Has anyone successfully integrated Appian with Adobe Sign? We are looking at us

We have implemented eSignature solutions for multiple customers using DocuSign, and Adobe is no different. In fact, all the design paradigms apply here too. Adobe has a REST based and a SOAP based service that can be used to send documents, check status of Applications etc. The documentation is quite straight forward - helpx.adobe.com/.../esign_API_Implementation_Guide.pdf

From my experience of having implemented eSign, working with different business stakeholders, here are my 2 cents.

Try to host the Document Templates in Adobe(It is called Embedded Signing), as opposed to hosting the Documents in Appian and sending the document in the web service call. It helps for maintainability and upgrades. I don’t think Adobe handles all the complex scenarios that DocuSign provides, but the vendor can confirm that.

Create a re-usable module in Appian for creating Signing requests and for checking Application status. You can also subscribe for different events in Adobe, like ‘when someone has viewed an Application’ OR ‘ when an Application is Complete’. Create a module that can handle those notification events from Adobe.

Check if Adobe has an Admin GUI where Business users can modify documents real-time. (DocuSign has this feature)

Thank you for the information. I have one other question. We want to use this internally in our company to sign documents that will be submitted to Finance. I am not sure if the scenario that you described will cover that case. Reading through the guide I was thinking about trying to implement this with a widget (scenario 3 in the guide). Do you think that is possible?

Well the question you would want to ask Business is -
Scenario#1 - Do you want an embedded signing experience, where an URL is presented to the Appian user inside an Appian Interface, OR
Scenario#2 - Do you want users to get an email from Adobe, click on a email link and then complete the signing experience.
If your business case involves the use case where you have remote users signing documents initiated via an Appian Workflow, then Scenario#2 makes sense, else if they are Appian users, then Scenario#1 makes sense.

Another example would be - an Account Opening experience; where if you have the customer sitting in front of you, you don’t want to send them an email. You would rather collect their information on Appian forms and be presented with an URL in a Interface. You can then pass control of your desktop/tablet(assuming you are an Account Opening Officer) to the customer to complete a seamless eSign experience. I would highly recommend this approach if your use case warrants this.

Either-ways(Scenario#1 or #2) would suffice for the requirement you mentioned. Once the signing experience is completed, the document would be pulled down to Appian via an Api call and will be available for the finance team to review. If they reject the document(an use-case that is common), the eSign experience has to be re-initated – you have to ingrain those controls into the workflow. If they approve, you would then move the document to a final resting place – a content management system like FileNet or Alfresco or Appian etc…

Regards,
Paddy Viswanathan.
HCL America Inc.

Thank you!