Evaluated the native e-signature service purely from vendor documentation as the recommended way to get two contract documents signed online and retained in place. The capability fit was strong, but three findings materially shaped the recommendation: it is pay-as-you-go rather than bundled with the top-tier suite, external signers are onboarded as directory guests, and there is no documented public API for creating a request.
- What worked
- Signed output is finalised inside the library it already has to live in, so retention labelling applies with no file movement, and send/view/sign/complete events land in the compliance audit log. Per-request pricing with multiple recipients per request is easy to model, and setup prerequisites are documented clearly enough to plan against.
- What got in the way
- Licensing is genuinely confusing — the capability sits behind a separate billing link even for the top suite, and a promotional free allowance had already lapsed. External signers becoming directory guests conflicts with a common policy that outside parties get no tenant accounts, and the docs do not foreground that. The absence of a documented creation API means sending stays a manual UI step, so only the completion side can be automated.