Patent ID: 7966493

Claim:
A method of intercepting a transaction instantiated by a database application to determine if an electronic signature is necessary to commit the transaction to the database, the method comprising: in response to a triggering action generated by the database application, calling an application program interface with one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems to raise an event indicative of a signature collection process; initiating a workflow process defined by the event with the one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems that initiates the transaction instantiated by the database application with the database without committing the initiated transaction to the database; executing a rule specified by the workflow process with the one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems to determine if an electronic signature is required to approve the transaction; and if execution of the rule results in a determination that an electronic signature is required for the initiated transaction to be committed to the database, instantiating the signature collection process with the one or more processors associated with one or more computer systems.