How Orchid Pharma signs CFR and non-CFR documents inside Signeasy
Company overview
Orchid Pharma is a large pharmaceutical company headquartered in Chennai, India, with a presence in Germany. The company is a highly specialized global player primarily focused on anti-infectives and antibiotics. It sells and distributes pharmaceutical products across 75+ countries worldwide. As a pharma business, it handles two kinds of paperwork: documents that fall under 21 CFR Part 11, and everything else a company needs signed, from legal agreements to HR letters. As operations grew and naturally moved online, the paperwork had to go digital too.
The challenge
One business, two sets of signing requirements
For Orchid Pharma, going digital wasn't simply about replacing paper signatures. The company needed to support two distinct sets of document workflows: those requiring 21 CFR Part 11 compliance for its Europe team, and routine documents used across the wider organization. Both needed a common platform, but with different access requirements.
The second challenge was that Legal and IT maintained document templates, while teams across the organization needed to send those documents for signature. Without a standardized way to distribute approved templates, teams were forced to duplicate documents manually, creating extra work and increasing the risk of version inconsistencies.
Orchid Pharma needed a way to:
- Support regulated signing: Keep 21 CFR Part 11 workflows separate from routine signing.
- Control document access: Ensure regulated documents were visible only to authorized users.
- Reduce manual duplication: Let teams use approved templates without repeatedly copying documents.
- Bring signing together: Manage regulated and routine workflows through one platform, without disrupting existing ways of working.
The solution
One platform for CFR and non-CFR signing
Initiated through Orchid Pharma's Chief Information Officer, Pragati Kumar Patro, the partnership with Signeasy and Orchid Pharma aimed to unite regulated 21 CFR Part 11 signing and routine document workflows within a single contract management platform.
Dedicated workspaces for regulated and routine documents:
Signeasy set up separate CFR and non-CFR workspaces under one subscription. Administrators could control access to regulated documents, keeping them visible only to authorized users while allowing other teams to continue their everyday signing workflows.
Shared templates without duplicate work:
Legal and IT share approved templates across workspaces, so teams no longer duplicate documents by hand. With 70% of signature requests sent from templates, most documents start from the standardized version, cutting manual steps and reducing errors.
A central place for signed documents:
About 250 documents a month, across 4 teams, land in Signeasy by default. Teams always know where the signed copy lives, and admins decide who can access regulated CFR documents, so everything is open to the right people and locked to everyone else.
Built around how Orchid Pharma works:
The workspace setup and template-sharing capabilities were tailored to Orchid Pharma's operational requirements. The familiar workspace structure also made adoption easier for teams already accustomed to organizing documents in SharePoint.
The impact
From juggling paper trails to one compliant platform across teams
With CFR workspaces and shared templates in place, Orchid Pharma now signs regulated and everyday documents in one place. Here's what that means for the team:
Unified platform for four teams:
Compliance, Legal, HR, and IT now run their workflows under one Signeasy account. The workspace structure mirrors how teams already organize documents, so adoption was quick.
Contract management at scale:
About 250 documents move through Signeasy each month, and 70% start from a template. Preparing a regulated document now takes under 1 minute, about 6x faster than before.
Regulated documents stay accessible to the right people:
CFR documents get their own workspace, and admins control access by user, so only the team working on them can see them. Preparing a regulated document now takes under a minute, about 6x faster than before.
Fewer errors and improved productivity:
Legal and IT approve templates once and share them across workspaces. Every team sends the same approved version, which cuts copying errors. Since 70% requests starting from approved templates it eliminated time and effort spent in managing duplicates.
What’s Next?
Expanding to other departments and using Signeasy API with ERP
Pleased with Signeasy’s responsive support and how well it fits into the team’s existing workflows, Orchid Pharma plans to extend it to more departments and connect its ERP through the Signeasy API. With templates already driving 70% of its signature workflows, fewer manual steps and fewer errors have given the team confidence to go further.
