Legacy SaaS dossier · docusign

DocuSign

CategoryeSignatureDocuSign Business Pro + CLM EssentialsSite ↗

A signature placement UI and a notarised audit trail, priced per-send. The audit trail is real value; the UI is a weekend project.

01 · Data

Data the SaaS sits on

Contract PDFs (S3)Yours

Resend / SESAPI

Trusted timestamp (RFC 3161)Public

AWS KMSAPI

Internal Build Score

0.54

Feasibility of a useful internal substitute for the actually-used 20% of this SaaS, built with Claude and your own data layer.

IBS = 0.25·U + 0.25·C + 0.20·D + 0.15·I + 0.15·Mthis record · 54%

U
User adoption gap
weight 0.250.50
How much licensed surface area sits idle.
C
Core simplicity
weight 0.250.60
How small the actually-used 20% is when re-implemented honestly.
D
Data portability
weight 0.200.55
How clean the exit is, exports, formats, audit lock.
I
Integration burden (inverse)
weight 0.150.60
How few external systems must keep working through the SaaS.
M
Moat erosion
weight 0.150.45
How much the original differentiator has been commoditised by LLMs + cheap infra.

Editorial heuristic. Not investment advice, not a procurement recommendation.

03 · Feature usage

Commonly used vs. rarely touched

Commonly used

Drag signature + initials fields onto a PDF
Per-recipient signing link with email gate
Notarised, tamper-evident audit trail
Routing, signer order, parallel + serial
Completed PDF + certificate of completion

Rarely touched

CLM module, a worse Notion for contracts
Insight, analytics over contract content
Identify ID verification add-on
Web forms + Click-wrap as separate SKUs
Payments integration tier
Maestro 'AI workflow builder'
PowerForms / bulk send add-ons

Build it yourself→

Internal build

Build it yourself

01 · Stack & flow

Next.js

pdf-lib

AWS KMS

S3 (versioned)

Claude API

Internal build map

Data in

Contract PDF

Recipient list

Playbook

Agent layer

Round-trip diff

Logic

signer routing

capture signature

KMS sign hash

RFC 3161 timestamp

issue certificate

Outputs

Signed PDF

Audit certificate

Redline diff

Build time: 11 weeks
Run cost: $4/seat·mo
vs. SaaS: $84K / yr

Build outline

PDF viewer with field-placement overlay
Per-recipient signing link + email gate
Capture signature, hash, KMS-sign payload
RFC 3161 timestamp + S3 versioned PDF
Generate certificate of completion (pdf-lib)
Claude diffs each round-trip for legal review

02 · Claude prompt

First, map what you actually use (optional)

Step 1 · usage audit prompt

// DocuSign usage audit, scope the rebuild Input: the template list with send counts, the routing / approval flows, the field types placed per template, and any CLM / Insight modules on the contract. ## Do 1. Keep templates sent in the last 12 months; the rest are dead. 2. Keep field types actually placed (signature, date, initials, text). 3. Mark notarised audit-trail + identity verification as load-bearing, they must be reproduced, not trimmed. ## Output JSON: { keep_templates[], keep_field_types[], compliance_must_keep[], drop[] }.

Step 2 · rebuild the core

// Contract round-trip diff, internal legal review You receive (a) version N of a contract (clean text + clause numbering), (b) version N+1 returned by the counterparty, and (c) the playbook of clauses the legal team flags as material. ## What you must do 1. List every change, grouped by clause number. 2. For each change, output: - kind: "added" | "removed" | "modified" - quote_before, quote_after (or empty) - material: true if the playbook flags this clause 3. Summarise in one sentence whether the counterparty's edits stay inside the playbook or push outside it. ## What you do not do - Do not score the deal. - Do not propose new redlines, diff only. - Do not paraphrase clauses; quote exactly. ## Output JSON: { changes[], summary, outside_playbook: boolean }.

03 · Result

Diff v3 vs v4 of MSA, counterparty redlines

contract:msa-acme#v3..v4

7 changes across 4 clauses · 2 material (limitation-of-liability cap, IP assignment) · outside playbook: true

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