Specialist
Former director at DocuSign Inc
Agenda
- Operating environment for DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) and the broader e-signature and CLM (contract lifecycle management) market
- Competitive dynamics across DocuSign, Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE), Dropbox (NASDAQ: DBX) and others
- Post-pandemic demand environment and upsell motions
- M&A integration and international opportunity
- Outlook for 2022 and beyond
Questions
1.
Could you give an overview of DocuSign’s current operating environment, including 2-3 key trends or drivers you feel we should pay attention to?
2.
What key themes are currently impacting the state of demand for e-signature automation and the overall agreement cloud platform? To what extent do you think coronavirus had any specific tailwinds that pulled demand forward? To what extent could DocuSign face demand contraction post-pandemic?
3.
Could you expand on the CLM [contract lifecycle management] traction and how you think Adobe has been pushing in on e-signature? Who are the biggest threats to the e-sig business vs what might be playing out in the competitive space for just the cloud offering? Who are the main competitors? What are the dynamics across those two main buckets – e-sig and the agreement cloud platform?
4.
You mentioned DocuSign’s September 2018 acquisition of SpringCM, and it also acquired Seal in May 2020. How unified or integrated do you think the broader agreement platform is today, relative to what some competitors are offering? Do you think DocuSign has all the capability or technological function it needs within the existing cloud platform, or are there other areas it should be looking to fold onto the existing platform? How do you assess the functionality and breadth of the platform capabilities vs what the company might need to continue to grow and expand?
5.
Why do you think DocuSign’s international sales have decelerated over the past couple of quarters? What do you think drives demand abroad at a higher level? What are some of the main challenges or risks to the company’s ability to capture international opportunity?
6.
You mentioned DocuSign taking a different approach to its product strategy, perhaps on a go-to-market basis abroad. Could you discuss the main e-signature use cases that the company could be working to expand into, either at home in the US or to better capture international business? How does that play into how strong its US e-signature moat is vs the opportunity to expand and be the aggressor abroad?
7.
Could you expand on the risk you see to some of the vertical players disintermediating DocuSign? Do any specific verticals have challenges outside of healthcare, or unique use cases that the company should be capitalising on better? Do you think there are any other verticals that present more opportunity for it to land and expand with customers – relative to what it’s capturing now – that might present a heightened risk of disintermediation from players seeing greater opportunity?
8.
To what extent do you think DocuSign can continue to upsell large customers on the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, based on growing use cases that increase enterprise customer efficiencies? How much are we seeing some of that overselling? Why do you think existing customers are expanding more slowly and how does that play into that overselling you mentioned? How often do volumes go down on renegotiations due to the volume-based pricing in an area in which the company can undercut if it’s a simpler use case?
9.
To what extent do you think DocuSign can better alter its sales strategy to succeed and accomplish long-term growth? Do you think the company’s sales organisation can change from its focus on demand fulfilment during the pandemic to demand generation? To what extent can it better-capitalise some of those increased use cases, as opposed to the volume-based model? To what extent do you think it needs to shift to the change of sales model? Based on what it has currently, what do you think of its ability to execute on that over the next 12-18 months?
10.
Do you have any other thoughts on DocuSign’s current management and its strategy so far? Is there anything else that you would have done, or would do, differently?
11.
What is your outlook on DocuSign seeing near-term billings and revenue growth opportunities? What top-line growth rate do you view as sustainable or achievable for the company over the next 12-18 months? We mentioned themes including international expansion, which could be a strong driver, and the ability to better convert free users.
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