IBM Takes The Paperless Route, Puts Customer Contracts Online

The technology vendor on June 19 launched Contracts OnLine, a service that eliminates the need to download, print and return customer sales and leasing contracts to IBM, said Jane Snowdon, manager of global small and medium-size businesses at IBM Research, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

Originally touted as an offering aimed at SMBs, Contracts OnLine is actually intended for use by even the largest enterprise partner or customer to draft contracts with IBM, Snowdon said. The service is free, and not a single type of IBM sales or leasing contract has been left out, she said.

Contracts OnLine "covers all possible contracts for doing business with IBM," Snowdon said.

The reason such a service did not arrive sooner is that certain technology components—such as IBM's Digital Watermark digital signature tools—had not reached fruition, Snowdon said. Such tools ensure that Contracts OnLine delivers legally binding contracts, she said.

With Contracts OnLine, a typical two-party contract between IBM and a partner or customer, which used to take about two days for IBM to enter into its system, now takes about 15 minutes to find its way to the appropriate parties in IBM, Snowdon added. The system routes contracts, notifies those who need to review them, tracks changes and issues e-mail reminders when actions need to be taken, according to IBM.

Steve Crawford, manager of hardware technology and services at Jack Henry and Associates, a Monett, Mo.-based solution provider, said IBM invited the solution provider to pilot Contracts OnLine late last year. Since then, Jack Henry and Associates has used the new system exclusively when doing business with IBM, Crawford said. "It's been very good. It simplifies the process and eliminates a lot of paper," he said.

What Crawford said was missing in the early version of Contracts OnLine was a step-by-step list of the processes customers used to view and complete contracts. IBM added such a feature after Crawford said it would improve the system, he said.

Currently, Jack Henry and Associates puts 20 to 30 contracts a week through Contracts OnLine. Previously, it was handling contracts through mail and e-mail, Crawford said.