Make Your Local Government A Lean, Green, Constituent-Centric Machine Best Practices for Local Government Entities WEBINAR SUMMARY
Make Your Local Government A Lean, Green, Constituent-Centric Machine Best Practices for Local Government Entities Presented by Sharon Hayes, Director of Public Sector, DocuSign, IT Manager, Application Services, County of Alameda WEBINAR SUMMARY Overview DocuSign is the fastest, most secure way to make every decision and approval digital, so you can keep life and business moving forward. DocuSign is the recognized market leader, including in the public sector where DocuSign supports hundreds of federal, state, and local government customers. U.S. federal and state laws enable all levels of government, including at the county and other local levels, to realize the many benefits of e-signatures and related improvements in digital document workflow, security, access, mobility, execution speed, and management. DocuSign s core services include preparation, execution, and management of e-signature documents, as well as reporting and compliance, built on a strong trust foundation. Alameda County, California is using DocuSign in multiple ways including streamlining the documentation and signatures for the County s deferred compensation program, digitizing the documents and managing the workflow for hiring new employees in the County s healthcare and social services agencies, and simplifying the County s document flow in leasing polling locations for elections. In all cases, DocuSign is helping Alameda County achieve key objectives such as reducing the use of paper, speeding processes, improving tracking and visibility, and improving ease of use. Context Sharon Hayes described how DocuSign supports best practices at the local government level. presented examples of how Alameda County has successfully piloted several green projects with DocuSign to reduce paperwork and increase efficiency in County health care, voter lease cards, and the deferred compensation program. Key Takeaways DocuSign is the fastest, most secure way to make every decision and approval digital, so you can keep life and business moving forward. DocuSign invented cloud-based e-signatures in 2003 and has spent over a decade innovating so that business and governmental document workflows can go digital. Today, DocuSign is available in 43 languages, used in 188 countries, and has over 100,000 customers. Over 50,000 new individual users join DocuSign daily, executing over one million transactions each day. DocuSign is number one with industry analysts like Forrester and Gartner. DocuSign isn t just for business; it is also for government. DocuSign started in real estate, and then expanded to insurance and health care. Today, DocuSign is the leader across these industries: 11 of the top 15 insurance carriers are customers, as are 10 of the top 15 wealth management firms. This trend holds in technology, communications, automotive, beverages, and financial services. DocuSign is also in widespread use by government agencies. For example, the IRS uses DocuSign on its 4506-T income verification form; each year 25 million are submitted. DocuSign features enable digital workflows in the government. DocuSign understands that government agencies have multiple requirements they must adhere to. E-signatures are the core of the service, but DocuSign provides customers with a comprehensive solution, including preparation, execution, and management of digital document workflow. DocuSign, Inc., 2015 2
E-signatures are the hub of our platform, but we re much more than e-signatures. Sharon Hayes Since it is Software as a Solution (SaaS), DocuSign s Platform lives in the cloud. Using this platform does not require dedicated IT staff, hardware, updates, or IT management. DocuSign can be rolled out for a single pilot or can support a significant digital workflow without hiring new staff. Core Service: Preparation DocuSign s Platform helps with preparation of: Documents: DocuSign helps users manage documents by pulling documents from multiple sources, including DocuSign templates, and provides fillable fields, required fields, radio boxes, dropdowns, attachments, and more. Data: Forms are used to collect data, and data can then be extracted and used as needed. Workflow: With many approvals and signers required in government, preparing workflow is extremely important. Core Service: Execution DocuSign gives government entities the ability to execute through: Authentication of both the signer and document, and with multiple authentication levels to match the relevant risk. Electronic signatures: This includes in-person and offline signing, as well as guided signing, with services that provide users the ability to see where they are in the process. DocuSign documents and e-signatures are legally binding, enforceable, and auditable, in compliance with relevant laws. Secure API: DocuSign supports REST and SOAP API calls, enabling secure integration across the widest possible range of both new and legacy data systems. Core Service: Management DocuSign supports digital document management: Reporting: DocuSign workflow support enables a team to know and report on where a document is in the flow. The Personal Document Dashboard reports the status of documents. Push notifications: These let users know, on their mobile phone, for example, when a document needs to be signed. Compliance: DocuSign creates and preserves a detailed audit trail. Retention: DocuSign stores documents in secure facilities. These core services are built on a foundation of Trust. Customers trust the DocuSign platform because it is available, secure, configurable, enforceable, global, and open. Other reasons for trust include: Carrier-grade availability. DocuSign has five nines of availability, with data replicated across data centers, so the service is always on. Bank-grade security. DocuSign documents are hashed and encrypted, so the client determines who has access to what; DocuSign can t see your documents, and neither can anyone else unless they are authorized. DocuSign has mobile apps that let you transact digitally anywhere, any time, on any device. Extremely important today is having mobile capabilities. Recognizing this, DocuSign has a mobile app line that gives users access via mobile to the same functionality including preparing documents, executing e-signatures, and managing the entire process. For users accessing these mobile capabilities, they have one account where all activity is synchronized. DocuSign, Inc., 2015 3
