ETR Observatory for E-signature Tools

Bifurcation and Slow Growth in the E-Signature Space

Jake Fabrizio | ETR Research  

| August 25, 2023

ETR is happy to announce its ETR Observatory for E-signature tools. Backed by ETR data, vendors are positioned in leading, advancing, tracking, or trailing groups according to momentum and presence in the market. The plotting of the vendors in the subsector is based on the data, not opinions or vendor influence. Read a brief excerpt from the report below, and then click through to access our second Observatory on E-signature tools for free! 

Bifurcation and Slow Growth in the E-Signature Space

The rate of spending growth on e-signature tools has cooled from historical peaks seen in 2021 and early 2022, but subsector leaders still see strong customer expansion and year-over-year improvements versus late 2022. DocuSign and Adobe Sign hold strong as frontrunners in a small, bifurcated subsector. Pervasion continues to incrementally increase for the leading vendors despite broad Net Score contractions over time. Year-over-year Net Scores have largely plateaued for both vendors, a positive sign after several surveys of downward trajectory.

Subsector leaders are still registering strong data sets. Despite a broad flattening in spending intentions, DocuSign and Adobe Sign see strength among some of the largest organizations in our work. On top of that, these vendors are seeing robust Increasing spend indications and strong adoptions relative to low negative spending intentions. Both vendors have a distinct advantage: DocuSign was the early entrant, which has allowed organizations to land and expand over time and is viewed as a safe choice based on ETR Insights feedback; Adobe Sign lures users with its integrated suites and bundles. Overall, pricing is competitive, but functionality is similar across the space, lending to a certain amount of staying power once set-up with an offering.

Those without a sizeable presence in the larger enterprise space, like Box and Dropbox, have struggled to make meaningful gains in Net Score and Adoptions, while churn and decreasing spend intent is concerningly elevated. Dropbox Sign has seen some recent momentum in Pervasion gains, but overall spending data is among the worst in the subsector. Overall, the e-signature market is poised to continue slow, but steady growth in spending. Based on ETR data and ITDM evaluation, the need for electronic signature software will remain intact.

Access the full E-signature Observability report for a much more detailed, data-driven analysis or check out other recent ETR Observatory reports.

Enterprise Technology Research (ETR) is a technology market research firm that leverages proprietary data from our targeted IT decision maker (ITDM) community to provide actionable insights about spending intentions and industry trends. Since 2010, we have worked diligently at achieving one goal: eliminating the need for opinions in enterprise research, which are often formed from incomplete, biased, and statistically insignificant data. Our community of ITDMs represents $1+ trillion in annual IT spend and is positioned to provide best-in-class customer/evaluator perspectives. ETR’s proprietary data and insights from this community empower institutional investors, technology companies, and ITDMs to navigate the complex enterprise technology landscape amid an expanding marketplace. Discover what ETR can do for you at www.etr.ai