What is Adobe Acrobat Sign

Adobe Acrobat Sign is an electronic signature solution by Adobe. It streamlines the signing process by allowing individuals to electronically sign documents from any location, eliminating the necessity for manual signatures. Equipped with strong security features and compliance with legal standards, Adobe Acrobat Sign guarantees the legitimacy and protection of signed documents. It helps in optimizing document workflows and boosting overall productivity.  

Thoroughly go through the Electronic Signatures page to understand the requirements and use cases in selecting the right solution from available options. After that, if you feel Kuali Build is the right solution for your needs, continue reading through the rest of the information.

What Adobe Acrobat Sign is not used for? 

• Document storage
• High risk data or confidential data
• Refer to important guidelines to be followed below when using Adobe Acrobat Sign for workflows and eSignatures.

Important guidelines in using Adobe Acrobat Sign. 

• When implementing an electronic signature process, all applicable laws, rules, regulations, and NIU policies and procedures must be followed.
• Data owners and stewards still has the responsibility of following all the data retention, records maintenance and disposal as required by state.
• These solutions are only tools available to implement electronic signatures and workflow management and are not to be used as document storage solutions.
• All applicable data retention and record keeping rules must be followed outside the tool.
• These tools must not be used for the following types of High-Risk data at this time.
  • Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI)
  • Credit Card or Payment Card Industry (PCI) Information
  • Export Controlled Research (ITAR, EAR)
  • Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Data
  • Personal Health Information (PHI, HIPAA)
  • Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) 

Policies and Compliance

Use of these tools must comply with Illinois law and University policies, including:

• Illinois Electronic Commerce Security Act
• Electronic Signatures Policy
• Restricted Data Protection
• Data Classification
• Records Retention

Support:

Support for Adobe Acrobat Sign is only available through Adobe’s knowledge base. No internal support team available for form and workflow building.

Join the Teams Community here to share your questions and ideas with other Adobe Acrobat Sign users at NIU.

Basic Tutorials for Users:

• Adobe Sign Getting Started Guide will get you familiar with Adobe Sign and the functionality available to you as a user. This guide covers all the important processes in Adobe Sign and familiarizes you with the user interface.
• Sending an agreement to a single signer is the basic workflow used in Adobe Sign.
• Sending an agreement to multiple signers is almost the same process as sending to one, although you need to define each recipient’s role and place fields specifically for each recipient.
• Managing and tracking agreements sent for signatures
• Modifying a transaction in-flight In some cases, an agreement can be edited after it has already been sent out as long as some actions have not been taken by recipients.
• Creating a re-usable template for agreements that are frequently used so all signature fields and data fields are saved.
• Signing with a stamp For departments that might need to sign with a delegated signature.
• Manual delegation of signature For signers who need to delegate someone else to sign in their place.
• The recording of the live training session conducted on Nov 14th can be found below (refer to the chapters that are added to this video for easy reference to specific sections)
  

More training guides and videos can be found at https://helpx.adobe.com/sign/tutorials.html

Digital Signatures

Digital signatures use a specific type of electronic signature. Not all electronic signatures are digital signatures and may not be required in all cases. Thoroughly go through the Electronic Signatures page to understand the requirements and use cases in selecting the right solution from available options. Digital Signatures use a certificate-based digital ID to authenticate signer identity and demonstrate proof of signing by binding each signature to the document with encryption. Validation is done through trusted certificate authorities (CAs) or trust service providers (TSPs). Additional rules are required to be followed prior to adopting true digital signatures. Specifically, the Illinois Electronic Commerce Security Act provides the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) with exclusive authority to specify the policies and procedures for the issuance and use of digital signatures by State Agencies. The Certificate Policy (CP) and the Certification Practices Statement (CPS) are CMS’s written description of the policies and procedures for the issuance and use of digital signatures. Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT), by Legislative directive, is the sole source of digital certificates for State of Illinois agencies, boards, commissions, universities and those who do business with them. Check Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology website for more information on Digital certificates and how to obtain them.

Form Creators: For using Adobe Acrobat Sign to get Digital Signatures from the signers, form creators have to select Digital Signature field in the Signature Fields section of the Authoring environment. Below you can see the e-signature field on the left, and the digital signature field on the right.

Signers: For signers who are required to sign any document using Digital Signatures, it is required to obtain a Digital ID first. Digital ID’s are issued by the State of Illinois. Navigate to Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology and select “Get a Digital ID” from the section links on the right hand side of the page.  Follow the on-screen instructions for creating a Digital ID.  To complete the automated ID creation process, the requestor must possess an Illinois Driver’s License.  Non-Illinois residents must complete a form and mail to the State of Illinois CMS department.  This form can be found at the web site listed above. Here is a detailed guide with step-by-step instructions.

After the above step is completed, anytime an Adobe Sign form is received with Digital Signature, it needs to be downloaded and signed using the Digital ID stored in entrust. Here is a detailed guide with step-by-step instructions for this process.

Get Access

Anyone can sign forms created in Adobe Acrobat Sign but for ability to initiate or send forms/contracts for signatures, employees need to request access to Adobe Acrobat Sign permission and agree to all the guidelines one need to follow and support available, before granting access. 

Request Access to Adobe Acrobat Sign

1. Visit Adobe Acrobat Sign
2. Login using your NIU credentials
   
   1. Faculty/Staff: AID@mail.niu.edu
3. Select “Company or School” for Account type, then enter your password.