Over the last few weeks a number of colleges and universities have contacted us to talk about how electronic signatures can be a key component in the streamlining of their workflow processes. We’ve spoken with Facilities Management, Student Business Services and Registrar’s Offices that want to convert from paper to electronic documents, optimize processes so they don’t stop for paper, mail, or faxes and how to address compliant document lifecycle management.
While streamlining process is a key to all the efforts, individual departments have specific issues. For example a Registrar’s Office would like to secure student records and transcripts. eOriginal can help Registrars eliminate fraudulent access to student records and transcripts through our rights management capabilities allowing only those employees with privileged access to view or handle records and show an audit trail that documents even attempted access. Facilities Management needs to manage multiple contracts needing multiple signatures throughout the completion of construction projects. eOriginal SmartSign® provides the ability to add and track contracts at different stages within each project lifecycle significantly shortening the time between approval and project completion. The comprehensive audit trail and repository can even help the Advancement Department to secure and archive donations contracts reducing audit exposure.
eOriginal SmartSign® offers the flexibility and security needed to meet the needs of most departments within higher education institutions. From the ability to integrate with systems already in use to reducing the manpower resources and costs associated with traditional paper based processes SmartSign can help your department to streamline its processes and become more efficient.
Accompanying the recent feature updates we have made to SmartSign we have also added a few really great improvements to eCore. The eOriginal eCore® platform is already the most complete and secure document repository in the industry. eCore is the hub of our electronic signing solution. It allows our customers to control and track access, status, and retention policies of eSigned documents providing the most protection and complying with most strict regulatory standards.
Along with the recent enhancements we made to SmartSign our electronic signature solution, the updates we have made to eCore are all part of continued effort to provide our customers the most complete end to end eSigning solution. So to provide you with a better picture of how we are doing this, we wanted to provide you with a list of a few new changes.
- Enhanced document watermark options to allow you to apply blackout settings to text fields, change the color of signature and text obscure blocks, and add custom text/labels to obscure blocks.
- Extended document retention policies to allow multiple retention rules based on status.
- Extended the document versioning policies to allow you to retain all versions, signature versions, executable and signature versions, executable and last signature version, or only the latest version.
- Added new Document Library, which enables you to upload source documents and signature templates to auto-load and prepare documents for signature when adding a document profile to a transaction.
- Added new Transaction Types. Enables you to define a template for transactions. All transactions created from this template will inherit the same initial set of documents, status values and permission sets. When combined with our new Document Library feature, Transaction Types enable you to create a transaction, auto-load documents and prepare them for signature in a single step.
These updates only highlight a few of the changes we have made over the last few weeks to make eCore even more robust and user friendly. We are dedicated to continually developing solutions that will easily integrate and complement your existing business processes and systems, so keep an eye out for even more developments in the coming new year and please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask any questions about how we may be able to help your business.
Staying in tune with the latest advances in technology, proactively seeking feedback from our clients, and staying ahead of the curve on industry developments are just a few of the ways in which we develop and enhance our application’s feature set. So in light of some great customer input, our research, and with many thanks to our awesome development team, we are pleased to announce the latest release of eCore and SmartSign 6 electronic signature solution.
I wish I could outline each and every new feature but that would make for a pretty long post and I know most of you are busy with work and getting everything ready this holiday season, so I’ll pick out a few of my favorites to highlight. Plus if you want to learn more you can always reach out and fill out one of our contacts forms or email me personally here. So lets begin:
- Extended support for multimedia signatures beyond simple signature pad formats, you may now capture and bind biometric (retina scan, fingerprint) or voice signatures to your PDF documents.
- Data merge for document preparation. You can now add text data to PDF forms (think document prep). For example, after you collect data through an HTML form or other internal system, you can utilize the SmartSign LinkTM web services to merge the data into your forms.
- Send notifications to the sender/creator of a transaction. SmartSign already had distribution list notifications, but now all senders can be notified when a signer completes the signature and when the signature process is completed.
- Enabled signers to receive “final executed copy” distribution email when all signatures have been completed.
- Query for signature status through the SmartSign LinkTM web services. Instantly look up where your documents are in the esigning process.
- Define routing order of email invitations to multiple signers/reviewers. This feature allows you to define the order in which users are notified to come into the signing room to complete the signature process.
