Educational Institutions Need to Implement eSignatures
In order to keep up with the ever-changing digital world, educational institutions need to implement eSignatures into their operations. Technology has had a tremendous impact on the education sector, and it’s important for schools and colleges to keep up with the latest trends. Electronic signatures are one of the many ways that institutions can modernize their processes.
Here are three reasons why eSignatures are so important for schools:
- Efficiency: When administration staff is bogged down with paperwork, it can significantly impact their ability to complete other tasks. eSignatures allow you to sign documents and approvals quickly and easily, without the need for a physical signature.
- Security: Documents signed with eSignatures are more secure than those that are not, as they cannot be tampered with or modified.
- Compliance: Many government agencies and organizations require electronic signatures for compliance purposes. Using eSignatures can help your school stay compliant with regulations.
Security wise eSignatures a lot more secure than paper. Paper can get lost, stolen, someone can copy it without someone knowing, and it can easily get damaged resulting in the loss of information. The most secure signature is a Digital Signature. You can learn more about the differences between eSignatures and Digital Signature here.
To be compliant you have to follow certain guidelines and practices that your local governments or industry regulators have set up to ensure the security and safety of the documents and their signatures.
For example, some Canadian educational systems cannot have data that is stored off-site on a server that is located outside of Canada. The data also cannot go outside of Canada’s borders while in transit. This means you have to find an eSignature service like Signority.
Signority guarantees your data stays safe and secure in Canada, both in transit and at rest. This means your student’s data will never travel or reside outside of Canada’s borders.
Now, let's look at efficiency.
When I think of paperwork and schools, as a parent, I think of registration forms and permission slips. Let’s use these as our use case.
Each year you have to confirm the number of students who will be returning as well as register any new students. What are some
of the issues you have probably faced when going through this process.
- A rush of last-minute parents coming in to register their child(ren) the week before school starts.
- Incomplete and missing paperwork with signatures in the wrong place.
- Trying to get the signatures of both parents when they are divorced or separated.
With an eSignature platform you can automate the whole process and ensure that all the information is given where it’s required. Now let’s see what the top 6 features that will help you the most.
- Automated workflow. With the automated workflow feature set who to send the document package to and in what order. Each recipient receives an email notifying them they have a document. You can even set up auto-reminders that go out if someone takes too long to sign.
- Templates. Setting up the school registration forms as templates means you are always ready to go – all you have to do is enter the parent’s name(s) and emails. And if you need to do 2, 20, or 200 at once, use a bulk sign template to send them in less than 5 minutes!
- Multi-document package. One document package can consist of the registration form health forms, the list of required supplies, and the waiver. Just upload whatever files you need in the package one at a time or using bulk select. They can even be different file formats.
- Automated email reminders. Forget having to pick up the phone or send another email. This feature allows you to determine when and how often the parents or school staff and officials will receive an automatic email reminder if they haven’t signed the document yet. This simple nudge encourages them to do their part while saving you time.
- Template Link. Put a registration form on the school website so parents or students can register for an event. You can even put the registration form online for new student registrations.
- Masked Tag: A masked tag will take any information entered into it, encrypt it, and conceal it from everyone in the workflow. This feature is especially useful for a student’s personal information like their health card numbers, student numbers, etc.
Having and using these six features in any eSignature platform can save you and your staff time and increase productivity.
BONUS - you help save the planet
There is one more really big benefit to using eSignatures. Sustainability. How much paper and printer/copier ink do you go through each year? I encourage you to check your budget. I’m sure you will find on the paper side, it’s a lot of trees. Remember, “Today is the opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.” ~ Ken Poirot.
Finally, I would like to ask you to consider the other savings you get along with eSignatures being a green technology. You save time and money.
Consider the time it takes to:
- chase people for the signed documents,
- having someone travel to deliver the document,
- and then filing the document or scanning it back into your system.
Adopting eSignatures into your operations saves an average of $20 per document. Think about that. They save you time, money, and the environment. But don’t take our word for it, see for yourself with this article on Financesonline.com.
If you would like to learn more about eSignatures and the features available that may help you Signority’s tutorial page is a great resource.
And to see how well an eSignature Platform would work for you then I encourage you to take advantage of our free no obligation 2-week trial.
Look for my next blog where I write about Working from Home and eSignatures.
Have a great week everyone
