The problem: On-demand CRM tools streamline the sales process, but in the end it's still common to print, sign, and fax actual agreements using non-web technologies. How do you extend the online dialogue to include contract signing?

It would be ideal to click on a Salesforce Contract custom link that alerts the customer to "click here to agree", but that's not always possible. Contract law says that both parties must have a copy of an agreement to be enforceable.

If I click "I Agree" on a web page and the legal agreement terms change later, can the original agreement be enforced? There's been some recent legal precedence that says altering online contracts may make them unenforceable.

I've run into this scenario recently in a variety of industries: Purchase and Sale agreements, Patient Intake Forms, and Mortgage Loans. All managed in Salesforce up to the point of contract signing, which then switches to paper and/or fax.

The solution: There are several contract management solutions on the AppExchange, but I'm not aware of how many actually interact with the end customer via the web and support online digital signing (maybe one of these partners can correct me if I'm wrong).

We recently acquired a clever 3rd party tool that allows us to take screenshots of portal pages and export them to PDF. An evolution of this approach stores one copy of the PDF as a Contract attachment in Salesforce and emails a copy to the customer.

This fulfills the 2 copies of same contract requirement.