Posts Tagged ‘AEC’

Digital Signatures and Digital Seals: A Guide for AEC

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Hey folks! I’m back with some exciting news about a project called Digital Seals and Signatures that ARX, provider of the leading CoSign® digital signature solution, is participating in. It’s headed by Fiatech, an organization that works to advance the implementation of technology and innovative practices in the AEC industry. Engineers, listen up!

When completed, the Digital Seals and Signatures project will provide the world with a best practices guide for implementing digital seals and digital signatures in AEC processes. Why is this fantastic? Because AEC professionals face a number disadvantages due to the reliance on paper for sealing and signing final documents. Among these disadvantages are extensive procedural bottlenecks and skyrocketing organizational costs. Fortunately, digital signature technology effectively addresses this problem. Yet, as with most major transformations (however positive), AEC professionals still hesitate to make the shift to electronic approval processes.

Enter the Digital Seals and Signatures guide, which will provide an invaluable resource to AEC professionals. It’ll explain how digital signatures and seals work, how they can be applied in the unique environments of architecture, engineering and construction, and much more. Excited? Me too. Learn more about the project here.

Growing Digital Signature use in AEC

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

A new digital signature user recently told me about how the engineers in his company were initially reluctant to switch to paperless signatures. “They tend to be more cautious with their signatures,” he said. But their hesitations quickly subsided when they became familiarized with the engineering-specific capabilities their digital signatures offered, such as support for multiple graphical signatures and seals, and sectional signing. The fact is, engineers across North America are realizing that their industry hasn’t been left behind in the widespread shift to electronic processes.

As it so happens, earlier this week a press release announced that Agile Frameworks, LLC, a provider of various services for the AEC marketplace, will soon be offering digital signatures as part of their cloud-based SaaS managed service. With this step, the company is showing that it’s keeping up with changing times, and offering the AEC market the opportunity to further embrace paperless processes and enjoy the many benefits they have to offer. Check out the press release to learn more.

Leading Engineering Firm Embraces Digital Signatures

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

The people at Terracon know what’s up, which may explain why they were recently ranked in the top 50 of ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms(They even moved up a few spots in the ranking since last year!) So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they’ve also recently embraced digital signatures – a very good move on their part, if may say so myself.

Terracon has caught on to the many benefits of digital signatures for engineering, and now their engineers are providing clients with signed documents faster than ever, not to mention saving the organization a pretty penny from eliminated printing and routing costs. With digital signatures, they’re approving and routing documents from any location as easily and quickly as they might check their email. In fact, since implementing digital signatures five months ago, Terracon’s employees have already digitally signed 150,000 client reports. That’s a lot of saved paper and routing costs! Check out the press release about Terracon’s use of digital signatures to find out more.

Digital Signatures in AEC Expedite Processes & Improve Customer Service

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

The growing trend of digital signature adoption is becoming increasingly visible across industries, and AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) is surely no exception. In fact, some AEC organizations are using digital signature technology combined with other business automation tools, like electronic document management systems, to enjoy exceptional operational improvements.

Take CPI, for example. The Danish inspection firm and engineering certification provider uses digital signatures with SharePoint to enable engineers to electronically authorize and deliver inspections and reports created at customer sites while they’re still on-site, seriously expediting processes. Taking this capability one step further, when engineers digitally sign their reports and upload them to SharePoint, the files are simultaneously published on the firm’s Customer Portal, where clients can easily access their documentation. Talk about superior customer service! The benefits CPI has reaped from digital signatures go on – like savings of $90,000 in the first year of implementation alone. If you’re interested in learning what the others are, you can read the Digital Signatures Enhance SharePoint Deployment for CPI case study. Check it out!

Digital Signatures Enhance Organizational Web Portals

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

These days, there are endless ways to take advantage of the vast capabilities the internet offers. One of the more interesting uses that organizations are adopting is external-facing web portals, which provide a secured area over the internet where internal employees and external partners, collaborators, clients, etc. can connect and manage documentation and other information.

A case study on Duke Realty’s use of digital signatures highlights how one of the largest owners, managers and developers of commercial real estate in the United States enhanced their web portal with digital signatures to increase collaboration and employee satisfaction. By doing so, they eliminated the need to print and route documents solely for the purpose of obtaining approvals (as well as the delays this process typically incurs), and enabled internal and external employees and collaborators to quickly, easily and securely sign off on documents online. Can you imagine how thrilled external collaborators were with the new capability to submit forms like payment applications so easily?

Check out the Duke Realty case study to learn more about how digital signatures can enhance organizational web portals.