Best Practices for Adopting Digital Signatures

Piloting Digital Signatures—Start Small

Start with a small use case. This gives your team and your clients time to get used to the process. It also gives you a chance to watch for potential snags and fix them before you scale your project.

"You’re jumping into a new technology, you need to be very careful not to bite off more than your organization can chew," Harris said. "We strongly recommend starting with a limited scope pilot project, specific to one group of users, or one application."

Scaling Digital Signatures—Think Big

After a successful pilot, it’s time to scale your digital signature project to include other documents. Be sure to share your successes with other departments in your company that could benefit from digital signatures.

"Always be thinking about the next step or installment of the pilot," Harris said. "How will you define success and move ahead? What are your key learnings and how can you apply them? And finally, how will all of this come together?"

Client Spotlight—County of San Diego

The County of San Diego is a great example of how to pilot an digital signature project. With 3 million citizens, they have many documents that could benefit from digital signatures. They decided to pilot their digital signature project on their change of address form. They were able to take what was once a 16-step process into a 2-step process. 

The response from constituents was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. 

“We’ve received lots of emails saying, ‘This was a fantastic decision to make it easier to get things like this done online,’” said Rolf Bishop, the chief information officer for San Diego County.

After a successful pilot, the County of San Diego is expanding their digital signature project to include the homeowner’s exemption form—a form the county processes for up to 100,000 residents each year. They expect to save $225,000 per year on postage, printing and filing paper documents with SIGNiX, not including the time savings for both county employees and residents.

Define The Problem

Digital signatures should make your life easier, not harder. So as you plan to implement digital signatures, ask yourself, “What problem am I trying to solve?” This will give your project direction and will help you measure success.

"We see so many clients who come to us with a single problem,'I have this one process that’s causing all sorts of customer support problems. I want to use your solution to make that process electronic,'" Harris said. "But once it’s implemented, a lot of clients forget that there’s a lot more that digital signatures could improve at their organization."

Client Spotlight—Alamo Federal Credit Union

For Alamo Federal Credit Union (AFCU), paperwork was the top frustration for clients and employees. Despite the credit union's best efforts, one step of the loan application process was still a problem—the signature. Busy members and those living out of town often had trouble making the time to come into a branch to sign loan documents.  

“We lost loans that could have been easily closed if we had SIGNiX’s digital signature service sooner,” said Alicia Alvarez, loan manager at AFCU. “We tried faxing paperwork over to them and having them fax signed documents back to us, but the process was still exasperating.” 

AFCU was able to solve this problem by adopting digital signatures. Now members can apply for a loan from any computer or mobile device. 

But AFCU didn't stop there. They combined digital signature technology with face-to-face member relations to create Concierge Banking. With this service, credit union employees meet members at their home, office or a local restaurant to discuss the credit union’s products. Members can apply for a loan on the spot using an iPad and SIGNiX digital signatures. 

Build the Right Team

Adopting digital signatures doesn’t only affect one department in your company—it can impact everyone. That’s why it’s important to get your team on board at the beginning stages of your project.

"You need to find people that, while being honest, are also keen on making sure you and this new solution are going to be successful," Harris said. "You want to get a group of people together that represent the breadth and scope of what you’re trying to accomplish. They have to want to see you succeed, but you don't want people who just sit there and nod their heads. You want advocates who are going to tell you the truth in a constructive way."

Be sure to educate your team about this technology, its benefits and how your digital signature project could impact their job. Adoption should involve people from across the business—from your compliance and legal teams to your clients. After all, a successful pilot in one department can easily translate to success in another department.