Cloud hosting company Box has launched a new digital signature product it calls Box Sign, bringing native e-signature capabilities to its platform, along with APIs “enabling businesses to digitize and modernize the way agreements are managed and governed in the cloud,” Box said. 

Box Sign is the result of Box’s February 2021 acquisition of cloud  electronic signature company SignRequest. Box said that the direct integration of SignRequest’s software into its platform will reduce business costs by eliminating third-party e-signature tools and increase productivity. 

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There won’t be any additional costs to use Box Sign, but it isn’t generally available yet. Today’s launch brings it to Box Business and Box Enterprise customers, who will have access to a wide range of features including no limit on signed documents, signature requests for non-Box users, templates for commonly-used documents, security controls like email authentication and tamper seals, API access and the ability to send documents from third-party and custom apps. 

In addition to the features listed above, Enterprise customers get additional features that allow bulk actions, the ability to add attachments, and self-service signature workflows. Later this year, Box said, Sign will be available for Starter-level plans as well. 

Box Sign is also compliant with HIPAA, SOC, ISO, FedRAMP and other standards, and Sign is also available as part of the Box for Salesforce integration package. 

With this announcement, Box joins companies like Adobe and DropBox, both of whom previously announced integrated e-signature capabilities. Box Sign will likely be an important tool in the company’s portfolio, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Forrester said officially made digital documents and e-signatures an essential part of business. Despite that importance, Box said citing an IDC study, only a third of organizations use e-signatures. Cost barriers and legacy tools, Box said, are primary drivers of that statistic. 

“Every day, more transactions are moving from paper-based manual workflows to the cloud, and we will only see this trend accelerate as companies shift to a hybrid work environment,” said Box CPO Diego Dugatkin. 

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In addition to announcing Box Sign, Box also announced today a new Enterprise Plus service tier. The plan includes all of Box’s major add-ons, like Box Shield, Box Governance, Box Relay and Box Platform, along with Box Sign. The new tier is available today for new and existing Box customers, and will replace Box Digital Suites. Companies using that tier of service will be able to upgrade to Enterprise Plus, or remain on Digital Suites, for no additional cost. 

Box users interested in learning more about Box Sign can read the full announcement and register for the Aug. 5 webinar discussing the product in detail.

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