An organisation as large as NUS deals with many contracts and various types of agreements. In April 2020, an e-signature solution DocuSign, which offers a cloud platform to sign agreements electronically was rolled out to transform the process of managing contracts for the University. DocuSign has reduced approval time for common processes at NUS considerably, allowing simultaneous e-approval anytime, anywhere and on any device.
Before DocuSign was launched, the approval process for a document such as the Tender Recommendation Report (TRR) was manual, paper-based and can require as many as seven to 10 signatories, resulting in potential delays. The Letter of Acceptance (LOA) is another commonly prepared document across the University, which external vendors need to sign either on campus or have the document couriered to them.
Regmi Tapasya, Project Lead and Associate Director from University Campus Infrastructure (UCI) shared that using DocuSign, the time savings for each TRR submitted is 14 working days and seven working days for the LOA. “At UCI, where 95% of the Building and Construction Goods and Services procurement is managed, the implementation of DocuSign for the TRR and LOA results in significant time savings for the estimated 150 contracts processed annually,” Regmi explained. With UCI and the Central Procurement Office (CPO) currently leveraging DocuSign for the TRR and LOA processes, there are plans for University-wide implementation.
The launch of DocuSign has generated significant interest on campus, with more than 900 staff attending the three digital info sessions conducted by NUS IT. Rachel Ang, Co-Project Lead and Senior Manager at NUS IT noted that within a month of the launch, 10 departments have used DocuSign to streamline their workflow and agreement processes. The electronically signed agreements and the audit trails are stored in nBox or Sharepoint platforms offered by NUS IT, reducing physical storage space for hardcopies.
The digital transformation through using DocuSign has garnered positive feedback from staff.
“With DocuSign, the approval process is timely and enhanced. It is also easy to navigate,” said Sng Jin Soon, Director at the Office of Housing Services. Agreeing with Jin Soon is Koh Yan Leng, Associate Vice-President at UCI, who finds the end-to-end experience fuss-free and seamless.
With the recent move to telecommuting for all non-essential services staff, DocuSign offers handy functions to ensure effective business continuity for the University – by making the approval process entirely digital and paperless through the use of e-signatures. The user-friendly interface allows documents to be digitally signed and sent to vendors electronically. An additional advantage is that vendors do not need a DocuSign account to receive and e-sign the contracts, thus enabling simultaneous and immediate approval. The ability to add reminders and expiry dates for documents, as well as to track the status of the documents are some of DocuSign’s additional features to improve the end-to-end experience for users.
500,000 organisations worldwide, including three local banks in Singapore are using DocuSign
The University’s strategic move to use DocuSign is also aligned with Singapore’ Smart Nation initiative, which supports electronic transactions and the use of e-signatures to reduce paper usage.