Among these goals, reducing the use of paper was extremely important. Alameda County wanted to be a green leader in California, reducing its carbon footprint. Paper reduction was a huge part of that. DocuSign supported Alameda County s achievement of these goals, particularly use of e-signatures to reduce use of paper. In addition, DocuSign supports all mobile and tablet platforms, including out-of-the box integrations with Microsoft, Google, and Apple. Alameda County is using DocuSign to help it achieve multiple goals. Alameda County is a large, sprawling, complicated county. It has a population of 1.5 million people, 20 cities, 21 agencies and departments, more than 9,000 county employees, and a budget of $2.4 billion. Service sectors include health care, social services, sheriff, probation, public defender, district attorney, and general government programs such as public works. Alameda County had many goals involving documents, all focused on improving the effectiveness and efficiency of county government. These goals included: Reducing use of paper Enabling remote signing for department heads and managers Speeding business processes Tracking documents in process Enabling non-technical users to easily create document workflows Improving online forms for employees and the public, with built-in workflows Ensuring incomplete forms could not be submitted Making processes completely digital We wanted something easy, something that departments could use on their own without necessarily engaging the IT department to get it done. DocuSign fit in that the primary goal was to reduce the county s use of paper. Several use cases illustrate ways that DocuSign helped Alameda County solve problems. Through the use cases on the following pages and other experiences with DocuSign, Alameda County received an extremely positive reaction from users and learned several important lessons. These include: even when a solution is well received, change is complicated, will be resisted by some, and change management is critical. In addition, in government, attorneys are often involved, which will delay acceptance. Get them involved early. Key Benefits of DocuSign Meets federal and state requirements Easy to use Saves time and trees; eliminates the paper chase Strong encryption and access control Complete audit trail Supports diverse workflows and business processes Supports local document storage No application to download or maintain Widespread mobile platform support No developer costs DocuSign, Inc., 2015 4
Case Study: Deferred Compensation Situation: Participants in Alameda County s deferred compensation program have had to go online, download, print, fill out, sign, and then send in 12 different paper forms to be enrolled in this program or update their status. This process was onerous. In addition, key elements of the program are administered by a third party, Prudential, which wants forms delivered via fax. Solution: Alameda County built a small, simple, front-end client-facing application that validates the user and their personal information, allows the program participant to indicate how much they want to contribute to the deferred compensation plan, and allows participants to submit this information to the County. This application is integrated with DocuSign. At the time of submission, participants get a request for e-signature consent, are able to review all of their information, and sign the forms using DocuSign, completing the process. Based on workflow that has been established, the signed documents are automatically routed to the appropriate locations at the County for review and approval, and are then automatically faxed to Prudential via DocuSign s API. The departments really love that you cannot sign and submit the form until you have filled out everything. Results: This process is simpler, easier, and faster for program participants. It is easier for Alameda County to administer, saving time and improving visibility; and it reduces the use of paper. Case Study: Hiring in Health Care and Social Services Situation: The Alameda Health Care and Social Services departments are large agencies, with 1,300 and 2,100 employees respectively, and often more than 500 new hires per year. The hiring process is complicated, in some cases entailing 15 layers of approval, each requiring a signature. The hiring process, which produced large amounts of paper, was often slow and at times approvals were lost. These agencies wanted a digitized, paperless solution that expedited execution and enabled better tracking. The County also wanted to automate the workflow, recognizing that depending on the hire, there are a variety of workflows to support. Now anybody can log in... and see exactly in the workflow how far it s progressed and whose queue it s currently in to be approved. Solution: Alameda County again built a simple, front-end online form for applicants to provide necessary information, including the job for which they were applying. Using DocuSign s customizable workflow platform, employees now can enter a few key details, and the back-end logic determines and initiates the specific workflow for that type of hire. Results: This solution improves speed and provides complete visibility in that it is possible to see where documents are in the review and approval process (which was previously lacking). DocuSign, Inc., 2015 5
Case Study: Leasing of Voting Locations Situation: For each election in Alameda County, the County leases about 900 polling locations for just a few days. But each lease agreement is a type of contract that requires signatures. Historically, this has been a slow, manual, paper-based process, with each lease printed and mailed out for signature, and then mailed back to the County. Execution and tracking was a headache. Solution: By using the DocuSign platform, Alameda County is able to automatically send leases via email to all 900 polling locations. Each lease is pre-populated with relevant data directly from the County database, and the lessors are able to update the information, sign the lease electronically, and return it electronically. Results: This automated process using DocuSign has made the lease signing process much faster (from 21 to 4 days), more accurate, and more visible, and has dramatically reduced the amount of paper used. DocuSign is changing how business gets done by empowering federal, state and local governments and their constituents to sign, send and manage documents anytime, anywhere, on any device with confidence. DocuSign replaces printing, faxing, scanning and overnighting documents with the easiest, fastest, most trusted way to make every approval and decision digital. Organizations of all sizes are accelerating contracts, approvals and workflows with DocuSign s Digital Transaction Management (DTM) platform and esignature solution. DocuSign keeps life and government moving forward. For U.S. inquiries: toll free 866.219.4318 docusign.com For EMEA inquiries: phone +44 203 714 4800 emea@docusign.com docusign.co.uk For APAC inquiries: phone +1 800 255 982 docusign.com.au For LATAM inquiries: phone +55 11 3330 1000 docyousign.com.br DocuSign, Inc., 2015 DocuSign, Inc., 2015 6