It’s a wrap: Catch up on the big news from Momentum Sydney 2023

Every year, the leaders of Docusign embark on a world tour to celebrate our latest innovations and customer successes. It was Sydney’s turn in mid-August and the harbourside city didn’t disappoint, with the 2023 event proving to be an incredible day of big announcements and feel-good stories.  

We heard from our global CEO and our General Manager of Asia Pacific and Japan . We heard from award-winning customers and partners, and our President of Products and Technology. We heard from Heads of Product and Senior Directors. Momentum really did have it all. 

If you couldn’t make it to the event, you can catch the full keynote on-demand or keep reading for a summary of the main take-outs. We’ll also publish more articles recapping the main stories from the event in coming days. 

Docusign is just getting started

Our General Manager and Vice President in APJ, Shaun McLagan, kicked things off by reflecting on why Docusign exists. In his words, Docusign is here to “accelerate business and deliver a customer and employee experience that’s second to none.” 

Shaun spoke about Docusign’s ongoing obsession with exceeding customer expectation. It’s this obsession that explains the company’s remarkable growth — particularly in the last five years. In 2018, the number of companies using Docusign eSignature was around 250,000. Since taking big steps to improve the end-to-end agreement process, that figure has grown five-fold — today, we have 1.4 million monthly active paying customers and over a billion users.

These are incredible numbers, but, as our global CEO Allan Thygesen was quick to point out, we should not be resting on our laurels. In fact, as Allan said, “We are just getting started.”

A culture of continuous improvement

A relative newcomer to Docusign, having joined the company earlier this year from Google, Allan has brought new perspectives and a challenger mentality to the company. As he explained in his keynote, he has been speaking to customers around the world not only about how Docusign helps their businesses but, more importantly, what can be done to make things even better.  

“We are reimagining the entire agreement process. After today, you’ll see that we’re marking the start of a new beginning, one that is fundamentally different. Better agreement workflows are closer than you think,” he said. 

With the new features announced at Momentum, the agreement process is no longer a trade-off between efficiency and risk mitigation. Instead, you can achieve both thanks to new tools that truly change the way people agree.

“Imagine a world where complexities and risks are revealed with the click of a button. Where more acceptable terms and language are presented automatically. Where collaboration and negotiation are made easier or even automated. Where the systems you use are connected seamlessly so you can monitor how well suppliers and partners are meeting expectations,” said Allan.

All this and more is now possible with Docusign. 

Smarter, easier, more trusted agreements

Docusign’s President of Product and Technology, Inhi Suh, then revealed just how fast Docusign will evolve in the next five years. As she said, “Your business needs are changing, and it’s our responsibility to meet them today and into the future.”

Using maps as an example of the evolution of processes, she compared today’s flat, static PDF agreements to old, folded maps found in the glovebox of your car. Just as maps have evolved into dynamic, personalised experiences that deliver real-time, turn-by-turn directions on a user’s phone, so too can agreements evolve. All it takes is three key ingredients: data, intelligence and orchestration.

“For most organisations, agreements and the agreement process remain stuck in the glovebox. We’re changing this with a process that’s smarter, easier, and more trusted,” said Inhi.

Here’s a great snippet of Inhi’s presentation, which really encapsulates how we’re reimagining the agreement process:

New capabilities in action

Michael Phillips, Senior Director, Consulting, and Mangesh Bhandarkar, Group VP and Head of Products, then shared some exciting new features and announcements about Docusign which we’ll explore in a separate article. 

Andrea Dixon, Senior Director Marketing, APJ spoke to Kate Buttigieg, Product Portfolio Manager, Content Services, CommBank about how CommBank so successfully embraced Docusign during the pandemic — and where they plan to go next. 

And, finally, we announced the Docusign customer and partner award winners. Bethany Nyberg, our AVP of Commercial Sales, spoke to Impact Award Winner Will Kiln, CEO, Salt & Lime. While Ed Knott, VP of Sales, Australia and NZ, presented our four partner awards. Look out for a separate article on our APAC award winners.

Remember, you can watch the Momentum keynote  any time on-demand.