Getting Started with the Annature e-Signature solution and our Annature Power Platform Connector
In this Blog Post
What is Annature?
Annature is an ISO 27001 certified, Australian based e-Signature platform. It offers a great local alternative to DocuSign. Its affordable, with flexible, pay as you go, per envelope pricing models and uses in country AWS data centres - so no awkward data sovereignty and compliance issues conversations.
It's trusted and used by loads on local companies and government organisations, including the NSW Government (https://www.annature.com.au/news/australian-owned-tech-company-annature-to-power-esigning-across-all-nsw-government-agencies).
We've found it very easy to use and found the Annature to be friendly, accessible and easy to deal with. If you are new to their platform and want to know more, I suggest you book a free demo (https://www.annature.com.au/schedule-a-demo).
What is the Power Platform?
The Microsoft Power Platform is a collection of automation and transformation technologies built on top of Microsoft 365. Used separately or together, they offer capabilities for creating business process automations, paperless processes and driving digital transformations.
The same tools can be used by both professional software providers, internal IT teams and “Citizen developers” (i.e., business users with a simple and well understood problem to solve).
Tools that we consider directly part of the Power Platform include.
Dataverse
Power Automate
Power Apps (Canvas and Model driven Apps)
Power Pages
Power BI
Power Virtual Agents
AI Builder
Let not forget all the other Microsoft 365 tools we can also use to create out solutions:
Teams
SharePoint
Planner
TODO
Microsoft List
Email
Office Apps (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, One Note, Microsoft Forms)
Azure AD
Of course, you need to put these tools together to solve specific problems. Depending on your ability, appetite and perspective, that either incredibly exciting or absolutely terrifying. The Power Platform makes everything possible but can make anything feel impossible. Its is the market leading low code platform that is currently driving Digital Transformation across the globe …and it is Pandoras Box.
Why you might want to use them together
Annature is a great e-Signature solution. But document that need to be signed don’t exist in isolation. They are usually generated as part of an important business process, like new employee onboarding, new customer sign up, exchange of NDA’s, privacy consent forms, permits to work and so on.
Typically, you will want to use templates for the documents, and provide data for our recipients and to fill the documents that need to be signed. You will want to track the signing process and will need to capture and store the documents and their data once they have been signed and the signing process is complete.
For one offs and occasional documents, the Annature dashboard and web tools are fine for this. But if you're running a high-volume business process, that quickly becomes tedious and unworkable.
Chances are, you're already using (or considering) the Power Platform to automate your process. Perhaps you have your recipient data stored in the Dataverse, via Microsoft Dynamics CRM or a custom app? You might already be using Power Automate flow to control your business process. Maybe you need to use SharePoint to store the signed documents, templates and other data?
Regardless of which apps and data you want to use, our Annature Custom Connector is the glue you need to join the two worlds together.
About our connector
Annature provides an extensive developer friendly API, but doesn’t have an “out of the box” connector for the Power Platform.
Strategik are experts in the Power Platform and specifically in building custom connectors.
We like the Annature platform and so we approached them to ask if we could create an Independent Custom Connector to the platform on their behalf. Happily, they agreed, and we’ve been working collaboratively together to do just that.
Microsoft have just accepted the connector (Jan 23) under their Independent Publisher program. Its, open source, “low code”, free to use and will shortly be available for use in all Power Platform regions worldwide - please enjoy.
What you will need
Annature Account - https://dashboard.annature.com.au/sign-up
Power Automate Access - https://make.powerautomate.com
A premium Power Automate License – Power Automate per user or per flow (Microsoft requirement to use a Custom Connector)
Some knowledge of the Power Platform and how to create flows
A business problem to solve / documents that need signing!
Getting started
Follow the steps outlined in the slides below to:
Create flow
Add the Annature Connector
Provide your Annature API Key (first time only)
Test the flow
Review the outputs
Where next?
Think about the problems you want to solve. Consider questions like:
What documents, need signing?
Who needs to sign them?
What data needs to be captured?
What actions need to be performed when the signing is complete?
Where do we need to put the signed documents?
How often do we need to run this process?
In our experience, some up-front analysis and design around how an e-Signing solution can fit into your current business process will save significant pain and effort later.
Review the available triggers and actions in the connector and pick the ones you want to use. You can combine these with other actions (e.g., SharePoint and the Dataverse) in your flows.
Use our “How To” Guides (coming soon) for more tips and tricks.
Need more help?
From Annature
Book a demo - https://www.annature.com.au/schedule-a-demo
Support documentation
From strategik
Book a free consultation - https://calendly.com/adrian-strategik/30min