocuSign provides a suite of native integrations, adding more and continuing to keep pace with new applications and features as Microsoft rolls them out. DocuSign eSignature solutions for Microsoft run the full course of any agreement cycle— from document creation and collaboration to acting upon agreements and storage— so that users never have to leave the Microsoft platform. 

Let’s take a closer look at each stage of the agreement lifecycle to illustrate how this works, whether your device of choice is Mac or PC, on a desktop or in the cloud.

Prepare 

While the content in contracts can be quite complex, creating the contracts themselves is quite straightforward. Recent DocuSign research revealed that: 

• 50% of respondents use Word to generate contracts
• 69% of respondents use email to share and collaborate on contracts

DocuSign eSignature is ideally suited for the preparation stage, giving Microsoft users the ability to securely route agreements to the right people in the right order. With DocuSign integrations, Microsoft users have three options for preparing and routing documents: 

• In Word, users can create a document, collaborate, review and print—without ever having to leave the program. 
• In Outlook, email users can pre-populate fields using a template, as well as  pre-populate recipients using contacts from Outlook. Just indicate the fields that need to be signed—and hit send.
• In Dynamics 365, the home base for managing sales, users can pre-populate and pre-configure fields from Dynamics to automatically customize agreements. The integration is so easy to use and popular with sales teams that 80% of documents sent for DocuSign e-signature through Dynamics are completed via custom workflows—workflows that users created to mesh with bespoke processes.

In all three applications, there’s no need for cutting and pasting clauses and other information. Because users are operating from their most current database information, errors are systematically minimized. 

Sign

For many companies, the signature stage produces a systemic bottleneck. Recipients forget to execute or forward things to other parties, documents are not routed properly and papers get lost. 

DocuSign eSignature integrates natively with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Outlook to avoid these process issues and speed time to signature. Integrating eSignature with these applications saves a few steps—and avoids toggling among or between platforms. For example: 

• Recipients get real-time notifications to sign: in the same places they’re already collaborating. 
• Our chatbots automatically send signing reminders, so that users don’t have to. 

Act

Once agreements are signed, actions need to be fulfilled and terms carried out. DocuSign eSignature integrations with Microsoft’s Power Automate automatically trigger post-signing next steps. Reading an agreement’s metadata sets post-signature workflows in motion—eliminating most or all manual processes. Users can synchronize files, receive notifications, collect data and initiate other processes to save time, avoid errors and meet deadlines. 

Manage

Storing, searching or auditing agreements after the fact requires painstaking effort, often by highly skilled attorneys. Not only costly, the manual process is also prone to error. Where is that document stored? Does it contain X clause? When is that action supposed to be triggered? Compliance is checking for what? Connecting eSignature to your storage solution offers Microsoft users the following options:

• When completed agreements are managed in a SharePoint document library, they’re centralized on the cloud—and become easy to access and easy to search. 
• Once a contract in Dynamics 365 is signed, the opportunity is automatically updated with agreement information and the signed contract securely stored. Replacing manual customer relationship processes and application switching with automated agility and speed equips your business to keep driving forward. 
• Users who wish to initiate the sending process through Dynamics 365, and keep SharePoint as their central document repository, can connect their SharePoint site to Dynamics 365. So no matter where documents sent for signature originate, they get saved in SharePoint once completed.

Seamlessly integrating a centralized agreement repository eases any agreement analysis that enterprises require. Agreements can be readily monitored for changes in pricing, regulations, third-party requirements, benchmarks and other circumstances. 

Leveraging your Microsoft programs with DocuSign

As Microsoft continually raises the bar for enterprise collaboration, DocuSign integrations rise to meet user needs. Especially in the agreement lifecycle, where every switch of an application amounts to wasted time, user frustration and lost productivity—and every document downloaded to a local desktop introduces security and compliance concerns—the DocuSign Agreement Cloud makes work easier, faster and error-free. Learn more by visiting DocuSign eSignature solutions for Microsoft or sign-up for the on-demand webinar: Connecting the Best of Microsoft with DocuSign eSignature.