What is DocuSign
DocuSign is the university's approved tool for electronic signatures and workflow routed online forms. At its heart, DocuSign is designed to replicate the experience of routing and signing paper documents. This is expressed in the terminology used by the system (i.e. ‘envelope’) and the way the system functions. If you keep this in mind, it will increase your understanding of this system.
Who Manages DocuSign
DocuSign is supported and maintained by the Office of Technology Services, however there is shared responsibility with administrators in various departments on campus using this software, including but not limited to Admissions, Academic Affairs, General Counsel, Human Resources, Facilities, Finance, and Financial Aid, Student Affairs. The software is also supported by the vendor DocuSign.
Contact the Support Desk for any support requests.
How to Access DocuSign
Faculty and Staff who are designated as SENDERS can access DocuSign through the MyIIT portal from the menu option in the top right corner:
Appropriate Functional Use
DocuSign provides the easiest, fastest, and most secure way for sending, signing, tracking, and storing documents requiring signature. While anyone can use DocuSign to provide a legally-binding signature, only select Illinois Tech faculty and staff can apply for permission to design and send forms for signing as your are creating contracts on behalf of the university.
What Can You Do in Docusign?
- Sign any document electronically with your e-signature
- Send documents for signature and manage the documents you send.
- Store all your documents instantly and securely.
- Secure documents on DocuSign which is ISO 27001 SSAE16 compliant/encrypted
How to Request an Account
DocuSign is for work-related use only and is available to faculty and staff on a paid, limited-subscription basis.
Access Levels
There are four different levels of access within DocuSign:
- Reader: Allows view access to contracts and the ability to sign existing contracts
- Sender: Allows contracts to be created and signed
- Sender-Templates: Allows new contract templates to be created and sent
- DS Sender-Templates: Allows new contract templates to be created and sent in bulk
If you are interested in getting a READER level account, please first obtain your supervisor’s written approval and then email that approval along with your user-account request to the Support Desk at supportdesk@iit.edu.
If you are interested in getting any of the SENDER level accounts, you will need to obtain delegated signatory authority from your vice-president or Dean as listed in the university’s Policies and Procedures Handbook and then email that approval along with your requested access level to the Support Desk at supportdesk@iit.edu. The Support Desk will ask you to confirm that you accept financial responsibility before completing the access.
Prior to requesting a user account, if you did not attend the live training sessions, you need to view all three of the recorded DocuSign foundational training sessions (i.e., “DocuSign 101,” “Template Creation 101,” and “PowerForms 101”) to ensure that you know how to create and send efficient “envelopes” that contain all of the documents the receiver needs to sign, rather than sending the recipient piecemeal pages in multiple envelopes. The university’s DocuSign subscription has only a limited number of envelopes and by requesting an account you agree that your department's FOAP will be charged without further approval for any overage charges assessed.
How to Guides and Documentation
Docusign provides training resources on their website. Those resources are available here: https://dsucustomers.docusign.com/page/all-courses
Security
DocuSign is 100% legally-binding and provides full document encryption, a tamper-proof audit trail, redundant and geo-dispersed data centers, and is fully compliant with the ESIGN Act. You can learn more about DocuSign’s security here.