- Status: Decided/Implemented
- Deciders: Ariel, Stephen, Phil, John, Jamie
- Date: 2020-09-30
Technical Story: CDGM-853
We would like to find an e-sign solution that we can integrate and embed into our community solar marketplace for on-the-spot contract signing. This solution should allow us to prefill any user information we already have, as well as be a viable option to expand to other business needs (such as PSM & Installer contracts).
- Cost (per month and per contract signed)
- How easy it is to add and define a new contract in an admin console
- Can it be embedded onto our page?
- How easy it is to pre-fill contract fields with our user data
- How easy it is to use without us pre-filling via an API call
- How easy it is for us to confirm that a contract has been signed
- How the contract is shared (with the consumer, developer, and us)? Ex: email, can we access a download link via API, etc.
- Being able to send a signed copy back to the customer via email is important
- Where the contract is stored, whether we need to keep a separate permanent record, and/or if it can integrate with Dropbox & Google Drive
- Other integrations eg: Hubspot or potentially Salesforce in the future
- Potentially auto-reminders for unsigned contracts
- Applicability to other future company use cases, such as rooftop installer contracts, marketing partners, employment contracts, etc.
- Potential for an ES-branded/co-branded experience
Chosen option: PandaDoc, because it both has all the necessary features but is cheaper than alternatives that were also investigated (namely DocuSign) for the number of users and document signatures that we require.
- Subscription on CDGM for projects with a contract will now be much easier!
- It is easy for us to configure and turn this on one document at a time
- The APIs are pretty simple to work with
- The Sandbox API makes it easy to test all processes in local & staging without being charged
- The Admin interface in which we upload documents and create the fields is easy to work in for both technical & non-technical users
- API Keys are easy to rotate if/when necessary for security
- Easy to send documents and download them either manually or via API after they have been signed
- Some of the API documentation is actually too simplistic and doesn't explain why certain fields are configured the way they are, leading to a good amount of trial-and-error when writing the initial code
- Some APIs are not as flexible as we may like (doesn't cause any issues yet, but this could show up as a problem when we add more documents with a larger variety of fields)
- Some lag time between document creation & when it ready for a user to sign, but this has not been longer than a second in any of the tests
- No accessible URL for signers to view their signed document afterwards via PandaDoc
- Good: Hit's all of the needs
- Good: Really robust Admin for easy document upload, setting fields, etc.
- Good: Really advanced API capabilities for future expansion and uses
- Good: Developer Sandbox to play around with API and learn the admin without having/creating a paid account
- Good: Well established and known company
- Bad: Data structures and API a bit on the complicated side
- Good: We already use AdobeSign at EnergySage for other things
- Bad: Couldn't easily find any API documentation to learn more about the capabilities
- Good: Detailed API documention that seems like it would hit all of our needs
- Good: Really robust Admin for easy document upload, setting fields, etc.
- Good: Potentially not needed, but has ability to create documents from scratch
- Good: Document management system
- Good: Excellent HubSpot integration (HubSpot is an investor)
- Good: Also has a developer sandbox (after account creation)
- Bad: Fewer API capabilities than DocuSign
- Bad: Really just geared towards real estate document signing
- Bad: No API and doesn't have all the capabilities needed
- Good: A lot of tiering options
- Good: Recently aquired by Dropbox, so good integration and trusted company
- Bad: Potentially not as many document customization features