A Non-Technical
Guide to the Dropbox

Sign APIYour guide to accelerating
business performance using
the Dropbox Sign APIAPIs are kind ofa big deal
We get it, dipping your toes into the world of APIs can be a complex,
jargon-filled experience that’s more than a little overwhelming.

But truly, it’s not all that complex (we promise). You don’t need to bea tech expert to understand how APIs integrate into your systems.
And the advantages eSignature APIs offer are more than worth it.

Whether you’re hiring, selling, or something else, eSignature APIssignificantly improve your document workflow efficiency by:
Empowering employees to focus on ‘higher value’ tasks byremoving manual document management.
Delivering a streamlined customer experience that reduces dropoffs.
Saving a huge number of hours by eliminating manual tasks
through automation.
Realizing even greater efficiency gains as your business scales.

So here it is, your non-technical guide to the Dropbox Sign API, andhow it can transform your business.

Contents
Chapter 1:

A brief introduction to APIs

Chapter 2:

Speed up document completion through automation

Chapter 3:

Reduce bounce rates with a frictionless user experience

Chapter 4:

APIs are built for scale and growth

Chapter 5:

Go live fast

Conclusion:

Workflow efficiency is just an API away

Chapter1

There’s one more thing you should know about: third-party APIs,
which are similar but not exactly the same. Let’s return to ourrestaurant analogy.

The waiter (the API) still takes the customer’s order (application #1).
But instead of taking it to the chef (application #2), he takes it down
the road to another restaurant’s chef (application #3) who fulfils theA brief introduction
to APIsorder and returns it to the customer (application #1).

The beauty of integrating third-party APIs is that they add newexperiences and capabilities to your business without you having tobuild them. So rather than developing your own eSignature tool, you

Before we jump into all the business-boosting benefits of APIs, here’s
the lowdown on what APIs are and how they work.

Put simply, APIs help applications talk to each other. Think of an API
like a waiter at a restaurant. A customer (application #1) orders

food from the menu. The waiter (the API) takes your order and relays
it to the chef (application #2). The chef (application #2) makes thecustomer’s order. The waiter (the API) then delivers the order to thecustomer (application #1).

But instead of people in a restaurant, it’s two applications that
automatically communicate to complete the request. Simple, right?

Now let’s take APIs out of the kitchen and apply them toeSignatures. Every time someone fills in a signup form on yourwebsite, that action can automatically trigger an API to send out adigital contract via email.

can use a specifically built, secured, and maintained third-party tool.

This is just scratching the surface. APIs replace all manner ofrepetitive business tasks—for both your customers and youremployees. And that’s where the Dropbox Sign API is pretty special.

“If you start building everything in-house, ittakes a lot of time to get all the functions inplace — engineering, strategy, support. It canalso create monolithic systems and APIs
making it harder to innovate at a fast pace.
Using a hybrid approach of building APIs
internally and using third-party APIs allows
companies to leverage best-of-breedfunctionality from different vendors. It
reduces upfront investment and allows themto switch to the latest and greatest APIs if thevendors aren’t innovating and meeting themwhere they need their help the most.”— Akshay Sheth, Senior Engineering Manager, FactSet Research Systems

The Dropbox Sign
eSignature API

Two ways to integrate theDropbox Sign API

The Dropbox Sign API isn’t one-size-fits-all, it lets you build an
The Dropbox API enables products to integrate customer-facing
eSignature applications that streamline the document-signing
processes. And the benefits are significant

online signing workflow that best fits you and your customers’
unique workflows. There are two main ways to integrate
eSignatures, each with its own advantages:

A faster path to revenue by automating lengthy and manual
document processes.
Reduced churn by creating a seamless signing experience forcustomers.
Focus on scaling without worry, knowing the API can handle any

Non-embedded 
Users sign documents away from your product on
DropboxSign.com. The signer is notified via email and the signed
documents are collected on Dropbox Sign.

volume of requests.

Embedded Plus, because the Dropbox Sign app handles signature transactions,

Users sign documents directly on your platform. Documents are

you avoid the complexity of complying with domestic andembedded seamlessly into your app or website with just a few

international eSignature laws.

lines of code.

Use cases primed foreSignature APIs

If this all sounds a bit theoretical, here are some concrete, industryspecific examples where eSignature API integration improves thesigning experience.

HR and onboarding Procurement and sales 

When employees, contractors, or agents join companies, dozens

When employees, contractors, or agents join companies, dozensof documents—authorizations, offer letters, direct depositof documents—authorizations, offer letters, direct deposit

sheets, and NDAs—must be completed and signed before any

sheets, and NDAs—must be completed and signed before any

work begins.

work begins.

