Improving services through digital workflows

From the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean to the lush forests of Kauai, Hawaii is known for its close ties to nature and its unique culture. With its population spread across multiple islands, Hawaii also offers distinct challenges for the state government as it works to reach all 1.4 million citizens quickly and efficiently.

When elected to office, Governor David Ige promoted the idea of paperless workflows. By reducing the amount of paper that the government uses, Governor Ige recognised that the state could cut costs and positively affect the environment. But just as importantly, adopting digital processes helps the government communicate more effectively across islands and deliver citizen services as efficiently as possible.

“My administration is committed to restoring faith in the government and I believe that begins with transparency,” says Governor Ige. “Technology plays a critical part in that. Switching from paper-based forms to electronic documents allows us to improve public accessibility to government documents and increase transparency for our citizens by making it easier to store and retrieve documents.”

Saving millions of dollars for the State of Hawaii

Every department and agency has its own methods to keep operations running smoothly. Rather than mandating specific tools and workflows, the State of Hawaii prefers to offer scalable, versatile solutions that departments can adapt to their needs. When Hawaii began developing its electronic signature capabilities, it looked for technology that would be easy not only for the IT team to implement, but also for end-users to use.\

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is already a staple in many agencies and a core component of digital transformation. Every day, staff use Acrobat to create secure PDF documents to easily collaborate with colleagues or to share information with the public in an accessible, universal format.

After evaluating multiple solutions, Hawaii decided to base its eSign Services initiative on another reliable Adobe solution: Adobe Sign, the electronic signature solution within Adobe Document Cloud. Adobe Sign is simple enough that just one employee deployed the entire solution. But, it is also complex and flexible enough that departments can work with Adobe Sign as a stand-alone solution or integrate it into existing workflows, including with third-party solutions such as Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Outlook.

“Electronic signatures are key to driving new innovations in the State of Hawaii, as it’s the linchpin that allows us to push many workflows digital,” says Todd Nacapuy, Chief Information Officer for the State of Hawaii. “We wanted a vendor that would act as a partner and be interested in our success. Through our strong partnership with Adobe, we’re transforming how government works to provide citizens with faster, more effective services.”

Starting with the governor’s office, agencies and departments across Hawaii quickly adopted Adobe Sign. So far, the state has processed more than 400,000 documents through Adobe Sign, including travel forms, authorisation forms, spend requests, accounting forms and acknowledgements of pay stubs for 40,000 individuals every pay period. All signed documents are saved as convenient PDF files. Working with digital documents reduces the amount of paper printed across the state by 24,000 pages every day. Between reductions in paper, ink, printing and employee labour costs, the State of Hawaii saved almost $5 million over 2.5 years.\

Better service across islands

With the state population spread across eight islands, simply getting paper documents to the right signer can be difficult. State personnel frequently work outside of their offices, flying between islands to meet with colleagues or talk to constituents. This could introduce delays in citizen services, as it took longer for agencies to receive, review and approve proposals and contracts. Delays were often compounded if the document needed multiple signatures. Administrative directives, for example, need to be reviewed by as many as two dozen managers, leading to two dozen chances for delay.

With Adobe Sign, people can sign documents from almost any device—laptop, tablet or even mobile phone. No special app is needed, nor does the signer need to be logged in to a state machine. With mobile signing, people can get their work done wherever they are. While it once took two weeks or longer to route a document for signature, now a contract can make its way up the chain of approvals and to the governor’s desk in just a few hours.

“Mobile accessibility was a must to help us to overcome our geographic challenges,” says Nacapuy. “By using Hawaii’s eSign Services, state personnel can sign with just a few clicks, so we can focus on state business and roll out new services faster.”

Inspiring employees to think digitally

Since deploying Adobe Sign, the State of Hawaii has seen dramatic changes to the working environment for employees. Newly hired government employees, who once spent two hours filling in onboarding paperwork on their first day, can complete online forms at home before ever setting foot in the office. First day employee onboarding now takes the HR department just 20 minutes.

In addition, all employees must sign about 30 documents a year on average, from annual tax documents to updated acceptable use policies. Through Adobe Sign, the HR department not only sends documents for signature in much less time, but it can track document status and save audit trails for heightened traceability on every document.\

Integrations between Adobe Sign, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Outlook further streamline workflows and make processes easier for employees. “Adobe Sign integration with SharePoint and Outlook allows us to maximise our investment in Office 365,” says Nacapuy. “Employees can now use Adobe Sign with existing contracts in SharePoint and check status of a document out for signature at any time in Outlook.”

Filing for travel reimbursements could be a long process, as employees had to fill in the Travel Approval Form (TAF) by hand and wait for three levels of approval signatures. Now, employees just log in to their Microsoft SharePoint account and click the TAF button. After the employee fills in the digital form, Microsoft SharePoint automatically sends the document for signature through Adobe Sign. Adobe Sign retains the required approval workflow, sending the document to the first person for signature and then forwarding it to the next person on the list once the document is signed.

After all three signers have approved the TAF, all parties receive an email confirmation through Microsoft Outlook that the workflow is complete. The signed document and accompanying audit trail are stored in a single location within Microsoft SharePoint, making it simple for staff to check all documents that they have sent or signed.

“Working with paper documents, people would forgo reimbursements because it was so much time and hassle,” says Darryl Lajola, Service Delivery Specialist, Office of Enterprise Technology for the State of Hawaii. “By integrating Adobe Sign into Microsoft SharePoint workflows, we’re making life a lot easier for our employees while improving oversight and efficiencies at the same time.”

“State employees want to work with the latest tools so that they deliver more to the taxpayer for less cost,” says Governor Ige. “Our eSign Services initiative helped kick off a digital transformation throughout the state government that encourages us to be more agile and responsive so that we can deliver better and more valuable services for our citizens.”

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