Around the world, organisations across all industries are saying goodbye to slow, unsustainable, paper-based business processes and replacing them with fast, simple and environmentally-friendly processes. Here in Australia, government is starting to embrace the benefits of digitalisation, too.
In fact, by July 1, 2022, all NSW State Government agencies must use digital signatures for all government procurements worth over $150,000, according to a recent announcement by the NSW Minister for Digital, Hon. Victor Dominello, MP.
The new mandate – which requires all government agencies to use a workflow solution with digital signature for their major purchases – will apply around 10,000 purchases per year. It has the potential to transform the agreement process for procurement teams and their suppliers, who previously had to seal deals using copious reams of paper.
This replacement of a manual process with digital technologies aligns well with the sentiment in the NSW Productivity Commission’s 2021 White Paper, Rebooting The Economy. A central theme in the paper examines the close link between productivity and prosperity, arguing that productivity growth has fallen in recent years and an urgent ‘productivity reboot’ is required.
Going digital – even if it’s just for one category of procurement, as per Hon. Dominello’s eSignature mandate – is a great step towards freeing up public servants’ time to focus on more productive, value-adding work that ultimately benefits citizens.
Starting small with eSignature
Like any deadline-driven digital transformation, shifting to digital signatures for major procurement contracts can put teams under pressure. The good news? Making the switch to eSignature is actually incredibly easy. You can start small with a proven solution like DocuSign, which can be set up with minimal effort for use on buy.nsw panel contracts.
By starting small, you have the opportunity to test and prove that an eSignature solution streamlines your contract signing process. From there, the sky’s the limit when it comes to automating your manual systems and boosting the productivity and performance of your teams.
What makes a great eSignature solution?
With a number of eSignature solutions in market, how do you find the perfect fit for your organisation? There are five factors to consider when making your selection.
- Easy and convenient signing experience.
This is fundamental. There is no point in going digital if it adds to the burden of getting documents signed and returned. In today’s work-from-anywhere world, your suppliers should be able to sign a contract from wherever they are, and on any device, be it a browser on a laptop or tablet, or a mobile app, and whether triggered via email or SMS.
By delivering straight to the recipient’s device in the format that suits them, you make it as easy as possible for them to sign it – which ensures the contract is signed and returned expeditiously.
Verification of the signer’s identity, if required, should be a straightforward process, too. Whether the solution uses the Australia Post Digital Identity integration, or leverages the newly legislated electronic witnessing, surety of signing party ensures non-repudiation of your contracts.
The convenience factor should extend beyond the signing process. Look for a solution that enables you to easily collect data from within the contract, at any point in the contract’s lifecycle. For example, key details like payment information or personal contact details can be pushed from a contract to other business systems, eliminating the risk of error due to manual rekeying of data. - Simple integration with existing systems
With IT budgets shrinking, teams need to do more with less. The ability to integrate your eSignature solution with existing technology platforms and investments is key. Whether your teams rely on Microsoft Office, SAP, Salesforce or other business platforms, make sure your eSignature solution integrates seamlessly so you can realise value faster.
As well as accelerating time to value, integrations help to eliminate costly and error-prone manual handling and re-keying of data. For example, supplier details can be auto-populated from SAP, contract status can be auto-filled in Sharepoint, and the final form contract and associated schedules can be saved in a Content Manager folder to ensure records are correctly preserved. All this happens automatically, so your employees can focus on the things that matter. - Automation of sending and signing workflows
With 87% of the world’s agreements produced manually, the risk of human error is high. The re-keying of data from various business systems into a contract is laborious, and sending out an email to the incorrect recipient can be damaging to an agency’s reputation.
Contract templates and defined workflows – which are key features of leading eSignature solutions – remove the pressure of manually preparing a contract for signing, and ensure that a contract’s status can easily be monitored through the lifecycle. This is especially the case with bulk contracting, where the same contract or variation is issued to tens or hundreds of parties. Ensuring that the right contract is sent to the right party is cumbersome and fraught with risk, making the process ripe for automation. - Advanced security and compliance controls
Government agencies deal with highly sensitive information, and every technology solution should be carefully scrutinised to ensure it stacks up. As the only eSignature provider assessed under the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s IRAP program as suitable to hold Government information up to and including PROTECTED, DocuSign Agreement Cloud is proven to handle the most sensitive of contracts.
Within DocuSign, every finished contract includes a Certificate of Completion which provides a full audit trail of each signing party’s details. A tamper-evident seal provides proof that the contract is preserved and un-modified from its original form. And, to further assure the security of information, DocuSign’s advanced Monitoring capability provides unparalleled insight into the activities occurring with your eSignature documents. Activities of all signers can be centrally logged, enabling business users and cyber security teams to react to behaviours that occur outside of acceptable thresholds. - Ongoing support
As with any new technology vendor, ask about support. You want to know that the solution you choose comes with helpful, timely support to help you get the most from the investment.
At DocuSign, we are committed to the success of our customers. Our team will help you design, implement and manage your agreement processes from start to finish – whether it’s to simply eSign procurement contracts or to set up an end-to-end integration with an existing system. Whatever you need, we partner with you to realise your vision.
Looking beyond eSignatures
As mentioned above, eSignatures are just the start of what’s possible when it comes to digitalising key workflows and business processes. Beyond the electronic execution of contracts, DocuSign Agreement Cloud enables you to transform the entire agreement lifecycle, from preparing and signing, to acting upon and managing your contracts across their entire lifecycle.
When it comes to procurements over $150,000, for example, eSignatures help with the actual signing. But what about the complex negotiations and preparation, as you and your supplier nut out the specifications, terms and conditions? And, once the deal is sealed, what about the ability to glean useful insights, using powerful AI, from the contract to help shape future deals? A platform like DocuSign Agreement Cloud enables you to do all this, and more.
To find out how DocuSign can help you meet this year’s digital deadline and prepare for whatever the future holds, join the upcoming NSW E-signature mandate webinar on Tuesday 5th April @ 12:30pm AEST.
