Why Freelance Developers Are Switching To Econtracts

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Why Freelance Developers Are Switching To
Econtracts
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As freelance developers we are innovators and we
like to create and build things. If wed been
born in the 30s we would have been the sorts of
people who invented stuff in our backyard.   So,
as developers we like to look at ways in which we
can improve our product add beneficial features,
add-in unique selling points, and create a more
seamless and efficient user experience. When I
think about designing a software product, I think
about how it can benefit its users and the real,
underlying reason why it should be
developed. This is often to make jobs easier or
to improve productivity. We can also use software
to on-board our clients too. Just in the same way
that we think about creating software products,
we can use the digitization of manual processes
to build better customer relationships, get
customers on-board fast and in doing so, free
ourselves up to be more productive. Econtracts
and Freelance Developers One of the ways of
building a relationship between a freelance
developer and a client is to offer econtracts
built into your web interface. Econtracts is a
movement towards a faster and more seamless
contract process and experience. It is where UX
meets business process.
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This movement towards taking common business
processes, online, is part of the digitization
revolution. Analysts like McKinsey are backing
this movement wholeheartedly, citing cost
reductions of up to 90 for businesses that
digitize their processes. It makes sense that
freelance developers embrace this and build
digitization of business processes into their
client on-boarding process. In terms of
implementing econtracts, freelance developers
need to use tools to create the right framework
to manage a freelance contract lifecycle. This
involves features such as access control and
authentication, online document collaboration and
sharing, alerts, audit, and ultimately,
esignature application. That is a big
architecture to code up, and one which requires
specialist knowledge, including security and
digital signatures to create it. This is why we
have developed the ApproveMe WordPress
e-signature plugin. How Does On-boarding of
Freelance Developers Using ApproveMe WP
eSignature Work? Getting anyone on-board with a
new idea can be tricky. So, making the process
straightforward is the goal. Getting clients to
sign on the dotted line need to be collaborative,
coherent, and in the main, simple. Its all about
automating otherwise manual and time consuming
processes, but keeping the essence of what they
are.
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Its also about working smart in a highly
competitive industry. According to the United
States Department of Labor, the number of working
software developers has increased, year-on-year,
between 2013-2015. In a competitive industry, you
need to grab clients attention and engage them.
Making the on-boarding process, especially around
contract negotiation and completion, simple, is
one way that you can do this. Below Ive listed
out the main steps and benefits to getting an
econtract system in place and using it to drive
the client on-boarding process Step 1 Creating
an automation platform for econtracts The
ApproveMe WP plugin was designed to be a platform
for econtract automation. What this means is that
it mimics the typical manual processes behind
contract creation, negotiation, signature and
archive and makes each of these lifecycle
components digital. The ApproveMe WP plugin has
been designed for freelancers to integrate with
their existing WordPress site as a plugin. By
acting as a plugin, it allows you to maintain
your branding across the econtract platform
keeping your client within your site. Step 2
Generating econtracts
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ApproveMe supports the WordPress plugin Ninja
Forms. This is a free plugin that lets you create
custom forms. These forms can then be used as the
basis for your econtracts. The forms are highly
configurable and offer templates for a number of
types of form based documents, including various
contracts. Once you have the contact template
ready, you can start to use the platform to send
out email alerts to start contract negotiation
and completion. Step3 Fast contract
negotiation One of the worst things that can
happen is that while youre negotiating your
contract terms the client goes off the boil or
finds someone else. Manual contract negotiation
is painful. The back and forth emails /
printouts/ revisions, etc. slow the process down
massively. Online access to contracts, from a
central document repository, like DropBox, speeds
things up. ApproveMe WP plugin gives you the
ability to take your Ninja form based econtract
(or other econtract template) and place it in a
central document repository. It also allows you
to send out email alerts, letting the parties
know the econtract is available to view / change.
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Step4 Its all about the legals Theres no
point in technology for technologys sake, it has
to actually add value and do the job it sets out
to. Econtracts are one of the areas of
digitization that need to carry legal weight, as
well as offer appropriate features. Esignatures
need to be applied easily, by all parties, with
no additional downloads and minimal, if any,
training it needs to be intuitive. But it also
needs to stand up in a court of law, if an
econtract is ever under dispute. ApproveMe WP
plugin has been designed to work within the
esignature laws of a number of countries,
including in the U.S. ESIGN. Step 5 The fast
track As a freelancer, you will know that time
is money. Your time needs to be spent on your
core discipline not on chasing down contracts
signatures or making sure contracts are sent to
the right person, at the right time. The key to
the ApproveMe WordPress plugin is that it has a
component-wise architecture. Building on the
strengths of other WordPress plugins like Ninja
Forms, ApproveMe WP plugin brings all of the
components of an econtract framework together.
The normal time needed to on-board your client
and complete the contract lifecycle is greatly
reduced by digitization of the process.
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This fast tracks all of the parts of the
econtract process to get your signed contract in
place quickly, leaving you to get on with what
you do best, develop software. Using econtracts
is a win-win Situation. On boarding of clients
using an econtract framework like ApproveMe
WordPress Plugin, and supporting plugins like
Ninja Forms, gives you the tools to build your
own digitization platform. You win, by getting
clients to more quickly sign off on a project,
freeing up your time to work clients win because
their time is not wasted and their costs are
reduced no more multiple contact stage
printouts and postage costs. Using econtracts is
a natural extension of the freelance developers
business model after all, youre already in the
business of making other peoples lives more easy
using software, so why not apply this to your
own, and your clients business too. Article
Resource https//www.approveme.com/e-signature/fr
eelance-developers-can-benefit-switching-econtract
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