Overview

Adobe Acrobat Sign is a very useful tool for securely gathering authorizations and signatures for documents. It expedites some processes and allows digital processing of documents that might have previously required paper processing. However, there are some things it can do that are better accomplished other ways. There are other processes that are unaffected by using the Acrobat Sign platform as well.

See below for some general guidelines about what Acrobat Sign does well, not so well, and which processes are unaffected by using Acrobat Sign.

Comparisons

Acrobat Sign does the following well:

• Getting a legal signature from SPU and non-SPU users

  • Please review ORM's SPU Electronic Signature Guidelines document for more information on if Acrobat Sign is a good solution for your situation.
    • Guidelines still being finalized, please contact orm@spu.edu in the meanwhile with questions. (3/24/21)
  • Acrobat Sign has multiple options for authenticating a user that is signing a document.

• Getting authorizations from multiple users in a process.

  • A single document that needs multiple signers on it can be accomplished in a simple approval workflow.

• Allowing user-initiated document submission

  • Documents can be posted as a link that users can click to fill out and sign.

• Preserving a single document of all authorizations and agreements.

  • Acrobat Sign creates an authenticated final file with timestamped signatures from all parties that can be downloaded and saved in an SPU file storage system.

• Sharing documents with other users in a group

  • Acrobat Sign allows you to assign a document to a specific group so that other users in the group can view it. Group sharing is helpful for establishing multiple people that can work on your document in case you are not available. When you first create an agreement in Acrobat Sign, be sure to send it from the group that contains the people beyond yourself and the agreement signers that you want to be able to view the document. 

• Multiple linked documents requiring authorization.

  • Multiple documents can be included in a single signature request.

Acrobat Sign doesn't do the following well:

• Gather formatted data for entry into data systems.

  • This is better-accomplished in Microsoft Forms or another forms-tool.

• Implement a business process workflow.

  • Any workflow processes not related to approval that need to be accomplished before, during, or after one or more authorizations, need to be defined and conducted outside of Acrobat Sign.

Things that are unchanged with Acrobat Sign:

• Writing and creating agreements

  • The Acrobat Sign process begins with the finalized version of a document. Continue to use your current processes for writing and revising documents for agreements, and then, once the language has been finalized and approved, you can upload the final version to Acrobat Sign for folks to sign.

• Legality and enforce-ability of an agreement

  • SPU users should continue to work with the Office of Risk Management to ensure any agreements they need to sign, or have signed by other, are created properly to meet the needs of the university and that the authorization method being used is acceptable for the agreement in question.
  • SPU Electronic Signature Guidelines
    • Guidelines still being finalized, please contact orm@spu.edu in the meanwhile with questions. (3/24/21)

• Simple data collection

  • If data collection is all that is needed, then SPU owns Microsoft Forms and other tools better suited for doing so.

• Records retention policies

  • Agreements that are signed digitally are still subject to the same University and legal retention policies as if they were physical documents.
  • SPU recommends that employees centrally store all such documents in a place where they can be retained and purged per the governing policies.

Comparison of Functions

	Acrobat Sign	Microsoft Forms
Authorization - SPU User
Authorization - External User
Authorization - Multiple Users
Data Collection - All Users
Contracts (if approved by ORM)
User-Initiated Forms

 Recommended solution

 Not a viable solution

May or may not be a good solution.