Case Study: Comcast Spotlight

Comcast Spotlight: We Can’t Live Without EchoSign

Company Overview

Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, helps put the power of cable to use for local, regional and national advertisers. It is focused on moving the industry forward through advanced technologies and innovative products that reach audiences in the most effective and efficient ways. With offices throughout the country, Comcast Spotlight has a presence in nearly 90 markets with approximately 30 million owned and represented subscribers. Comcast Spotlight is a registered trademark of Comcast Cable.

Workflow Challenge

Closing a contract for advertising requires a few rounds of negotiation. The typical process is as follows – After a needs analysis, the Comcast Spotlight Account Representative returns to present solutions and an advertising contract to the customer. The customer may request changes in the media schedule, so the account rep updates the contract and when finally resolved, the rep drives to the customer location to present the final agreement and have the contract signed. “While we have to get client signatures on contracts to be SOX compliant, the drive time to the customer for signature on the final/revised contract could be used in a better way (because there is already a verbal agreement on what the customer wants),” says Michael Hills, VP & GM Comcast Spotlight, Pittsburgh Region. “In my region we have 60 account executives driving to their customers to get signatures – so there was lot of consuming drive time. In addition, we were struggling with lost paperwork and unreliable fax machines. Our contracts also required 4-5 internal counter signatures prior to the provisioning process, and sometimes it would take days or even a week to get all the internal signatures on the required paperwork.”

EchoSign Solution

About 3 years ago Michael started researching ways to fix his “paper-based” problem. “Pittsburgh was the first market in the Eastern Division to look at electronic signatures. Initially, we came up with the idea to save drive time for our account reps. After further research, we realized that e-signatures could resolve a larger challenge at Comcast Spotlight and offer solid monetary savings.” Michael found EchoSign online and started a small pilot in his Pittsburgh region. “The EchoSign business model of user-pricing worked for us. Some of the competitors charged per transaction and with our volume of contracts, this business model was cost prohibitive.” Comcast started an EchoSign pilot with five local account reps and one sales manager. Later, the pilot was expanded to the 60 account reps in the Pittsburgh region and now all 300 account reps in the Eastern Division are using EchoSign.

Results

Over the past two years, Comcast Spotlight has seen their EchoSign contract volume grow exponentially. In 2008, they sent over 4000 contacts through EchoSign with 85% of the agreements signed in just over 1 hour. In 2009, over 40,000 agreements were sent through EchoSign – 89% were signed in just over 2 hours. In the first half of 2010, Comcast Spotlight is on track to double the usage in 2009 – sending out over 40,000 documents in just 6 months with 92% signed in under an hour. “EchoSign has definitely met my original goal and then some. Our account rep driving time has significantly decreased since we started using EchoSign, and this has given the sales team more time to sell. In addition, EchoSign helps with internal accountability. Our sales assistants can log into the system and see who needs to countersign the contracts and send those users alerts if they are lagging. We don’t lose paperwork and our account reps describe EchoSign as a “tool that they cannot live without.”

Our account reps describe EchoSign as a ‘tool they cannot live without.’ — Michael Hills, VP & GM, Comcast Spotlight, Pittsburgh Region