- Improved usability of signature Template Designer, to simplify drag and drop addition of form fields into PDF documents.
- Apply appearance properties to text fields in the Template Designer (i.e. font, color, size)
- Data Collection - enables you to collect data from users within SmartSign and automatically apply the data to documents in the transaction. This allows you to collect data once from the user(s) and have it applied across the document set within the transaction.
- Data Validation - SmartSign Web will ensure accurate data is inserted into the text fields within the document during data collection or signature capture.
Now that you see how busy we’ve been working to build the most complete end to end signing solution you can see why we are so excited. And this is only Part 1 of our feature update series. Look for part 2 early next week where we’ll take a look at a few highlighted updates we made to eCore.
Val Daly
Director, Customer Services
The eOriginal SmartSign Web solution is a SaaS offering that can be accessed with zero integration, full integration, and anywhere in-between. The level of IT involvement is a function of the business processes that will utilize the signature service. Regardless of the deployment method selected, the SmartSign signature service rides on the most industrial strength, secure platform in the industry and provides the most robust path for growth and deployment method transition.
Standard On-boarding:
Document Preparer Website
- Upload Documents
- Configure Signing Requirements
- Send Signing Invitations
- Monitor Signing Progress
Hosted Signing Room
- Accessed via Email Invitation
- Manages Signer Authentication
- Brandable with Company Logo and Colors
SmartSign Web standard on-boarding provides a fully-hosted signature service; there are no IT requirements and you may begin electronic signing right away. With standard on-boarding, you will prepare your documents utilizing a hosted website to upload documents to the signature service’s secure repository, configure the signature requirements, and send email invitations inviting the signers to review and sign their documents. Documents are monitored throughout the signature experience using the Signature Tracker portion of the website.
Your signers receive an email with a link to the signing room. The signing room is a hosted website, branded with your company logo and colors. Signers are authenticated against the signature requirements configured by you. Once authenticated, the signers are presented with each document for review and/or signature. Upon completing their signature requirements, signers may retain a copy of each signed document before exiting the signing room.
Standard on-boarding is the ideal option for companies with immediate electronic signing needs, limited IT access, and lower transaction volumes. Companies with larger transaction volumes or who wish to create an “all in my website” offering, may wish to explore our other SmartSign Web options.
Bryan Caporlette
Chief Technology Officer
The latest release of our SmartSign Web electronic signature service and eCore® electronic vault focused on simplifying document review and signature capture. Employing electronic signatures must be easier for your customers than the paper process, and release 6 simplifies signature capture into three easy steps, while maintaining compliance with electronic signature requirements and best practices.
Simple 3-Step Electronic Signature Process
We recognize that the electronic signature process will always be compared to the paper-based wet ink signatures. That is why we focused on simplification in this release. Signers are walked through a simple three step process, including disclosure and consent, signature capture, and receiving a copy of the signed documents. At each step, SmartSign ensures compliance with the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and federal E-SIGN signature requirements. The signers can pull up context sensitive help at each step in the process, and the entire process can be completed in a few minutes!
Signer Identity Verification
Many organizations are struggling with new government regulations, identity theft, and multi-factor authentication. eOriginal has integrated an electronic identify verification service into the signature experience, which includes a verification against the government OFAC database (i.e. Patriot Act Compliance) and presents signers with out-of-wallet questions from permissible use public databases. The results of the identify verification are recorded in the document audit trail, and you have the option to store the questions, responses and results in an encrypted Verification Report.
Integrate Your Way!
So you want to begin now with electronic signatures, but your IT organization is overloaded with projects? Don’t want to send your customers to a third-party website to sign your documents? Have a high-volume business that does not lend itself to your employees logging into a web site to upload documents and send invitations? Want to have the signing experience branded as your own? SmartSign Web offers zero-integration deployment, embedding the Signature Room right in your website, and automated document upload and signature preparation within your document generation/origination system. Flexibility is key to a successful electronic signature implementation, and eOriginal offers you the most options in the market today.
eCore® 6 simplifies electronic signatures and provides the flexibility you need to successfully deploy a truly paperless transaction environment.
eCore®…Looking Forward
As summer is upon us, we look forward to baseball games and barbeques and working through our product enhancement projects in anxious anticipation of the days ahead…and so the story of the 2009 eOriginal product roadmap continues….
