By Jim Lundy
Partnerships can be dissolved or ended abruptly. Often it is caused by a failure to communicate. That is what happened a few short years ago when DocuSign bought SpringCM, effectively ending the Nintex partnership.
On June 2, 2021, Nintex announced it was buying Atlanta-based digital transaction management (DTM) provider AssureSign for an undisclosed price.
This blog discusses some of the aspects of the deal and the impact on the market.
Nintex acquires AssureSign to compete in the DTM space.
Analysis
Nintex saw an opportunity to own its entire DTM and content automation stack and did so with the purchase of AssureSign. That, effectively, ended the Adobe partnership – at least with respect to basic eSignature.
Why did Nintex buy AssureSign?
While Nintex had always partnered for DTM e-signature capabilities, first with DocuSign and more recently with Adobe, the DTM market has grown significantly and, with that growth, has come increased revenue. Buying AssureSign allows Nintex to fully participate in the DTM market, which should contribute to its growth.
Nintex can now compete with DocuSign
While Nintex had been doing more in both content and process automation, with AssureSign they can go after DocuSign’s core e-Signature transactions and offer a complete solution, with strong ease of use capabilities.
There is still a strong growth rate for the overall DTM market and now that Nintex owns the full tech stack in DTM, their margins will be much better, adding to overall profitability.
More M&A coming to the DTM Market
With the demand to do electronic signatures, more enterprises are expanding their use of DTM platforms. This demand is fueling the interest in acquiring DTM providers. We do expect to see more M&A deals similar to the Nintex/AssureSign Deal. We note that earlier this year, Box jumped into DTM with the acquisition and rollout of Box Sign.
Bottom Line
The Nintex acquisition of AssureSign allows Nintex to compete more aggressively in the DTM market and to eventually have a greater market share. We do expect other Cloud content management and content automation providers to follow suit and make similar moves. The market continues to grow and there are no signs that it will slow down.