Adding an electronic signature offering is critical to modernizing your agency’s digital services; however, complexity, uncertainty, and frustration are added by doing so.
But by taking the next step of adding intelligent interoperability with your permitting, licensing, and other systems of record, you deliver world-class service to your staff and citizens while saving time and money and increasing efficiency and customer satisfaction.
There's a Clear Need for Electronic Signatures for Government Services
According to a recent survey, more than 63 percent of Americans want government agencies to provide more e-signature support. And with the new normal of social distancing and contactless services, conventional signature systems with pen and paper are ineffective and, instead, must be digital. When your department has permits, licenses, and other documents requiring signatures from citizens and staff, the need to add e-signatures is clear to fully serve remotely while ensuring authentication, non-repudiation, and data integrity of signatures.
The Challenge of Stand-Alone Signature Solutions
While adding an electronic signature solution is an apparent necessity and a quick win, bringing that on alone introduces added complexity, manual steps, and uncertainty in process and status for both citizens and staff.
Using an e-signature solution disconnected requires staff to download documents from the system of record system to upload them to the e-signature service. Then they must set the document fields such as date, title, name, and signature for completion, assign the various people required to sign, and finally submit the document for the signature process. And, of course, once notified of the completed process, staff must download the final document from the e-signature service, upload it to the system of record, and then update appropriate fields and workflows. And all the while working outside of the permitting system, leaving all others in the dark regarding the process and status. The great news is citizens and staff can sign documents remotely. The bad news is things just got more complex, and everyone is frustrated.
The Rewards of Intelligent Integration
According to GovTech Review, ‘An e-signature solution should integrate into existing core systems…’; everything changes with intelligent integrations. By connecting your system of record to your e-signature solution, your staff and citizens are delighted by the seamless integration of the e-signature process into your Government Services workflows and the elimination of manual tasks with automated e-signature documents, updates and routing, and system of record updates. Everyone has clarity of process and current status, and overall speed and efficiencies have increased dramatically.
A Real-World Example with Macomb County
Macomb County Public Works selected DocuSign for electronic signatures of their Drain and Soil permits, driven by the slow and cumbersome traditional approach of print-sign-scan and the new norm of touchless services. And while the County has been using the Accela Civic Platform since 2004, the initial rollout of DocuSign did not include integration.
When initially offering e-signatures as part of their digital services, the County found that the process was decoupled from their permitting process, leaving staff and citizens in the dark regarding status and process, leading to frustration and dissatisfaction. In addition, numerous manual steps were added that compounded the frustration and increased the processing time.
Then the County added the Velosimo no-code intelligent integration for DocuSign with Accela, and their permit turn-around time went from weeks to minutes. ‘This has saved us a lot of time…citizens as well… because it only takes a few minutes to send and receive a signed permit back’, said Jessica Hicks of Macomb County, and ‘There is no more confusion of where we are in the process.
Watch the short video from the Accela Accelarate Conference session Sign Here No Longer Includes Pen and Paper, where Jessica Hicks and Thida McBratnie walk us thru how the County delighted staff and citizens with a connected experience, saved time and money and increased efficiency with the winning trifecta of Docusign, Accela, and Velosimo.
Act Now and Enjoy the Benefits of Intelligent Interoperability
Automate the process end-to-end with e-signature steps woven seamlessly into your Government services processes via the Velosimo no-code integration connector. Hassle-free and straightforward same-day setup, easy-to-use console to manage changes, worry-free with a self-healing platform, and deep insights into all transactions across your agency.
