You could also call us E-Sig City.
SigniX, a Chattanooga-based provider of e-signature technology, announced last month that it now serves up to a potential 150 million users, or people signing legal documents digitally instead of physically, thanks to a series of new partnerships with customers across the U.S.
Those partnerships include deals with health care, real estate and financial servicers which rely on digital documentation and electronic signatures for business. SigniX comes along beside those companies to provide a secure, electronic signature component.
In other words, e-signature technology allows real people to sign documents and close deals online without having to physically put pen to paper - it's a digital solution to a practical problem in a digital age.
SigniX is a Chattanooga-based provider of e-signature technology.
Pem Guerry, executive vice president of Signix, left, and Jay Jumper, president and CEO of Signix, right, show a computer page that can be used by clients.
Leonora Zilkha Williamson is vice president of partner development at SIGNiX."SigniX can help save customers time and money by getting rid of the process where people stop, print something out and sign it, and fax it and scan it," said Cara Moore, content specialist at SigniX.
SigniX specifically provides an electronic signature option that is cloud-based, and that meets U.S. electronic signature requirements for security, including user verification technology.
It's more than just easy, say company officials. It's also safe.
SigniX clients can actually have secure information embedded directly into a PDF, limiting who can access it in the Wild West of the Web.
The product SigniX provides has been a huge success with real estate agents. SigniX has partnered with zipLogix, a real estate document service, which gives the company more than 450,000 residential real estate broker partners.
But it's not enough to simply be good at providing good E-Signature technology, say company leaders. The electronic signature market is tough, and the Chattanooga firm faces stiff, established competition.
So SigniX officials have taken a partner-first approach to business - by making top service their top priority.
"It's a principle of the organization, as opposed to one of the things you do," said Pem Guerry, executive vice president at SigniX.
He said SigniX officials recognized that rather than seeing their business model as first-and-foremost providing top-quality e-signature technology, they had to instead emphasize working with clients and potential clients - or, as company officials emphasize, partners and potential partners - and not see dealing with them as a secondary task.
And that's where Leonora Williamson, SigniX's vice president of partner development, came in.
Williamson was hired on last year, and since has introduced SigniX to software leaders across the U.S., including business-to-business financial services provider Pershing, among others.
And because SigniX technology is white-labeled, meaning its partners are allowed to integrate it into their own products under their own brands, Williamson and others have grown the firm's partner base.
"Signers never feel lost, misguided or introduced to alternative branding," said Williamson.
Williamson said SigniX is currently the No. 1 signing engine for residential real estate transactions in America.
And that's not necessarily a surprise to the company. As SigniX grows, potential clients are finding out what the Chattanooga firm can do and what makes it different.
And that it has taken a partner-first approach.
"It is part of our strategic plan," said Guerry. "It is critical to how we go to market, and it's a lot different than most of our competitors."
Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.