Who Are You? Less IDK, More IDV

Confronting the Agreement Trap

Docusign’s identity verification solutions don’t exist in a vacuum—they’re part of the Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform—our answer to a critical but often overlooked problem in modern business: the “Agreement Trap.”  

We use this term to describe a common business challenge: inefficient and outdated processes leading to static and disconnected agreements and an inability to access meaningful data insights. Ultimately, this leads to lost revenue, ill-prepared negotiations, and legal and compliance risks.

In the context of identity verification, the Agreement Trap manifests in various ways. Traditionally, organisations require customers to visit their offices in person to present physical identification documents. Alternatively, the customer may be asked to send copies of their identity documents via unsecured email or post. Or they have to manually type identifying information into a website or online application. This often leads to lost agreements, data entry errors, and typos, lengthening the onboarding process and resulting in frustration for both the ‘sender’ (business) and ‘signer’ (customer).

That’s where Docusign IAM, with fully integrated identity verification, comes in. It enables organisations to accelerate revenue, unlock value, and reduce agreement risk by:

• Creating agreements in a collaborative and integrated way

• Establishing a more secure process for sending and signing agreements

• Verifying the identity of all parties

• Proactively managing and monitoring agreement performance

• Capturing and displaying key signer identity information for compliance purposes

ID Verification (IDV) does more than just secure agreements

Organisations across industries are prioritising the need for effective identity verification processes for security reasons, but also for other critical factors, including:

• Risk mitigation: The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that organisations worldwide lose 5% of revenue to fraud each year. This is a significant risk, and organisations must consider the rising costs of identity theft and how it will impact their business.

• Compliance: Most organisations are subject to some level of regulatory scrutiny, a burden that’s highly dependent on geographical jurisdiction (i.e. UK and EU eIDAS) and industry sector. Compliance requirements are typically greater in highly regulated sectors like financial services and healthcare, in which complying with all applicable laws and ever-changing regulatory guidance can be complicated and expensive. 

• Consumer expectations: As consumers become increasingly tech-savvy, there’s a growing acceptance and expectation to engage in a digital identity verification process when conducting transactions online. In fact, more than 8 out of 10 users find digital identity verification both secure (81%) and convenient (88%).

• Industry-agnostic threats: Identity fraud is rampant across the UK, impacting almost every industry. Telecommunication has witnessed a 102% increase in identity fraud cases in 2024, and cases of motor insurance fraud increased by 140%. This growth has exploded as more businesses require customers to exchange personally identifying information digitally or online.

Knowing your customer in the digital age

Let’s explore how ID verification works in a new account opening scenario at a bank where following know your customer (KYC) protocols is critically important for compliance and security reasons.

Many financial institutions still require new customers who started the new account opening process online to visit a branch to present physical identification documents. This is a version of the “last mile” challenge, as in-person identity verification is often a costly, frustrating and time-consuming experience.

Enhanced identity verification using biometrics and liveness detection is a practical, modern alternative to in-person verification that provides organisations with stronger, more secure user identification while offering customers a better, more streamlined user experience. 

Biometric technologies establish or verify personal identity by recognising a physiological or behavioral characteristic, such as a fingerprint, palm, face, or iris. 

For decades, biometric technologies were used primarily in law enforcement. However, over the past several years, the marketplace for biometrics solutions has grown significantly and now includes a wide range of public and private sector applications worldwide. Biometrics are more secure because they offer higher degrees of certainty, making it harder for fraudsters to impersonate someone.

Today, opening a new account online is simple, thanks to the modern agreement process. Let’s use the same new account opening scenario we provided above. Through Docusign ID Verification, bank customers can apply for a new account and complete the identity verification process completely online. Through an intuitive and fully integrated biometric detection step, the system not only assesses the authenticity of the applicant’s provided identity document, but also ensures that the signer is physically present by requiring them to complete a live selfie and perform randomised head-tilting gestures to ensure a match with the photo on their document, and that no pre-recordings are in use.

Then, the applicant applies their eSignature to the agreement, ensuring quick, secure and full remote customer onboarding. All KYC steps are completed, verified, and stored securely for compliance.

IDV in action 

Founded in 1997, Capital Space is a leading provider of high-quality workspace in the Southeast of England, offering a mixture of traditional office spaces, workshops, and studios to suit the changing needs of growing businesses. 

However, for almost 20 years, Capital Space operated very much in line with expected real estate agency practices, issuing individual paper-based licence agreements to its customers. Capital Space also required proof of identity from the director of the organisation looking to rent a unit. This necessitated the client to physically present themselves in the Capital Space office with original identification documents for verification.

To overcome these barriers, Capital Space deployed several Docusign solutions to ensure that the correct documents are sent to the right client, quickly and securely. Using Docusign Identify, Capital Space is able to quickly verify client authenticity regardless of their location, seamlessly enhancing the customer experience and improving business turnaround times.

Using Docusign to digitise the workflow process has seen a positive impact from both Capital Space customers and centre management teams. Not only are licence agreement turnaround times dramatically improved, but the flexibility the digital process offered to clients is very much appreciated, as they can review, authenticate, and sign licences, regardless of location. Licence agreements used to take over a week to get signed, now over 50% are completed within 48 hours.

‘We officially started using Docusign in February 2020 and found that it very quickly changed almost all our previous manual processes—it proved pretty transformational for us as a company in a very short period of time," said Matt Roberts, Centre Manager at Capital Space. Manage identification seamlessly

The Docusign Identify portfolio helps organisations across virtually every industry achieve greater certainty in their agreement processes. Identify goes beyond security to provide companies with a solution to inefficient and outdated agreement processes and platforms, while helping them meet requirements like KYC, anti-money laundering (AML), and regional regulations such as eIDAS. By tackling the Agreement Trap head-on, modern digital identity verification through Docusign IAM helps streamline agreement workflows and provide employees and customers with a more frictionless, collaborative experience.

To learn more about how a connected signing and identity verification experience can help your organisation streamline agreement workflows, achieve better security and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements, explore Docusign Identify.