This year, we are looking to improve a few of our internal processes to better enable quality support and quick product delivery. Our efforts will offer our current and future customers shorter implementation cycles and greater product capability and flexibility.
Early releases this year have already:
- Introduced an out-of-the-box signing experience, eOriginal SmartSign® Web, making custom-branded eSignature solutions available without IT resource involvement.
- Enabled signed packages to be prepared, reviewed, signed, and managed through a zero-footprint, zero-implementation web service. Simply upload your documents and configure your signing scenario and you are on your way to having completely and accurately signed documents as quickly as your signers can access them.
- Refreshed the Command Center™ user experience, providing improved ease-of-use and greater flexibility in transaction and document management.
- Improved searching capabilities, in-line document access, and the ability to act upon multiple transactions or documents with a single action. This allows document managers to more readily identify and maintain the contents of their secure repository.
Among our targeted efforts for the remainder of the year are:
- Continuing our refresh of the Command CenterTM user experience, providing improved ease-of-use and greater flexibility in transaction and document management.
- Enhancing our out-of-the-box signing experience, simplifying the package creation and offering new package management capabilities.
- Improving our PDF-processing abilities, offering enhanced electronic signature capabilities and providing support for new PDF features and specifications.
- Introducing a complete set of web services, enabling rapid integration of full eCore feature-set capabilities and simplifying integrated application deployments.
- Streamlining our internal processing, improving performance and facilitating our ability to rapidly deliver feature enhancements.
- Leveraging new infrastructure technologies, allowing our customers to take advantage of capabilities offered by the newer infrastructure versions.
‘Simplify, simplify, simplify!’ is our motto for 2009. Everyone is looking to do more with less. Our goal is to deliver our eCore®, eCore® On Demand, and eOriginal SmartSign® Web products as tools that will enable you to do so. Whether you are new to electronic signing or a seasoned veteran, eOriginal® aims to make, and keep, your path to electronic signing success simple.
We are excited to announce the release of our latest version of the eCore product suite, which includes a completely redesigned user interface (Command Center) to interact with your signed Electronic Original documents. Also included in this release is a new version of our SmartSign electronic signature software.
Some of the highlights of the release include:
Sophisticated transaction and document searching. Command Center now allows users to locate information faster through new search screens. These screens allow users to locate their transactions or documents by name, creation date, status, or the customers own unique identifier. Users are also provided with customized search parameters that can be mapped to their internal systems. Users also have access to a directed search function to upload lists for rapidly finding items within the secure repository.
Batch system processing. Command Center has been enhanced to enable batch processing of any collection of transactions and documents managed within eCore. Users can now easily perform actions such as transfer, edit, update status, print, export, and destruction of collections of transactions or documents. All pending batch actions are easily identified within the user interface, and the role-based permission system enables organizations to easily delegate responsibilities across user groups within their company.
Enhanced Control of Transferable Records Transactions. eOriginal has enhanced the eCore contract lifecycle management and transferable records automation functionality. Customers may now define complex business rules to be used during a transfer of ownership. eCore offers unparalleled flexibility to controllers of documents during the transfer process. Users can select individual documents, or sets of documents, within a transaction and assign individual retention policies on each document to be transferred. Assignment of documents has been greatly simplified, whether using the Command Center user interface or through embedding eCore in the user’s application using our published web services interfaces.
Integrated Electronic Signatures. The eOriginal SmartSign® electronic signature component of eCore has been enhanced to enable rapid integration and deployment within web applications. SmartSign™ signature templates automatically create executable, “ready for signature” documents. The system enables users to upload documents from a local or networked file system, set or change document sort orders, sent email invitations and track progress throughout the process.
SmartSign captures the entire signature process from document generation through the capture of all signatures. The solution complies with the rules of state and federal statues for consent and signature capture, logging each step in a detailed audit trail. Our server-side signing process ensures a trusted “closed system” that has been approved by customer internal and third-party legal counsel. Signed documents are automatically tamper-sealed by eCore in the integrated document compliance repository. Signers are able to save or print a copy of their signed documents, and customers can receive a notification email with a watermarked electronic copy of the signed document – which can be also be routed for inclusion in existing imaging, back-office archival or servicing systems.
