1. What is the mission and vision of Docusign?
Docusign’s mission is to bring agreements to life by accelerating the process of doing business and simplifying people’s lives. With its Docusign IAM platform, Docusign unleashes business-critical data that is trapped inside of documents and disconnected from business systems of record, costing businesses time, money, and opportunity. Using Docusign IAM, companies can create, commit, and manage agreements easily. Focusing on the ‘commit’ capability, where identity verification is more relevant, Docusign’s extensive portfolio of identity verification solutions make it simpler for stakeholders to commit to agreements through advanced, AI-enabled identity verification solutions and multiple levels of authentication. Supporting capabilities such as Phone authentication, ID verification, biometric detection, and FINTRAC-compliant-workflows, not only can signers easily confirm their identities, but senders (i.e. businesses) can also securely capture and store the identity information provided during the agreement completion process. This ensures that all parties are who they claim to be, and agreements are enforceable.
2. Why is trustworthy digital identity critical for existing and emerging markets?
Over the last few years we’ve seen the highest volumes of fraudulent cases ever on record (Cifas, Fraudscape 2024). Therefore, it’s understandable why we’re starting to notice drastically higher levels of regulatory scrutiny, and more requirements being imposed on businesses in terms of introducing strong identity verification methods for digital interactions. This scrutiny isn’t just in mature markets, but also in emerging ones where the rapid-adoption of new technologies that’s accompanying fast-paced growth, is necessitating urgent regulatory oversight. Therefore, having trustworthy digital identity for both existing and emerging markets is essential for secure, efficient, and inclusive digital economics. For emerging-economies specifically, widely available identity verification tools that are easy to use can help promote secure, sustainable and long-term economic growth that ensures equitable access to increasingly digital services.
3. How will digital identity transform the Canadian and global economy? How does your organization address challenges associated with this transformation?
The local and international benefits of digital identities are transformative, in the sense that they can help enhance the security of increasingly digital interactions, improve the efficiency of these interactions, and also make them more accessible across various sectors. For example, the adoption of digital identities can further enhance trust in online interactions, making it easier for consumers to engage in e-commerce transactions. This will likely lead to the expansion of the digital economy in Canada, where secure and convenient online shopping experiences will become safer and, therefore, more adopted. Globally, this could drive the growth of e-commerce, particularly in developing economies where digital identities can securely bridge the gap between offline and online markets. That’s where Docusign’s portfolio of identity verification solutions comes in. Our extensive portfolio offers enhanced signer identification and authentication capabilities built into any agreement workflow, enabling organizations to transact a full range of agreements with increased trust and ease of use.
4. What role does Canada have to play as a leader in this space?
Canada has introduced a series of anti-fraud initiatives that have made a significant impact on combating various forms of fraud across the country (public awareness campaigns, industry collaboration (‘Canadian Bankers Association’s Fraud Prevention Month’), strong legislative frameworks (FINTRAC), etc.). These initiatives have made significant progress in reducing fraud, increasing awareness, and improving recovery efforts locally. By advocating for similar initiatives internationally, Canada can influence the global development of digital identity systems to ensure other countries can reap similar benefits. Through innovation, collaboration, and advocacy, Canada can help ensure that digital identity becomes a force for good in the global economy.
5. Why did your organization join the DIACC?
Focused on securing the online agreement space for everyone, Docusign joined the DIACC to help shape the future of digital identity in Canada and contribute towards developing a more secure, inclusive and beneficial digital agreement ecosystem for its Canadian customers. Being able to collaborate with like-minded industry leaders and drive innovation across the country makes DIACC membership a valuable investment for Docusign.
6. What else should we know about your organization?
Agreements are based on intention and identity: organizations need to be able to trust that signers are who they say they are. The standard practice of verifying a signer’s identity is to send a link to the signer’s email address. But agreement value, sensitivity, business risk, regulation, or legal requirements can drive the need for enhanced identification. The challenge is to deliver stronger verification, while keeping the overall experience user-friendly. That’s where Docusign Identify comes in. Identify provides a portfolio of enhanced signer identification and authentication capabilities built into the agreement workflow, enabling organizations to transact a full range of agreements with increased trust. These solutions include: * ID Verification: FINTRAC-compliant digital identity proofing of participants in agreements workflows via biometric checks such as AI-enabled liveness detection, verification of passports, driver licenses, or permanent resident cards * Phone Authentication: multi-factor authentication via text message or phone call * ID solutions for digital signatures: meet requirements for UK and EU electronic identification, authentication and trust services (eIDAS) compliant Advanced (AES) and Qualified Electronic Signatures (QES) * Network of trust service solutions: Easy access to our tightly-integrated global network of trust service providers for region-specific compliance To learn more, visit www.docusign.com/en-ca/products/identify