Taxes, insurance, and loans Real estate 

The complexity of the financial services industry means loanWhether you’re leasing, buying, or managing a property,applications, sets of corporate taxes, or insurance applications

everything from lease agreements to HOA resolutions require

take a long time to complete—especially when they requiresignatures from home buyers, homeowners, and real estate

multiple signatures from multiple parties in multiple locations.

agents.

Signups and applications 

Legal agreements 

Forms like liability releases and waivers need multiple

Court proceedings, civil cases, estate planning, and othersignatures when a user signs up for a service or applies forsituations all demand legally binding electronic signatures frommembership.

several parties—often in different geographical areas.

Chapter2
Speed up documentcompletion throughautomation
In today’s on-demand world, people expect immediate digital
responses, actions, and results.

So, whether you’re closing another deal or hiring a new employee,
any way you can shave seconds or minutes off a workflow is an edge
over the competition.

And that’s exactly what implementing an eSignature API does. By
automating repetitive requests like signatures, identity
documentation, and contact details, you reduce the gap between
request and response. The Dropbox Sign API makes initiating andresponding to requests faster through automation. Here’s how:

Automated notifications
Let’s say you send an employment contract to a candidate. Oncethey’ve signed the documents, the Dropbox Sign API automaticallynotifies you it’s complete and you can move on with your hiring
process.

Embedded templates
Dropbox Sign templates allow you to format a document once andthen reuse it again and again. This functionality is perfect for highvolume documents like sales contracts, tax forms, investment
agreements, HR paperwork, and more.

Group Sign
The Dropbox Sign Group Sign feature also allows teams to send adocument to a group of recipients when only one signature is

When you combine Dropbox Sign automated notifications,embedded templates, and group sign features, the time your teams
spend on repetitive manual tasks plummets across your business
units:
Sales teams close deals faster by getting contracts to prospects

required. Casting a wider net returns a completed signature faster,

immediately.

rather than waiting for one person to respond.

Hiring managers lock down top-tier talent before thecompetition by delivering employment contracts and offer letters
to candidates sooner.
IT and HR cut down the back and forth over documents related
to remediation issues.

Customer story

DealMaker eliminates manual processes from thecapital-raising process
Raising capital used to be full of costly and error-prone manual
workflows that led to headaches and slow progress.

DealMaker saw an opportunity to eliminate the friction of manual
processes in the capital-raising process through digital documents
and eSignatures. But to make it happen, they needed an eSignature
solution that could be seamlessly embedded into their platform for afaster, more transparent signing experience. That’s when they turnedto the Dropbox Sign embedded API.

“HelloSign [now Dropbox Sign] embedded beautifully into ourplatform and unlike other vendors it didn’t require users to leave ourplatform, open new accounts, or separately log in. The HelloSign [nowDropbox Sign] API helped us deliver on our mission of speed,
efficiency, and ease of use." — Mat Goldstein, CRO and CoFounder,DealMaker

And it’s completely transformed DealMaker’s capital-raising processby reducing a 72-hour process down to 30 minutes.

Chapter3
Reduce bounce rates
with a frictionless user
experience
When you need an important document signed, the last thing you
want to do to create confusion. Yet it happens so often. Users are
ping-ponged from your website to their email or a third-party siteand back to your original page. It’s especially true of mobile where
switching between tabs and windows is cumbersome.

These disjointed signing experiences massively damage the chances
someone will complete your request or even work with yourbusiness.

Integrating eSignatures via API into digital customer interactions

Fully embedded eSignatures

can remove significant friction to deliver a streamlined experience.

By embedding eSignature APIs into your product or website, users

Here’s how embedded eSignatures help.

never leave your experience—no third-parties, switching tabs, oremail-checking. For customers and candidates, the entire signing
experience becomes one cohesive signing interaction.

Custom-brand your experience
Just like multiple experiences, multiple brands confuse people.
A custom-branded eSignature tool lets you make the signing
experience look and feel exactly like your brand, which removes
confusion as to which company they are dealing with—further
smoothing your user experience.

Combine custom branding andembedded features for theultimate user experience
The Dropbox Sign eSignature API combines both embedded
signing and a whitelabeled experience to lock users into a
distraction-free and custom-branded experience throughout thesigning experience. And from what we’ve seen, this significantly
reduces bounce rate and improves document completion by asmuch as 26%.

Customer story

Greenhouse Onboarding unifies its
onboarding experience
Greenhouse Onboarding’s entire operation is geared towards one

Then they discovered the Dropbox Sign embedded API which let

thing: a seamless experience for new hires to become productive

customers sign everything with out ever leaving Greenhouseand active members of their new company.
 

