Signly

Signly Celebrates A Marketplace Milestone – Becoming IP Co-Sell Eligible 

Signly for web is a smart widget that turns digital copy into sign language using real people – highly qualified sign language translators of British Sign Language (BSL), Irish Sign Language (ISL) and American Sign Language (ASL). Its purpose? To make websites and other digital content accessible to Deaf individuals. Built on Microsoft Azure, Signly serves the deaf community and Microsoft-based organizations across multiple sectors, including deaf charities, music festivals, and high street banks. 

Enterprise-level financial services in the UK and US are a core market for Sign Language as a Service (SLaaS™). That’s why Signly needed to get the technical details and positioning of its marketplace offer right, making it both appealing and easily transactable for customers. To make that a reality, Signly leaned into the technology and expertise of WeTransact. 

“We were delighted to be introduced to WeTransact. They’ve made listing and transacting on the Microsoft marketplace both functional and intuitive at the same time. We’re so glad to have the WeTransact overlay and such a high level of support.” – Mark Applin, Founder, Signly.

Democratizing digital services for sign-language first users

Not everyone has the opportunity to access content written in their ‘first’ language. In fact, there’s often a misconception within the hearing population that text is an adequate form of communication for people who are deaf and use sign language. 

But here’s the thing. 

Literacy rates in the deaf community are diverse. Take the example of someone who is born deaf. A person with prelingual deafness may be educated in sign language. That means they won’t acquire language in the same way as the hearing population. 

For those people, sign language is their first language. 

Sadly, for the deaf community, sign language doesn’t always show up when it’s needed most in the digital world: like internet banking sites and information portals. That’s why Signly delivers synchronous, in-vision, sign language widgets for any webpage, and any deaf sign language user.

Powered by Microsoft technology, and with a core market of Microsoft-based customers, listing and transacting Signly on the Azure marketplace made total sense for the team. On top of that, Microsoft’s accessibility ambition was next-level, particularly when compared with similar-sized corporations. 

The ties were strong: Signly was a graduate of Microsoft’s AI For Good program and also participated in Microsoft’s Entrepreneurship For Positive Impact (EFPI). One of the perks was free credits with marketplace experts, WeTransact, which led Mark to take a cursory look at WeTransact.

Onboarding new clients in clicks, not months

“We believe in the marketplace. It’s brilliant for us and our customers. We’ve already completed some decent-sized deals, and that’s enabled us to unlock even more benefits with Microsoft.” – Mark Applin, Founder, Signly.

Mark’s response to WeTransact? 

Signly was already transactable, so at first he wondered why they would need specialist help with the marketplace. At that time, he was unaware of the hidden benefits beyond IP co-sell status that were waiting to be unlocked. When he found out, Mark took a second look at WeTransact and booked a demo. 

From the off, Mark and the Signly team were impressed by the friendly look and feel of the WeTransact platform. Before they knew it – in less than an hour – they’d migrated.

With a number of former Microsoft employees on the WeTransact roster, the internal expertise was invaluable for getting things moving in the right direction. WeTransact helped with the important details – like email communication with Microsoft’s Account Executives. 

In no time at all, Signly was IP co-sell ready, and leveraging the power of Microsoft’s Account Executives to tap into new markets, and promote their offer.

Prior to Azure Marketplace, Signly had experienced protracted client onboarding – in some cases, it took between 18 and 20 months. At the same time, the nuances and complexity of the Azure marketplace had become a barrier to evolving their offer to meet the needs of their core market.

After the countless hours spent negotiating the marketplace on their own, Signly had finally found a trusted guide, with the tech and expertise they needed to progress their marketplace journey. “It was such a dream to use,” recalls Mark.

Signly’s marketplace evolution had begun. 

Positive signs for future partnership

One of the key aspects of the partnership is that it goes much deeper than technology. In many ways, it’s not the tech that makes a successful partnership, it’s the people, and Mark describes his experience of WeTransact as “beyond helpful”. It also allows Signly to focus on what matters most to them: serving deaf customers.

From Signly’s perspective, WeTransact delivers what they need – frictionless marketplace transactions. Having already achieved IP co-sell status, they’re now looking at putting together Multiparty Private Offers (MPOs). 

“We’ve got only good things to say about WeTransact. They’ve been nothing but responsive. The benefits transcend the technology. They know the lingo, they have a deep understanding of the industry, and they press the right buttons.” – Mark Applin, Founder, Signly

Right now, Signly offers flat subscription rates for their services. In the future, they hope to introduce metered billing, which is complicated to set up but totally possible on the WeTransact platform. This would allow Signly to more closely align their pricing structure with the high-volume translation services they offer. 

Mark believes WeTransact can be an integral part of Signly’s future success in the marketplace:

‍“At Signly we have a phrase that encapsulates our ethics and values as an organization – only work with people who get what you get. Every interaction we’ve had with WeTransact has been positive. It’s like we’ve known the WeTransact team for decades.”

Discover how WeTransact makes you achieve more on Marketplace. Talk to Us.