Making Secure and Effective Commitments in the Public Sector

In the public sector, efficiently and securely signing agreements is paramount for meeting the mission and better serving constituents. 

This is further underscored by the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act, also known as 21st Century IDEA, which establishes a framework for creating digital-first public experiences. A vital part of this policy framework is the requirement that executive branch agencies accelerate the use of electronic signatures (e-signatures).

This framework was introduced to solve the challenges agencies face with traditional “wet” signatures, including delays in capturing and validating signatures and tampering with the signed document. 

Thankfully, Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM), a new category of cloud software that streamlines and automates agreement processes, can help agencies accelerate using e-signatures. 

As highlighted in the first blog post in this series, Docusign IAM helps agencies easily create the agreements that define their relationships with the public they serve. This blog post focuses on the “commit” stage of public sector agreements, which is the act of signing and bringing agreements to life. 

Signing agreements in the public sector

Agreements drive virtually every operational process and body of work—whether internal or external—in the public sector. These government agreements include contracts, memorandums of understanding (MOU), service agreements, tax forms, building permits, housing applications, grant applications, and more. 

When signing an agreement, an employee or constituent confirms the information is accurate, approves a request, or even authenticates the form's source. A completed and signed agreement is legally binding evidence of the signer’s intention and is operationally vital for agencies. 

However, the traditional signing process presents a wide range of challenges that continually need to be addressed,  including the physical handling of documents, mailing delays, and even forgery risks. 

Best practices for securely committing to agreements

When implementing electronic signatures, there are a few key elements critical to bringing agreements to life, including: 

• Ensuring clarity and simplicity: It’s important to simplify the signing process for all parties. This means only collecting the required information and avoiding implementing unnecessary e-signatures.

• Signing flexibility: Ensure that there are multiple ways to sign an agreement to best meet constituents and employees where they are—whether on mobile devices or in embedded web applications. In addition, provide notifications via SMS texts, email, or WhatsApp that the agreement is ready for signature.

• Accessibility: Deliver a signing and sending experience to support and empower blind and visually impaired users. 

• Compliance: Ensure the signing process complies with relevant laws and regulations, which include electronic identification and trust services (eIDAS) and the ESIGN Act. 

• Secure and valid: Ensure there are many layers of security and authentication built into the e-signature process, along with court-admissible proof of transaction.

• Advanced signer identification: Verify the identity of signers to maintain the security and integrity of the agreements.

The Docusign advantage in committing to agreements 

The Docusign IAM portfolio helps agencies commit to agreements faster, more securely, and with a better constituent and employee experience through these core capabilities:

• Docusign eSignature: Unlike other providers that can only deliver agreements through email, multichannel delivery from Docusign notifies signers about agreements that need to be signed through email, SMS, and WhatsApp. eSignature also works seamlessly on mobile devices with responsive signing and can be embedded within mobile and web applications, allowing signers to stay in the digital experience when initiating a signing process. 

The signing experience prioritizes accessibility by using assistive technologies, including enhanced keyboard navigation and controls and expanded compatibility with screen readers and browsers—going beyond WCAG requirements to ensure the best experience for all signers. 

In addition, federal and defense employees and service members can sign agreements with PIV or CAC cards, making the signing experience easy and compatible with existing government credentialing services.

• Docusign ID Verification: Implement configurable authentication and identity verification options to meet all of your agency’s needs. Docusign’s Access Code Authentication capabilities require a recipient to enter a code that the agreement originator sends them separately from their Docusign communications. In addition, Docusign’s SMS/Call Authentication service requires the recipient to provide a passcode received by either a phone call or SMS text message to view their documents.

• Integration with other tools: Docusign integrates seamlessly with the tools public sector employees leverage daily. With APIs and integrations across Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and SAP, employees don’t have to leave the tool to sign or send agreements for signature.

Agreements are the foundation for effective government. By ensuring that agencies have the tools to create and commit to secure and effective agreements, it’s possible to meet policies such as the 21st Century IDEA and best serve the mission. 

Docusign is a proven leader in agreement technology with reliable uptimes and an established record of generating, managing, and securely storing legal and enforceable agreements. For example, Docusign was named #1 in the 2023 IDC MarketScape Worldwide E-Signature Software Vendor Assessment and recognized by customers on Gartner Peer Insights as a Customers’ Choice in the December 2022 Gartner Peer Insights 'Voice of the Customer': Electronic Signature.

Now’s the time for public sector employees to explore Docusign for all their agreement needs. Stay tuned for part three of this three-part blog series, which highlights the importance of the “manage” phase of the agreement process for the public sector.