4 Famous contracts that eSignatures could have improved
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Across history we’ve been singing our agreement to all manner of causes, projects and laws. But, what 4 famous signings could have been saved with the use of free, electronic signature software? (There’s way more than 4 but these are the ones we liked…)
The Treaty of Versailles
Arguably one of the biggest events in signature history. The Treaty of Versailles was the final of the peace treaties to bring WW1 to a close in 1919.
It required the ‘Big Three’: British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Premier George Clemenceau and US President Woodrow Wilson to sign (amongst others). They all convened in the famous Hall of Mirrors in Versailles in France, okay, yeah pretty cool but still…
This is where eSignatures would have helped save time. The time it took the British Prime Minister, and US President and hundreds of other delegates to get to Versailles, added a good week or so to the War. Had the treaty been sent via email (we’re assuming they’d have emails and computes for this theory), those delegates could have signed from their living rooms – Less mirrors though, which is a downer. This would mean fewer soldiers would have died (from mostly exposure at this point). Lesson 1 – free electronic signature software can save lives.
″By the time the lawyers get done dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, the contract could be signed by next week″.
You can see why boxers like Mike Tyson are notorious for smashing tables when it takes that long to process a match contract.
If boxing managers employed free electronic signature software, the process would speed up considerably, getting the contracts sent through to lawyers faster. It would save a hell of a lot of tables too! Lesson 2 – eSignatures save the environment.
Mo Johnson
As my Aberdonian colleague enthusiastically explained to me earlier today, Mo Johnson, the Catholic footballer, caused a lot of uproar in Glasgow in the late 80s.
Mo apparently began at the Glaswegian, Catholic football team, Celtic, who were (are!) big rivals of the tradionally Protestant Rangers. At a time when the religions were split and the rivalry was at its peak, Mo returned to Glasgow. All his Catholic fans expected him to unite with his old team, but at the last minute decided to sign with Rangers! People went nuts!
If Celtic had gotten the contract over using eSignatures, he would have had no time to make a U-turn. Especially with Signable’s reminder feature, that helps forgetful signers! Uproar diverted, and Mo happy with his original team, rather than signing with rivals, the Rangers. Enter eSignatures…
Manchester United’s broken Fax machine
Manchester United were in the process of selling David de Gea to Real Madrid on the final day of the transfer window in in the summer of 2015. A £29M deal hung in the balance as the contract was sent through United’s….wait for it…Fax machine! Yep, we all know where this is going! Just as the deal was about to go through the fax machine ‘mysteriously stopped working’, missing the transfer deadline. Meaning David had to stay with Man U (which to fair, with hindsight was one of the better things to happen to the club over the past few years).
So, if there’s anything that we’ve learnt over the years, it always pays to get signatures as quickly as you can!
If you’re Manchester United, or anyone else that wants to make fax machines a thing of the past (you really, really should) then have a go of our 14 day free trial! No commitment just time to reconsider your 80s technology.