Choosing the right integration

This page will help you chose the right strategy when integrating with Penneo.

If you're considering building an integration to Penneo, you probably fall into one of the following use-cases:

1. Desktop application vendor
   You're integrating Penneo into your desktop based software suite, and want to add a "Send for signature with Penneo" button. Think Lawyer or Accounting software.
2. SaaS vendor, cloud based
   Same as above, but your software is cloud and/or server based. Think recruiting or HR software.
3. Single company integrating Penneo into your website
   You want your customers to sign using Penneo when using some kind of self serve solution. Think Leasing, Property Administration or Public Sector.
4. Single company integrating Penneo into internal/external business processes
   Your internal business processes are handled in an automated Workflow Management System or similar. You want to let your employees and/or customers sign digitally as part of your workflows. Think banks, public sector or large corporations.
5. You're using software X, and you want to send using Penneo
   Your company uses an industry specific piece of (not already supported) software to generate documents and manage contacts. You want to send documents out for signature without copy/pasting info all the time.

Use case 1: Desktop application vendor

If you are in the first category, you almost definitely want to integrate to Penneo Desktop through the URI-scheme.

This, of course, requires that your users have the Penneo Desktop app installed on their desktop environment, and have their own valid Penneo account.

This approach allows your users to choose documents and recipients in your software, and click "Send with Penneo". This will open the Penneo Desktop app with the documents, recipients, and some metadata (casefile name, for example) pre-filled, allowing your user to edit email content, reminder intervals, and any other extra settings they need to, before hitting "Send".

Use case 2, 3 or 4: API integration

Wether you're integrating Penneo into your cloud based SaaS software, your self service website platform or your workflow management system, you'll be building a server to server integration. So one way or the other, you're going to be working with the API.

Given the above, you have another choice to make:

1. Build straight API integration
   Writing code to interact with the REST endpoints directly from your app. This lets you use the latest features in Penneo straight away.
   You can also use our API explorer to view and try out API endpoints: https://sandbox.penneo.com/api/docs/

2. Use an SDK
   Depending on the programming language your app is written in, you might want to use an SDK to make your work easier. We currently offer .NET and php SDKs. Currently, our SDKs lag a bit behind our API, but we're working hard to change that.

If you're a SaaS vendor, your end users will have to either have their own Penneo account (which you will have to store credentials for), or you can let them piggyback on your account. This makes you a signature line reseller. Contact our sales department for bulk discounts :)

Use case 5. Use Penneo with software X

If your organisation is more or less married to a piece of industry specific software, you still have a chance to get that nice and seamless Penneo workflow. The Penneo Printer and desktop app supports something called Print Fields. This method takes advantage of the fact that most software that creates documents work with templates, usually in Word format.

By putting a specific JSON formatted object in your document (hidden in the PRINT field or in white text on white background, you can pass along recipient and other information to the Penneo Printer, thus allowing you to pre-fill the same kind of data as when you use the URI-scheme.

If your third party software uses customisable templates in Word format, you can probably get it working with Penneo.