The path of electronic signatures and security alarm companies came to a head this past year. Both industries seemed to discover each other’s unique position, services and needs at the same time which led to a very interesting period of discovery. A few security alarm companies who were “early adopters” really set the tone and were able to see some great benefits and improvements from implementing electronic signatures.

Raising the level of comfort with new processes is always a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t smooth all the time, but after diligently working with funding sources, business and technical teams, we were able to help our clients put some really cool applications in place. So in turn I’d like to underscore two recent examples that led to some really awesome results.

Example 1: A leading company’s electronic adoption rate was held up due to major funding source only accepting 10% of documents to be signed electronically.

eO Assistance: Stepping in to assist our client with this particular funding source we helped to provide all information and access to vet our processes and system, they became extremely comfortable with the level of control SmarSign provides.

Result: They are now having over 50% of their contracts signed electronically and have plans to move toward a complete paperless process. This is not only helping them to increase revenues to become more profitable, but it is also saving them money on shipping, re-contracting, and storage costs.

Example 2: Paper contracts everywhere. Keeping track of all your paper documents is resource intensive. Referencing, finding, and filing all those docs cost employees valuable time.

eO Assistance: Paper-In is a process that allows you to convert signed paper documents to Electronic Originals that still keep their value. Also our Trusted Repository’s transaction management solutions allow you to search by date range, status, or a variety of other unique identifiers.

With all signs pointing to more companies implementing solutions in the cloud in 2012 to support company goals, it’s a sure fire bet that electronic signatures are going to play a major role.

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I have spent a considerable amount of time working with and speaking to Security Alarm companies, Industry Experts and Funders on the benefits, compliance and best practices of electronic signatures. For what is historically a paper-based industry when it comes to handling business processes, contracts, and internal documents, eOriginal has had the opportunity and pleasure to work with a few innovative Security Alarm Companies to help them to streamline their business processes using SmartSign, our electronic signature and life-cycle management solution.

Today, many other Security Alarm Companies have taken the initiative to begin looking into the benefits of electronic signatures. While more and more companies are looking into eSignatures, there seems to be a few common questions and concerns. While most perceived barriers can be easily overcome, security alarm companies and funders should take into consideration a few key points when evaluating and implementing electronic signatures such as:

• How to present FTC regulated Consumer Disclosures.
• Will your Funders (Banks) approve of the process?
• Will going electronic affect your RMR?
• Will other companies be able to purchase or acquire my contracts?

These are just a few areas of interest that need to be addressed. Now the benefits are apparent; other than saving time and money, your organization will have a few important advantages over your competition.

• Have contracts, lease agreements, installation forms, signed and processed in minutes
• Easily facilitate contract renewals, especially in states outlawing the evergreen clause
• Reduce labor and material costs associated with printing, faxing, scanning, shipping, and archiving

In just a few short days eOriginal, along with industry leaders, will be addressing the most common questions and concerns in a 60-minute educational webinar. What we hope to accomplish is to simply bring a better understanding to how electronic processes can replace aging paper-based systems. If you are interested, please don’t hesitate to register or contact us to learn more about the webinar or our experience with security alarm companies.

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As business are becoming more mobile and fluid, employees are relying on smart-phones to do more than coordinate their emails. Smart-phones are a life-line or  hub of information for most businesses today so it only makes sense for the use of SMS (Short Message Service) text message notifications as a means of signer authentication. With eOriginal SmartSign, SMS/text ID verification can be applied in two separate methods for an added level of security:

• sending the signer’s Security Code for login
• a secondary authentication generated by a one-time system generated PIN which provides an additional layer authentication for signers

SmartSign’s flexibility allows businesses to leverage smart-phones to take your business to the next level of efficiency by not only authenticating users but also following through and allowing users to sign agreement using those ever important iPhones, blackberrys, Android, etc.  Please take the time to view the following video which walks the SmartSign administrator through the setup process and how the signer interacts during the SMS text process.

SMS Authentication Process

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Remote signing of transactions can be a challenge, especially when you don’t have an established relationship with the third party.  How do you know they really are who they say they are?  SmartSign offers a variety of authentication options to provide a higher level of confidence that the intended recipient is the actual signer.

