Processor - Suddenlink Case Study

RPost Makes Electronic Legal Signoffs Possible

Buy, borrow, rent, trade, sell, lease. All have one element in common: contracts. Legal contracts can require physical signatures, witnesses and/or notaries, copies in triplicate, and a number of other complexities that make contract execution an expensive, cumbersome, and time-critical process.

One company, RPost (www.rpost.com), headquartered in Los Angeles, has a service that addresses and solves these issues. It’s called RPost eSignOff service, a one-click electronic contract execution program that’s handled entirely through email.

The Challenges

Robert Holmquist, marketing manager at Suddenlink Business Services, says his company needed to obtain electronic signatures for commercial customer service agreements and other documents that require signatures, particularly from signers who are not at the Suddenlink office location. “We had to eliminate the need for obtaining signatures in person or by mail,” he says.

Traditional methods include mailing, paper, and courier costs; administrative overhead for scanning, filing, copying, and faxing; subsequent scanning of signed contracts; mailing of countersignatures; and paper storage/vault rental space—a process that can take weeks and could potentially derail the deal.

For Suddenlink, electronic contracts were the solution, but that process also has its limitations: no proof of delivery, content, signoff, or time; emails and attachments that can be altered; and scanned signatures that can be copied and pasted anywhere.

“We wanted to speed up and otherwise streamline our documents signature process,” Holmquist says. “As Suddenlink continues to expand its business services offerings, we wanted to differentiate ourselves from the competition. And making things easy for our customers gives us an advantage.”

How It Works

Zafar Khan, CEO and co-founder of RPost, says that with the eSignOff service, the recipient’s indication of acceptance of a particular contract becomes embedded in the contract document, which is then transmitted by email with a formal record of the contract signatures. This is provided to both parties within the form or in a verifiable and time-sealed PDF record, with the underlying forensics of the contract execution transaction presented to the sender. “This provides them with an evidential record of contract execution equal to ‘wet-ink’ signatures on paper contracts, eliminating the print/sign/scan/fax/mail sign-off process,” Khan says.

The eSignOff service is built on RPost’s Registered Email technology platform, Khan says, which provides legally verifiable and court-admissible proof that an email was delivered, with an official time stamp and proof of the content sent and received (including attachments). The proof record is in the form of a Registered Receipt Email, which is automatically generated and contains a digital snapshot of the entire email transaction, including the underlying Internet protocol-level forensic report.

“The system does not rely on any recipient actions or click-throughs to return the receipt to you,” Khan says. “United States government customers have been using RPost’s Registered Email services since 2003, and our service complies with Federal E-Sign Law and State Uniform Electronic Transaction Acts.”

Fit The Need

Holmquist says Suddenlink considered a couple of applications similar to RPost eSignOff, “but RPost seemed to fit our needs best. Also, this service has been proven effective by other companies in businesses similar to ours. It’s simple [and] fairly easy to learn and use, and the price structure lends itself to our pattern of use. The e-signature concept has been upheld in court cases in jurisdictions that Suddenlink operates, and RPost did a good job collecting and presenting this legal experience. Plus, the contract process is immediate, so it saves time for everyone.”

According to Holmquist, Suddenlink completed a limited 60-day test to confirm the applicability of RPost use in the company. The RPost application was then made available in a “push” application by its IT department and then downloaded to the sales and support computers of the people who needed to use it.

“We conducted half-hour training sessions via Webinars and face-to-face meetings to train the users on RPost,” Holmquist says. “Our experience showed that it’s easily learned with a couple of examples. The primary challenge was communicating the general concept of e-signatures vs. physical signatures. One limitation of any e-signature service is that it cannot be used for documents that require physical notarization.”

Holmquist says the service has worked as anticipated and is still in general use today, with Suddenlink continuing to expand it to more locations.

Holmquist adds that the RPost service addressed a significant part of Suddenlink’s need to streamline its sales document signature processes. “Again, we’re doing everything we can to help customers and make working with Suddenlink the best possible experience; that is, speeding up service delivery and, again, being easy to do business with. We have a state-of-the-art network that we operate ourselves to provide our services. Making the process easy is one way we can help customers decide to use and continue using our high-quality data, voice, and video services.”

For example, notes Holmquist, using RPost eSignOff, one customer in a remote town in Texas was able to sign his agreement for service immediately, then had his installation date scheduled and the installation completed much faster than it would have been if another signature process was used. It was a win-win situation for the customer and for Suddenlink.

Future Plans

Holmquist says Suddenlink intends to continue using the eSignOff service as part of its plan to provide an exceptional experience for its customers. It’s another useful tool that helps the company expand its business services, which are a major growth area of this industry.

“With our own national network backbone, we also provide services to other carriers, as well as data, voice, and video services to our customers. As we introduce more and more new services to an increasing variety of customers, we can help extend the reach of our business and the speed with which we deliver our services. The tag line on our Suddenlink logo says: ‘Easy as counting to one.’ Using applications such as RPost’s eSignOff service helps us deliver on that promise.”