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DocuSign – eSignatures

Northwestern has partnered with DocuSign to provide the university with a standard digital signature solution.   DocuSign is a digital signature solution designed to improve workflow for signing and approving official documents in an efficient and secure way, eliminating the need to transfer important documents in need of signature via email, fax, or US Mail.

Features

Benefits

Use Cases

The use of DocuSign should be reserved when needing formal signatures on official University documents.

Some examples for when to use DocuSign to request signatures:

Some examples for when not to use DocuSign to request signatures:

Cost

The university has established an enterprise campus agreement that can be utilized by all departments and schools.  At this time there is no cost to departments and schools and there is no limit to the number of envelopes that can be used.

However, we do ask all users to make sure you are using DocuSign for documents that truly need a formal signature.  Any unnecessary and excessive use of envelopes could have a significant impact on future pricing.  If it’s discovered that your unit is utilizing DocuSign improperly, your unit will be contacted.

DocuSign Account Roles

Listed below are the roles associated with managing DocuSIgn electronic documents.

Role

Abilities

Access Needed

Signer

View and sign documents only

No special permissions needed.

University and non-university signers do not need access permissions to sign a document that is sent to them by a Northwestern employee or any other organizations.

Reviewer

View documents only

No special permissions needed.

University and non-university reviewers do not need access permissions to review a document that is sent to them by a Northwestern employee or any other organizations.

Sender

Signer and Review abilities plus:

  •  Send documents, including using predefined forms and templates.

If your department or school has a DocuSIgn System Administrator (DSA),  submit a request asking to create your login.

If you are not sure if your department has a DSA and/or you have questions, please complete the DocuSign Request Information Form.

Author/Template Creator

Signer, Reviewer and Sender abilities plus:

  •  Send custom/ad hoc documents; create and share predefined forms and templates with others.

If your department or school has a DocuSIgn System Administrator, submit a request asking to create your login.

If you are not sure if your department has a DSA and/or you have questions, please complete the DocuSign Request Information Form.

DocuSign System Administrator (DSA)

DSAs coordinate user needs to (need to confirm), as the main point of contact for a department or school DocuSign Account.

 Signer, Reviewer, Sender, Author abilities, plus:

  •  Serves as DocuSign’s subject matter expert for their department or school by assisting with reporting and assisting users in template creation or other needed tasks.
  • Manage the process of adding and removing users under the department’s or school’s DocuSign Account.

Departments and schools need to appoint a DocuSign System Administrator (DSA) to coordinate department DocuSIgn needs before contacting (need to confirm) to have an DocuSign account created.

 

Getting Started

If your department or school has a need to utilize DocuSign, follow the steps below:

  1. Appoint someone within your department or school to be your DocuSign System Administrator (DSA). We recommend your DSA be someone from your IT or Business Office.
  2. Once your DSA is appointed, the DSA appointee should submit a DSA Request Form requesting access as your department administrator.
  3. The DSA appointee will be contacted regarding next steps which will include training.

  

Resources

To learn more about how to use the eSignature Tool, you can review the following short videos or webpage resources provided by DocuSIgn:

Contact

For questions, please email procurement@northwestern.edu