• A Security code may be enabled to act as a password on the transaction.  Define a security code for each signer on the transaction.  Communicate the security code to the signer either verbally, via Email, or SMS (a.k.a. text message) notification.  The signer must correctly enter this security code to access the transaction.

• An Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)/Patriot Act compliance check may be enabled for any individual signer, verifying the signer has not been flagged as a risk by OFAC.

• An identity verification exam may be enabled for any individual signer.  The signer will be prompted to answer several “out-of-wallet” questions about himself.  The signer must correctly answer a pre-defined number of questions before gaining access to the transaction.  A report of the questions presented, information provided, and score may be retained.

• A one-time-use PIN may be enabled for any individual signer.  Provide a cell phone number for the signer (or allow the signer to provide it themselves) and the signer will receive text message with a one-time-use PIN.  The signer must correctly enter the PIN to gain access to the transaction.  Use of the one-time-use PIN authentication facilitates two-factor authentication, combining something the signer knows (the link to the signing room) with something they have (the physical device which is assigned to the cell phone number receiving the SMS notification).

The authentication method used to access the transaction is recorded in the sealed audit trail for the transaction documents along with supporting details (e.g. cell phone number, PIN).  These authentication options may be used independently or together, allowing you to define the optimal authentication solution for your organization.

For further information on SmartSign authentication options, please contact eOriginal Customer Support.

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eOriginal clients have the ability to link their Google account to their eOriginal login in order to import Google documents during the transaction creation in SmartSign Web.

Tying these accounts allows you to add a Google document(s) when the document is not part of an existing document type or you don’t have excess to your network. For those times when you are away from the office and you need a document electronically signed,  this is the solution you have been waiting for.

Here are the steps to link your Google account to your eOriginal login (SmartSign Web)

• Login – Administration – User Settings – Google Account – use link to access and grant access
• Google – grant access and create document library

That’s it!  Now you have the choice of accessing those Google documents during the document creation process.

Please take the time to view this short video on granting access to your Google account and how to upload those documents in SmartSign Web.

Google_Docs

The process is seamless and the advantages are endless.

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eOriginal clients commonly use the Transaction ID or Status values to search for a transaction(s).  Transaction External References (1-3 ) are fields that can be customized to meet your organization’s business needs.

The benefit of customizing these labels allows your users yet another way to search for or batch processing needs.

Transaction Labels are the headings that appear above the Transaction list to the on the Command Center – Workspace page (see example below).

These same labels are also used to describe transactions in the SmartSign application.

Transaction Labels’ names can be updated in the Command Center Administration area.  (See Settings – Transaction Labels).

Smart Sign Web clients can coordinate the labels values by accessing the Setup Application tab under Administration – System Account.

After the values have been updated there is now an updated tool to meet your business needs.

Take some time to view a brief presentation on how eOriginal’s Transaction Labels can help your organization improve your management of Electronic Original transactions and documents.

Click_Here for Demo_on_Transaction_Labels_Video

After viewing the presentation use the Back Page Icon to return to eOriginal’s Blog Page.

For further information, please watch this quick tutorial or contact eOriginal Support (support@eoriginal.com).

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One of the benefits of using eOriginal is the ability for documents to be marked as eSigned and secured in the eCore vault. What about those signed paper documents?
Can those documents be converted from a signed paper original to a secure Electronic Original® Document?

eOriginal now introduces a Paper In process that allows our customers to accomplish this goal. Paper In is a controlled action that enables you to convert a paper original to an Electronic Original Document (Authoritative Copy). The document, once the process is complete, will contain the electronic signature of the user you designated to confirm the destruction of the paper original.

The Paper In process is an asynchronous process involving the following steps:

• the document is converted to an electronic document (typically through a scanning process)

• the electronic document is uploaded to the eCore vault in a locked status

• the source paper and its copies are destroyed

• the destruction is confirmed through the Paper In approval.

This process requires specific eCore configurations and your overall process should be reviewed with an eOriginal support representative prior to attempting any Paper In.

Take some time to view a presentation on how eOriginal’s Paper In process can help your organization convert paper originals to Electronic Original documents.

