VMblog recently came across a new app that is accessible within Zoom Meetings, offering a seamless, collaborative and personalized business document completion and signing experience -- PandaDoc.  To find out more, we reached out to Shawn Herring, VP of Marketing for PandaDoc.

VMblog:  Before we begin, can you give us some background on PandaDoc?

Shawn Herring:  Documents are the backbone of how business gets done. But from creation to editing to approvals, the process for finalizing and signing documents is often complicated and time consuming.

PandaDoc was founded in 2013 to take the work out of document workflows, providing an all-in-one document workflow automation platform with eSignature capabilities.

Today, PandaDoc helps more than 30,000 customers accelerate the ability to create, manage and sign digital documents, including proposals, quotes and contracts and more.

VMblog:  What type of businesses or consumers use PandaDoc and why?

Herring:  Any business or organization that works with any sort of documents - be it contracts or forms or disclosures - will find PandaDoc useful. 

PandaDoc has historically been used by mostly sales teams looking to streamline business documents such as quotes, proposals and contracts. However, the pandemic accelerated the trend toward digital transformation and, along with our forever free eSign product, helped to introduce PandaDoc to a growing number of industries and use cases.

In addition to sales and revenue teams, marketing, customer success, HR and even legal teams all find document processes simplified with PandaDoc. Our customers also come from a range of industries from technology and healthcare, to financial services, education and construction. 

While small and medium sized businesses use PandaDoc because it's simple to use at an approachable budget, PandaDoc is robust enough for fast-growing and enterprise teams that require more custom functionality.  

VMblog:  What makes PandaDoc stand out among its competitors?

Herring:  Unlike other legacy, static, file-based offerings, PandaDoc is a new breed of product that takes documents from static to dynamic. We enable customers to experience a new way of treating "documents as apps" with automated workflows providing for real-time editing, collaboration, insights and speedy execution.

Our competitors are either large companies that offer disparate solutions focused on moving and signing static documents or small, niche players that can only solve one specific problem. We sit in the sweet spot with a comprehensive, sophisticated, yet easy to use solution for our customers.

VMblog:  Would you say PandaDoc adds to productivity gains?  What can you tell me about that?

Herring:  PandaDoc takes the "work out of workflow" to offer customers increased productivity and return on investment (ROI). Documents have a stigma surrounding them about slowing down business, but that is due to documents being a static or locked experience. With a focus on making documents more dynamic, we see documents as a business driver instead of a business inhibitor. 

With a 50% decrease in document creation time, our customers see an average of 87% increase in document completion per month - that's counting from document creation, to approval to signing on the dotted line. 

VMblog:  What are some of the platforms and technologies that can be integrated with PandaDoc?

Herring:  PandaDoc just launched "PandaDoc for Zoom," a new app delivering an embedded experience accessible within Zoom Meetings. It provides users seamless access to their business documents with the ability to view, send and sign within Zoom Meetings. The PandaDoc App for Zoom is the next step in simplifying document workflows by providing the ability to present, edit and eSign live documents in real-time during virtual meetings. 

In addition to Zoom, we have close to 40 integration partners that connect PandaDoc to familiar and useful tools. From CRM solutions like Salesforce and Hubspot, to helpful tools like Canva and Zapier, we try to make it as easy as possible to create, send, track, and eSign important documents without leaving the applications you're already working in. 

VMblog:  What is your vision for the future of PandaDoc and the document automation market in general?

Herring:  As the trend toward digital transformation continues, we see an incredible opportunity for growth in the document automation market. With remote and hybrid workforces here to stay, and the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, the need for digital document collaboration and eSignature solutions is at an all-time high. We're excited to usher in the concept of "documents as apps" to address the needs of today's fast-moving teams and keep business moving forward.  

PandaDoc will continue to invest in our technology and platform and offer greater resources for the developer community. We will continue our global expansion into Europe, Asia/Pacific, and South America and support new verticals including education, healthcare and government.

##