Any frequent visitor to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor will recognize the striking architecture of the Columbus Center. Located near the Baltimore Aquarium and the Hard Rock Cafe, the Columbus Center is a 250,000-square-foot facility purchased by the University System of Maryland back in 1998. It is the home of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology and hosts a number of events for University System of Maryland Institutions, as well as for private businesses and nonprofits throughout the region.

Naturally, they must create contracts for all of the events they host and the office space they lease, and they have adopted electronic signature technology to do so.

Utilizing the e-signature software DocuSign, the Columbus Center has been able to significantly decrease the time it takes for forms to circulate between signers. Not only has new digital processing reduced the amount of manual data entry required to complete these forms, it has also integrated very well with the Columbus Center’s current procedures.

Using a Google Add-On called Form Publisher, Event Coordinator Chad Nazworth has been able to prepopulate most of the event rental contract with the client’s responses in a Google form. After adding a few more details and verifying that everything is correct, he can then use a Google Add-On for DocuSign that will move the form directly to a template, automatically matching the signing roles and workflow with the names specified by the client. Nazworth can then edit the document and recipients list in a number of ways, such as adding a custom email message for each recipient to help guide them through the signing process.

Once the form is sent, it will arrive in each recipient’s inbox in order, allowing them to review and sign the document with only a few clicks. Meanwhile, Nazworth can track the form as it progresses through the workflow until it arrives at its final destination, eliminating the worry and panic that comes with waiting for important forms right before a deadline. Overall, a process that previously could take weeks can now be finished in mere days, thanks to the versatility of the digital platform and the inventive integration with familiar tools and business practices.

The Columbus Center was even able to get the Maryland Attorney General Office (OAG) on board with e-signatures. According to the Columbus Center’s Director of Administration Suzanne L. Crawford, the OAG was happy to accept a more efficient, eco-friendly process for lease agreements, especially those that need to be updated every year.

With multiple layers of security and authentication, the digital process also generates a complete history of every send, view, print, sign, and decline action and stores it in a certificate, which any participant in the workflow can download and print. This means that e-signatures are both legally binding and enforceable.   

In addition to the time, cost, and security benefits of using e-signatures, there is the empowerment that comes with taking control of the internal workflows of a business or institution and reorienting them to align with the interests of the staff as well as outside clients.

Sometimes change management can be a bit daunting, but Crawford recommends looking at it as an “opportunity to improve the quality of your own work experience as well as that of your peers and clients.” The benefits that business process improvement offers are immense, and digitizing workflow is a very strategic first step.

Tune in next week for more e signature success stories!

More Info:

·      Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group

·      Visit UMBC’s FAQ knowledge base

• 10/4 - Alumni Awards, 6:30 p.m., ceremony; reception immediately following
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An important, yet often overlooked, business practice is to break down and analyze each step of a given process to look for redundancies, bottlenecks, and particularly inefficient or slow procedures in order to improve them, put them back together, and create a more productive system. This practice requires active participation from all parties involved in the workflow as well as strong documentation and attention to detail, as most business processes include a mix of formal and informal procedures that may not adapt well to change.

It is no surprise then that the practice of improving workflow efficiency frequently defers to more urgent, high priority tasks. The Department of Human Resources (HR) here at UMBC has dedicated a great deal of effort to improving many aspects of their workflow as they convert to fully electronic forms. To do so, HR implemented the digital signature platform DocuSign.

Not so long ago, all forms came as paper documents that had to be signed in pen and submitted either in person or by mail. Only in the past few years have we enjoyed the relative convenience of uploading forms as Word Docs and PDFs. Even though the ESIGN Act was passed in 2000, businesses have been slow to adopt electronic signatures as standard procedure. As technology has advanced and the nuances of their legality and security have been resolved, electronic signatures are quickly becoming more ubiquitous. Now, most of the world’s largest technological, pharmaceutical, and financial companies are seeing significant improvements in efficiency and productivity while simultaneously reducing their impact on the environment by using electronic signatures.

However, one difficulty in adopting electronic signature technology is that the system needs to be explicitly taught every detail possible of the workflow in order to automate it. Though the task may seem mundane at first, it actually forces one to step back and reflect on how and why each step of the process in question takes place. This creates the opportunity to alter and enhance the old ways in order to maximize efficiency in the new system. HR is doing just that. From editing the wording of certain documents to altering the sequence of approvers, HR staff has left no stone unturned as they seek to improve the signing experience for both staff and students.

Starting out, the leadership team in Human Resources met to determine which forms would be converted to Docusign and then prioritized each of these forms. Focusing primarily on forms that are time sensitive and those dealt with in high volumes, they made sure to set up regular meetings with all of the stakeholders, including IT developers, department representatives, and subject experts. Director of Payroll Lisa Drouillard, who has been a key player in bringing DocuSign to HR, says, “The thing that has been most successful to facilitate the transition for electronic forms has been to devote time each week to focus on the project and keep the momentum going.”

“It is also important to make sure the right people are included, which often includes DoIT, the functional experts, and campus stakeholders to not only review the existing form process but also the business processes leading into and out of the form to ensure we are improving as much of the process as possible,” Drouillard adds. Ensuring that everyone is kept in the loop as forms are changed, previewed, piloted, and tested gives control to the right people so they can achieve an ideal solution.  

HR continues to work on converting and testing forms, and looks forward to rolling out their Docusign forms beginning in the Fall. Though it is going to take time to roll-out, HR is committed to creating a more efficient online process for not only the HR Department, but also the various stakeholders including the department’s administrative staff and our employee population.

Stay tuned for more success stories as we unveil how other UMBC departments are converting to electronic forms.

More Info:

• Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group
• Visit UMBC's FAQ knowledge base