Scaling DocuSign: CIO Shanthi Iyer Talks AI, Automation, and a Data-Driven Future | Technovation 789
Shanthi Iyer, CIO of DocuSign, shares her remarkable journey in scaling the organization and developing a sound data strategy.
Chief Information Officer, Docusign
Search every verified Shanthi Iyer interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Shanthi Iyer, Chief Information Officer at DocuSign, has described her work on scaling the organization and developing a data strategy since joining the company over two years ago. In a September 2023 interview, Iyer stated that DocuSign grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic and that she has focused on transforming business processes, upgrading technology platforms, and modernizing infrastructure. She said she restructured her group to create roles like product owners and established a transformation office to prioritize initiatives. Iyer also noted that she consolidated data technology platforms into one team and created a platform called Helios to serve as a single source of truth for company data. Regarding artificial intelligence, Iyer said she is working with the chief security officer to create guardrails for safe experimentation, and she expressed that AI could help synthesize contract content for DocuSign's product. In a September 2022 interview, Iyer discussed her approach to scaling operations, including consolidating technology platforms after finding that many employees used different software suites. She said she implemented automation for employee onboarding, job changes, and exits. Iyer described the role of a CIO as having evolved from a technologist managing infrastructure to a business leader with a seat in the boardroom. She attributed her career success to continuous learning, consistent execution, and compassionate leadership. Iyer also commented on the representation of women in technology, stating that while there are a growing number of women in leadership roles, she noted that during the pandemic women disproportionately stepped back in their careers and called for targeted efforts to restore representation.
“DocuSign's value proposition is we provide smarter, easier, and trusted agreements. We're probably the only company in the world that actually connects the agreement process end to end for every customer, not just the signature but the entire lifecycle including drafting, negotiation, and obligation management.”
“DocuSign grew too fast and during COVID we had great revenue growth but solved scale problems by throwing bodies at the problem. The past year has been about transforming business processes, upgrading technology platforms, and modernizing infrastructure to remove friction internally and for customers.”
“One of the first things I did was restructure my group to play roles like product owners, creating ongoing consistent engagement with the business so we wouldn't be order takers but co-design solutions with them, prioritizing initiatives with the biggest bang for the buck through a transformation office.”
“We created an architecture blueprint mapping the customer's lifecycle journey and the employee's footprint to identify friction points and prioritize areas for improvement, which helped put spotlight on business priorities and forced prioritization conversations.”
“I consolidated all data technology platforms into one team to avoid waste and created a platform called Helios to provide a trusted golden record of data for the company, emphasizing that any key KPIs or operational metrics should come from Helios to ensure data trustworthiness.”
“AI in the hands of non-technical people can be dangerous, for example exposing sensitive information like PII. We're working with the CSO to create guardrails to experiment safely with AI and ensure it solves real problems rather than just being hype.”
“AI can help DocuSign's product by synthesizing and summarizing contract content, highlighting key parties, dates, fiscal terms, and risks, which is valuable because most people don't read lengthy documents before signing.”
“During COVID, women disproportionately stepped back in their careers due to personal responsibilities, causing a dip in progress for women in technology. We need targeted efforts to bring representation back to pre-COVID levels and encourage advocacy at every level, including men playing an equal role.”
“AI's future challenges include managing compute power and energy demands as models become more pervasive and targeted. Quantum computing might be a solution, but we don't know yet. AI could revolutionize healthcare and education, which badly need transformation, including questioning traditional constructs like the fou...”
“Focusing on business outcomes and deeply understanding the business you support is a key differentiator for a CIO. Also, feedback is a gift that requires courage and self-awareness to absorb and course-correct. Continuous learning and humility to learn from all levels of your team are essential to leadership success.”
“The main task ahead of us and in creating the data strategy the first thing that I'm trying to get the company to align on is the concept of a single data platform. It need not be a physical single infrastructure but what we wanted to tell the company was there must be a single source of truth where people come to for...”
“When I first got here, there were many products in use. Almost half the company was using Google Suite, half the company was using Microsoft Suite, and while we were scaling, anybody could swipe a credit card and buy products of their choice, and that is usually not good for a company that is scaling and growing really...”
“We are doubling down right now on what we call JML automation—joiner, mover, lever automation—that helps us manage almost a touchless experience when we can do it for people who are onboarded into the company or when they are moving jobs within the company or when they exit the company. So we wanted to really drive tha...”
“Traditional CIOs typically were technologists and they were asked to manage a lot of infrastructure, cloud operations, managing all the platforms in the company and maybe desktops. But today's CIOs have a seat in the boardroom, have a seat in e-staff, they report to the CEOs like I do, and what this provides is a uniqu...”
“One of the things that helped me was understanding scaled operations, understanding what are the frameworks required to run things that you can rinse and repeat multiple times and do it in a consistent fashion. I was able to bring that construct here to set up things like transformation office, enterprise architecture.”
Shanthi Iyer, CIO of DocuSign, shares her remarkable journey in scaling the organization and developing a sound data strategy.
Shanthi Iyer, CIO of DocuSign, discusses the company's immense growth and the transformation that arose as a result. Shanthi ...
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