Feat/commodifying signing (#874)

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Timur Ercan
2024-01-26 12:36:33 +01:00
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@ -27,14 +27,16 @@ Tags:
# Commodifying Signing
> TLDR; We are creating signing as a public good and are commoditizing it to make it cheaper and better.
> While we are in full-on building mode with Documenso, I think a lot about the big picture of what we are attempting to do. One phrase that keeps popping up is, "We are commodifying signing." Let's dig deeper into what that means.
While we are in full-on building mode with Documenso, I think a lot about the big picture of what we are attempting to do. One phrase that keeps popping up is, "We are commodifying signing." Let's dig deeper into what that means.
Let's start with why we are doing this. Documenso's mission is to solve the domain of signing once and for all for everyone. In so many calls, I hear stories about how organizations build their own solution because the existing ones are too expensive or need to be more flexible. That means not hundreds but probably thousands of companies worldwide have done the same. This is simply wasting humanity's time. Since digital signing systems are understood well enough that seemingly "everyone" can build them, given enough pain, It's time to do it once correctly.
## Is signing already a commodity?
> In economics, a **commodity** is an economic good, usually a resource, that has explicitly full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.
> That sounds like the signing market today. There is no shortage of signing providers, and you can get similar signing services from many places. So why is this different from what we want, and why does this not satisfy the market?
That sounds like the signing market today. There is no shortage of signing providers, and you can get similar signing services from many places. So why is this different from what we want, and why does this not satisfy the market?
- Signing is expensive and painful when you are locked into your vendor, and they charge by signing volume.
- Signing is also expensive and painful when you have to build it yourself since no vendor fits your requirements or you are not allowed to
@ -68,7 +70,8 @@ Before creating a commodity, we are raising the bar of what the underlying publi
As we have seen, signing has already been commodified. But since it was done by a closed source and, frankly, a very opaque industry, no downward price spiral has ensued. By building Documenso open source with an open culture, we can pierce the veil and trigger what the space has been missing for a long time: Commoditization. If you had to read that again, so did I:
> In business literature, **commoditization** is defined as the process by which goods that have economic value and are distinguishable in terms of attributes (uniqueness or brand) become simple commodities in the eyes of the market or consumers.
> By only selling what creates value for the customer (hosting a highly available service, keeping it compliant, supporting with technical issues and challenges, preparing industry-specific components), we are commoditizing signing since everyone can do it now: The resources enabling it are public goods, aka. open source. A leveled playing field, as described above, is the perfect environment for a community-first, technology-first, and value-first company like Documenso to flourish.
By only selling what creates value for the customer (hosting a highly available service, keeping it compliant, supporting with technical issues and challenges, preparing industry-specific components), we are commoditizing signing since everyone can do it now: The resources enabling it are public goods, aka. open source. A leveled playing field, as described above, is the perfect environment for a community-first, technology-first, and value-first company like Documenso to flourish.
## Changing the Game