Electronic Signatures

Regenerations Property Section improves customer experience and increases efficiency.

Property Section implements ‘Electronic Signatures’ to deliver reduced costs, improved efficiency and the improvement of customer experience.

Who are the Regeneration Property Section?

The Property Section are responsible for the management of the councils non housing tenancies. A key aspect of their work is to manage the letting of Industrial and Commercial units, Offices and Retail spaces across the county. The team directly manage the standard periodic tenancy agreements for these lettings, these are legal documents which are delegated to the department to manage and form the contract between the council and the tenant.

What was the issue?

The Tenancy agreements have to be correctly signed by all parties before they are binding and the letting can commence. This requires a single document to be passed between all the tenants partaking in the lease, to allow them to sign the document before it is sent to the Head of service who signs on behalf of the council. Due to high level of documents being signed incorrectly when they were sent by post the department must arrange for an officer to meet with each tenant in person to over see the signing. This requires several hours of officer time for each signature required. The need to arrange meetings at mutually convenient times often prolongs the process and it can take several weeks from agreeing a lease in principle to a tenant being able to take possession of the keys and commence business.

What have they done?

The team have taken advantage of a new tool available within the council to facilitate the digital signing of legal documents, Docusign.
With Docusign a lease can be generated and sent to the client electronically in a matter of minutes. The system clearly identifies how and where the client needs to sign preventing issues of mis-signing and reducing failure demand. The client can sign the document on any suitable device wherever they are. If there are multiple signatures required, the details of all signatories and the required order of signing can be entered into the system. The document is then automatically forwarded to all the relevant parties, with a clear audit trail, without any further intervention required by the team. Anyone in the team can quickly track the documents progress and respond to customer queries. Once the signatures are completed the document is legally binding, everyone automatically gets a copy of the lease and its filed electronically in the asset management system. The time taken to complete leases has been reduced from days/weeks to hours, supporting the customer and the council alike in maximising income generation opportunities.

Results

Costs saved and avoided:
           • Staff time
           • Printing costs
           • Travel expenses
Improved Customer Experience
Improved Business Continuity

Conclusion:
‘It’s been really good, its easy to use and saves us so much time we definitely wouldn’t go back, the costs of the system are covered by the saving in time, it is definitely worth it.’ Sonia Qualters-Jones, Facilities Manager, Property Team

Any department currently signing hard copy documents should explore the options available for electronic signatures.

For many agreements and records, an electronic signature is sufficient. A digital signature is a subset of electronic signatures that adds another layer of security to a signed document. A digital signature is supported with a digital certificate, which adds proof of signatory’s identity and enhances security to a legally enforceable signature.

DocuSign
• An approved system suitable for digitally creating, signing, sending and sealing of forms, contracts and legal documents. The system is web based ‘Software as a Service’ so there is a revenue costs to the use of this system. However, savings made from using the platform will cover the costs involved.

Adobe
• Using Adobe you can place an electronic signature into a document which doesn’t need the approved security of DocuSign but still needs to be secured without amendments. You can use this to capture a copy of a physical signature digitally, for example signing in on a tablet to create a register of attendance at an event. This system is free to use.

Email approval
• For certain processes Audit have approved the use of email as authorisation. This can be used when raising a purchase order for example.

Electronic approval

• Microsoft Approvals is a secure method of managing approvals electronically. The system produces a clear audit trail allowing requests to be digitally approved or declined quickly and easily with outcome notification for all parties.

It may be hard to see how E Signatures can work for your department and we recognise each departments needs will be different. The Customers and digital transformation Workstream can work with you to support reviewing your processes and working out the best solutions for you. To start exploring your paperless options please contact us

Department managers should contact Mark Howard, Senior Transformation and Change Officer  for a demonstration or you can contact the Transformation team via our webform to let us know where you think a digital signature could be used in your processes