Click to view a brief presentation of eOriginal’s Paper In Process

After viewing the presentation use the Back Page Icon to return to eOriginal’s Blog Page.

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We all know how important it is to make every customer feel like they are your most important customer.  One great way to do this is to customize each signers experience so that each signer not only experiences exactly what they need to see and do, but they do and see it in the manor you want them to do it.

No matter how simple or complex your companies workflow (or each signers workflow) is eOriginal SmartSign can easily and effortlessly help you brand each workflow for you businesses’ needs. SmartSign Web has always allowed your organize to brand and customize the signing experience your signers see. Now SmartSign allows you to take it one step further. With eOriginal Transaction Types and eOriginal Role Based branding options, you may simply group like documents for your online repository into one grouping. This grouping allows you to set the default order each document will be shown to your signers, as well as which documents are required or optional by default.

SmartSign then takes this one step further to allow you to customize any and all branding and workflow options to that specific Transaction Type and even each specific signer.

• If you want one logo and set of colors for Transaction Type A and another logo and set of colors for Transaction Type B, that is easy as a click of the mouse.
• If you have a set of four documents and want to show documents 1 and 2 to Signer A, but documents 2 and 4 to Signer Two, just as easy.
• If you want notification emails to go to different distribution lists or want to use SmartSign’s push service to update different system based on the Transaction Type, even easier.
• If you want each set of customizable instructions to be different for each signer, because you just customized the documents each signer would see…you guessed it, simple as pie.

With SmartSign’s interactive dashboard you may quickly and easily create a transaction with any of your Transaction Types with just 1 click! If you would like to learn more about the use of SmartSign’s Transaction Types, Role Based Sort Order, and/or any other branding options please contact your customer support representative.

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Clients that use the SmartSign Web application to create transaction are always looking for a way to cut down the number to steps it takes their employees to create the document(s) for e-signing.

Transaction Types are a great tool in cutting down the time to create a transaction and ensure the right document(s) and signature action are used for each. Transaction Types allow the user to pre-define document packages.  Then by choosing the Transaction Type in the SmartSign Web application, the user can create the entire document package in one single step.

The signature action on these documents can vary from needs a signature, must be reviewed, user must attach a document or user must print for wet-ink signature.

How to setup Transaction Types:

• Command Center – Administration – Settings
  • Document Types – create the Document Type and update all necessary field(s)
    • Note – if a signature template is needed for the Document Type first create the Document Type then in the SmartSign application create the signature template and save it against the Document Type previously created. This also updates the Command Center Document Type with the signature template.
  • Transaction Types – create the Transaction Type and drag desired Document Types under the ‘Include These Documents’ heading.



To create a transaction using a Transaction Type use the ‘Create a new transaction of type’ dropdown to choose that Transaction Type value.

For more information on eOriginal Command Center and SmartSign Web application please contact us anytime.

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SmartSign offers a number of methods for keeping track of your signer’s activities. The integrated Signature Tracker allows you to search for pending, in process and completed transactions in an ad hoc fashion, and to filter the results by date, status and other parameters. In another issue I’ll go into more detail on that, but this week I’ll talk about Email Notifications.

To enable email notifications, you need to be assigned a SmartSign administrator permission. If you do not see Branding Options under the Administration drop down menu, contact your company’s administrator or our support team. If you have access to the Branding Options page, click on the Workflow tab. Under the Email Notifications section, you will see a link to “Add a New Notification Rule For:” [action]. The list of actions includes when a signer enters, withdraws, completes signing, etc. Select your desired action and click the link.

The notification dialog pops up and allows you to define your recipients. You can address the notification email to specific email addresses or distribution groups. You can also tell SmartSign to copy the sender of the original signature invitation. Additional users can be copied or blind copied, depending on your business rules.

Some actions allow you to also include attachments, such as copies of the documents and a detailed history report. Attachments always come in Adobe PDF format. The history report includes all the user events recorded on the document, plus detailed signature information if the user has completed the signing process.

Click Save and you are done. Your new email notification rule will fire automatically the next time your configured event is triggered within SmartSign.

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