Imagine a world where citizens have instant access to forms and documents, all at their fingertips. Picture them effortlessly filling, signing, and submitting these vital papers from the comfort of their computers or mobile devices. As if that wasn’t convenient enough, envision these documents intelligently routing themselves to the necessary individuals when additional signatures are required.
But we’re not done yet. Imagine the ability to effortlessly track these documents, send gentle reminders, and generate insightful reports that provide a clear view of which ones are patiently awaiting signatures and which are already complete. This is the vision of a seamless and efficient document management system and E-signature in the government process.
Imagine building end-to-end review and approval processes that let citizens verify their identity and sign anytime, anywhere, while employees sign digitally using pre-issued identity credentials, such IDs as NIN(National Identity Cards) or voter cards.
Electronic signatures are quickly becoming the way agencies get documents signed and deliver services faster. But not all solutions are equal. The best are simple for employees and citizens to use. They integrate with the digital systems you already have in place. And they’re a legal, secure solution for streamlining document signatures. Here are just five of the many reasons to adopt e-signatures now—so you can accelerate your agency’s digital transformation.
Secure Data At Private Sector Speed
Protecting the privacy and security of constituent information is job number one in government, but that doesn’t keep citizens from expecting the same consumer-friendly experiences they see in the private sector. The best e-signature platforms are designed to meet the most rigorous requirements. However, not all solutions are the same. These let you know the solution meets the most demanding security standards.
For instance, Lagos State in Nigeria serves more than 21 million citizens and is home to one of the nation’s fastest-growing tech hubs. The city is on a digital transformation path to modernize operations and improve productivity. The Lagos State Records and Archive Bureau (LASRAB) has been on a path of shifting to the cloud, by adopting a customized EDMS (Electronic Document Management System). The city’s goal is to improve productivity and provide secure and transparent services to citizens and businesses while also keeping crucial records that might be needed for reference purposes.
Significantly, e-signature technology helps you avoid stoppages that can occur when using physical methods for legal approvals of contracts or nondisclosure agreements.
Make your work FLOW.
Electronic signatures speed up government processes. Today, e-signature solutions have evolved to encompass much more than just collecting signatures electronically – they automate the entire operation, from document creation, collaboration, and execution, to archiving and management.
Business leaders say their staff spends more than one-third of their time on administrative tasks. With an automated e-signature solution, you’ll reduce the time employees spend on administrative activities like hunting down and processing documents.
Get internal processes on track.
By moving your agency operations to electronic signatures, you’ll fast-track HR processes such as offer letters, new hire documents, and employee policy acknowledgments. You’ll be able to streamline legal and procurement operations by automating the process for nondisclosure agreements, vendor contracts, and confidential business-to-business agreements. Just as in candidate recruiting, e-signature solutions can play a helpful role in onboarding, keeping the entire process of hiring employees as quick and frictionless as possible.
The State of Hawaii at 28,311 square kilometers is similar in size to Oyo state (28,454 square kilometers). Newly hired government employees, who once spent two hours filling out onboarding paperwork on their first day, can complete online forms at home before ever setting foot in the office. First-day employee onboarding now takes the HR department just 20 minutes.
Sign and Send Documents in No Time
E-signature platforms offer simple, intuitive processes that won’t slow you down. Your employees can work with web and mobile apps, or you can add signing workflows to the tools they use every day so there’s nothing new to learn and no special software required.
No matter where you’re doing business, electronic signature solutions can make preparing and sending a document a simple, fluid process. It’s easy to specify which documents and participants to include, prefill form fields, or include instructions for the recipient. You can create reusable workflow templates to help ensure repeatable, error-free results—preventing common mistakes, such as missing a required signature or using an outdated document.
Workers can quickly prepare new documents for e-signing or approval, and you can add signatures as needed. It’s easy to post them to public or internal websites for self-serve access by citizens or employees. Or workers can send them directly to one or more recipients, and let people sign. You can track the status of any document in real time—set your preferences to get notifications when people sign or to automatically send out reminders when they don’t
International Fortune 500 company NetApp uses e-signatures for its nondisclosure agreements (NDAs). Rather than waiting for the legal department to issue each NDA separately, sales representatives can now use their e-signature platform to instantly route the NDA and have it signed by the client from any tablet or laptop device. NDA templates are already preapproved by NetApp’s legal team and comply with legal requirements for different regions, allowing sales representatives to simply choose the appropriate template.
Maintain your momentum with E-signatures
Today. The Nigerian Evidence Act 2011 recognizes the use of electronic signatures. Section 93(2) and (3) thereof recognize e-signatures and provide that where a rule of evidence requires a signature or provides for certain consequences if a document is not signed, then an electronic signature is permissible.
Section 17 of Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention) Act, 2015 also recognizes the use of electronic signatures in Nigeria, They are court-admissible & safe for general business use such as the purchase of goods & any other business transaction, including, employment contracts, NDA, Privacy Notices, commercial agreements, consumer agreements, shall be binding contrary to concerns about security, e-signatures offer robust encryption and authentication mechanisms that ensure the integrity and security of digitally signed documents. These, and other laws like them around the world, recognize electronic signatures and make them legal and enforceable in a court of law as long as the processes are designed and implemented by a few specific requirements. Today’s best e-signature systems are designed to meet these requirements.
Final Thoughts
To truly modernize government services, it’s time to remove the last remaining roadblocks from your workflow and fire on all cylinders with electronic signatures. Adopting electronic signatures in your workflow means making government service delivery quicker and easier for everyone. It means speedy, seamless, streamlined signing processes that delight citizens and employees alike.