Challenge

Do companies estimate the costs spent on archiving hard-copy documents and the effort it takes to find an archived one?

According to the Moldovan legislation, some documents must be archived for at least three years. It represents a real challenge for businesses as they must keep a significant number of documents for a long period and also make sure there is nothing to lose or get deteriorated, especially manage the access to archive. During the last years, we have received lots of requests and questions regarding digital archiving solutions. So, we developed tools that connect workflows with electronic documents and digitize the archive.

On the grounds of the local law on electronic signature and the electronic document (Law no. 91 of 29.05.2014), we directed our efforts towards projects related to electronic records and archive digitization, the increasing usage of electronic documents was also a prerogative. Therefore, the need to set a digital archive has become more and more demanded.

Strategy and Solution

Considering the challenges stated by different stakeholders, in 2019-2020, Esempla team developed DocScan application. The key priorities were to create a product that will offer users good performance and flexibility to adapt to any archiving need.

DocScan is part of the DocSign platform, which has been designed, so it creates and manages digital archives. The solution can be used as an additional module or standalone application. Also, DocScan provides features to recognize the most popular file formats (PDF, JPG, TIFF, PNG) and essential editing tools to improve the quality of digitized documents.

The system allows the configuration of various archiving workflows, offering options to import and export documents, manual collection of document’s related data, authorization for documents and data export.

To avoid the risk of unauthorized documents access, the application incorporates access management tools. Users can perform accurate process analysis and manage the risks, using the monitoring and auditing tools.

Transformation

The main scope of the project was to improve the efficiency of the archiving process, bringing it to a new digital environment. A digital archive enables businesses to optimize procedures and have a quick, secured and controlled access to filed documents.

Challenge

Do businesses estimate how much time they waste on documents signing daily? 
The acceptance of the electronic signature and implementation of electronic document workflows can significantly bring efficiency and cost reduction.

In 2014 the Moldovan Parliament adopted the Law no. 91 of 29.05.2014 on electronic signature and the electronic document. Even though there are a few types of advanced qualified electronic signature legally binding and a Governmental service for electronic signature (MSign), the usage and acceptance level of the electronically signed documents is still low.

Esempla team developed the DocSign concept – a dedicated application for electronic documents in 2014. The project was stopped in a few months as the potential partners were quite resilient regarding the mass usage of the electronic signature.

Strategy and solution

The usage of the electronic signature became mandatory for many legal entities as of October 2018 along with the modifications of Law 131, regarding the public procurements introducing the requirement for electronic signature on the bids uploaded in the public procurement system (MTender). And because Esempla was part of the MTender project, the team decided to organize some trainings for our Clients, in partnership with e-Governance Agency and an electronic signature operator. It aimed to help businesses and public authorities understand the electronic signature system and increase market awareness, showcasing the added value provided by this tool.

The number of electronic signatures users increased with 11,3% in 2019 and with 6.5% in Q1 of 2020 compared to the similar period of the previous year. The restrictions resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, forced the economical operators and public authorities to look for even more opportunities in technologies, in order to maintain their work-related activities. The electronic signature ignored for years started to be perceived as a viable solution. We restarted the development of DocSign to provide the economic operators with a friendly mechanism that manages the electronic document flows and signature, using the advanced qualified and/ or advanced non-qualified electronic signatures.

DocSign application provides:

• Access management and integration with Active Directory, for efficient user access control.
• Optimized workflows for uploading, sharing and signing documents. Integration with MSign for advanced qualified electronic signature usage. Possibility to reduce costs for signing, using advanced non-qualified signatures.
• Notification tools – the participants are notified about the received documents and signing process results.
• Monitoring and audit tools.

The system includes functionalities to use both PAdES and XAdES forms of electronic signature, depending on preferences and business processes specific needs.  To comply with the security requirements of each company, the application can be installed and run according to the institution’s internal infrastructure rules.

Transformation

The main scope of the project was to contribute to the digitization of economic activities and increase the efficiency of putting the technological instruments at the market’s service.