In our personal lives, we all know the irritation of filling out paper forms — from the doctor’s office to the DMV, job applications to contracts. As a business professional dealing with that paper form, you face a slow process with potential for data errors. To say nothing about capturing the wet ink signature for that form.
For education and government, the struggle is real. Forms abound in areas like human resources, payroll, finance, and student services. Though leaders and staff alike, loathe the dependency on paper forms, change can be scary and perceived as difficult.
Central Carolina Community College started its process automation efforts in the back office. Payroll, purchasing, accounts payable, and human resources led the way to adopt Softdocs eForms and Softdocs eSignatures.
“We were really nervous, because nobody likes change, and this was a pretty major culture shift, moving from paper to electronic,” said MontE Christman, Executive Director of Information Technology at Central Carolina. “We were bracing for harsh impact, just because of the size of the change. But it was almost all positive. People were very pleased, which is why we continue to have so many requests for more forms. I was pleasantly surprised.”
Fulfilling those requests is now even easier with Softdocs Library. The Softdocs Library gives users access to pre-built forms and professionally designed templates they can personalize.
e-Forms: Change For the Better
Electronic forms are nothing new. You can easily collect needed information from web pages, mobile devices, portals, and apps. But their adoption in education and government entities has lagged, until now.
More organizations are realizing the relative ease and long-term benefits of transitioning from paper forms to paperless e-forms. Everyday business and student activities become significantly more straightforward, faster, and more accurate.
At Central Carolina, the Financial Aid department has fully embraced e-forms.
“We have around 120 forms for Financial Aid. That’s our biggest group by far,” said Christman. “Most of them are student forms. A handful are parent forms where the parent will sign in with either a Google or Microsoft account and fill it out. They can search for and send the form on to their child or dependent with minimal information. The form goes to the student to complete and finally, to the Financial Aid office for processing. It’s a good way to get parental forms signed without the headache of having to deal with mailing paper forms and requiring wet signatures.”
By integrating the Softdocs Platform to your ERP or SIS applications, you can simplify form filling. Integration enables the systems to fill in common form fields automatically. This reduces human error and creates a smoother experience for users. It also means less rework for your staff.
Stop Chasing Down Signatures
Several forms-driven processes that require multiple signatures from applicants, approvers, guardians or stakeholders. One major delay in finishing tasks like financial aid applications and grade changes is the time spent getting signatures.
With electronic signatures, you have an efficient and legal way to get electronic forms and documents authorized quickly. eSignatures have been legally binding since the United States Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) was passed. ESIGN guarantees that e-signatures are legally valid in every state.
The technology used to capture signatures must fulfill three requirements:
- Intent to sign
- Consent to do business electronically
- Record retention
With its single sign-on (SSO) functionality, the Softdocs Platform allows user login credentials to provide secure access to submit, review, or approve forms and documents. Meanwhile, user-assigned privileges and a detailed, auditable history ensure that e-signatures comply with ESIGN and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA.)
Softdocs SSO provides compliant and automatic authorization. “Having single sign-on through our student portal has helped us change our electronic signature policy,” said Cheryl Evans, Technology Specialist at Rockingham Community College. “On the bottom of every form, there’s a box you must check. By checking the box, you acknowledge that it is your electronic signature.”
With this extra layer of security, staff can trust who is submitting forms or documents. They can feel secure knowing there is an automated record and audit trail of all actions.
Empower Next-Level Productivity
Once electronic forms are in place, true process automation begins. Rockingham Community College uses Softdocs-enabled dashboards to help student services staff process forms and applications more efficiently.
“With dashboards, the admissions, records, and financial aid staff work from a shared view when forms come in,” said Evans. “Forms aren’t routed to a particular person. Instead someone can simply work the next form from the updated list, so two people don’t start working on the same form. If I pick up a form, I put my initials beside it, so the next person sees that and picks up the next form.”
Automated routing makes for huge time-savings compared to walking paper documents from here to there and back again. Not to mention the impact on follow-up communications. E-forms allow for automatic status updates and email responses to save staff time and keep everyone in the know.