Onboarding’s platform. And it’s made a big difference to theirexperience. As Aaron Gibralter, Director of Product Engineering,

But other eSignature providers stood in the way of creating thatseamless experience—requiring Greenhouse Onboarding’s
customers to create their own account to sign documents. This
made the whole process complicated and fragmented for newhires.

puts it, "the ability to white-label different solutions usedthroughout the onboarding process provides users with acohesive experience. Removing this barrier allows new hires tofocus on the company culture and team they’ve chosen to be apart of".

Chapter4
APIs are built for scaleand growth
What’s important to understand about integrating eSignature APIs intoworkflows is that they’re an efficiency multiplier, not a one-off quick fix.

To put it in context, the more documents you manage, the more timesaving APIs become.

For instance, if your team manages high volumes of signature requests atonce, an API integration reduces document admin and removes workflow
bottlenecks. Rather than individually emailing out documents or links toeach recipient, an integrated eSignature API automatically sends theappropriate forms to every recipient with one click of a button. It might
not seem like a huge time-saver for a single form, but when you send 10s,100s, or 1000s of documents, it’ll save you hours.

This is precisely what Dropbox Sign Bulk Send with Template is designed
to do. It sends separate signature requests to an email list of up to 250
people using one template and a single API request. This greatly reducesadmin time and frees your team up to focus on more productive activities—whether that’s sourcing more talent or nurturing customer prospects.

Customer story

How Fountain processes and hires
over 96,000 applicants a month

The hourly workforce is highly mobile and eager to start working as“At Fountain, we strive to provide a seamless branded experiencesoon as possible. That means the businesses that recruit thisacross corporate sites and customized job directories,” said Sean

workforce must move quickly to hire.

Behr, CEO of Fountain. “Automated document signing supports

this, allowing candidates to apply for jobs on the go and move
For Fountain—an hourly workforce platform—it’s critical applicants
swiftly to be hired.”

move to the final contract-signing stage fast . But with so much

documentation in the hiring process, speed isn’t easy.

And it’s this functionality enabled by APIs that’s helped Fountain’s

customers hire an average of 96,000 candidates each month bysignificantly shortening the hiring timeline.

Chapter5
Go live fastThat’s why Software Development Kits (SDKs) are critical. An SDK
speeds up implementation time considerably by giving developers
the tools, libraries, documentation, code samples, and processes toThe faster you integrate an eSignature API, the faster you’ll
experience the benefits.

implement your API.

One way to think about APIs and SDKs is like Lego. Think of yourBut an API integration can also become a time-suck for yourAPI as a pile of Lego blocks. You can put them together but it’s notdevelopment team, who need to understand what it does, how it

entirely clear how the model should actually look. The SDK is like anworks, and how to use it. And if this time and effort outweighs theentire Lego kit—pieces, instructions, box and all—so you know

benefits of the integration, you have a problem.

exactly what you’re doing and how to get there, step by step.

When you have clear, simple instructions, integrating an eSignature
API becomes fast and simple for your developers.

That’s why Dropbox Sign offers six SDKs, so developers canintegrate APIs easily in their preferred language.

And if you get stuck, trained Dropbox Sign API Support Engineers
are always on hand to field any technical questions.

Customer story

With Dropbox Sign you’ll be eSigningin days instead of months
On average, a Dropbox Sign API integration takes just 2.5 days—"I’ve implemented other APIs and it usually takes about a week.

the fastest in the industry*.

Dropbox Sign is using such forward-looking technology, along with

40% of Dropbox Sign API integrations are completed in 10 hours.

clear and easy to understand documentation that I was able to do it in

88% of developers finished their integrations in 40 hours.

less than 3 hours. This was a record for me." — Brian Bristol, CTO and Co-Founder, Pigeon Loans*Source: G2 - Most Implementable 2020

Conclusion

Workflow efficiency isjust an API away

There you have it: the non-technical guide to the Dropbox Sign API.
That wasn’t too complex and jargon-packed, right?

In fact, eSignature APIs are the complete opposite. The Dropbox
Sign APIs removes confusion and complexity across your businessfor employees and customers alike. Whether it’s delivering a better
experience for customers, saving your employees hours in manualtasks, integrating APIs into your workflows is a game-changer.

About Dropbox Sign

And when those game-changing efficiencies magnify as you grow,your business is set up to thrive.

Dropbox Sign simplifies work for millions of individuals. Customers
all over the world trust the Dropbox Sign platform – which includes

If this all sounds good, book a demo with a Dropbox Sign API
eSignature, digital workflow and electronic fax solutions. Companies
experts, who will happily walk you through how the product works
all over the world rely on us to power their applications, making it
and how you can simplify your signing processeasier to close deals faster, onboard new hires, complete documents
without error and much more. For more information visit theDropbox Sign website.