Digital Workflow Promotes More Comunication and Efficiency
OFAS Utilizes DocuSign to Expedite the Financial Aid Process
For months now, newly accepted students have been facing the
important decision of where to attend college. For most, one of the biggest
factors will be how much money they are able to secure in financial aid. In
order to help students make this crucial, time-sensitive decision, the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships (OFAS) at UMBC makes it a top priority to provide students
with all the information and resources they need as soon as possible.
To do so, OFAS has picked up DocuSign, the electronic
signature and digital workflow platform being utilized all throughout UMBC. By
converting numerous key forms to DocuSign, OFAS hopes to expedite and simplify
the process of securing financial aid for both students and staff. This
includes giving students and parents direct, immediate access to the
Scholarship Agreement, Loan Increase, Dependent Verification and other such
forms through a secure email. The signer can then follow useful tooltips that
guide them step by step through the form before sending it on its way with just
a click of the mouse. A process that once took many days can now be completed
in mere hours as DocuSign uses notifications and reminders to encourage rapid
compliance.
OFAS staff worked hard with the Division of
Information Technology
to make these forms as intuitive as possible. For starters, these forms can
pull information from UMBC databases and PeopleSoft to prepopulate numerous
fields before the student even opens the document. Once the student enters the
form, the fields that haven’t been filled out for them will contain restrictions
such as character limits and formatting guides that can prevent the student
from submitting the form with incorrect information. If mistakes do make it
through, OFAS staff can terminate the form and resend it immediately along with
an email clarifying what needs to be fixed. Compliance Specialist Joe Scott says that this flexibility
along with quick communication makes it much easier to process these forms
efficiently while also improving the experience for students and parents.
Associate Director Cory
Ziegenfuss praises the significant reduction of time and paper spent
signing, processing and storing these forms. Staff can assign the resources
they’ve saved using DocuSign on other projects, thus improving the overall
efficiency of the department.
Moving forward, OFAS will begin to develop new DocuSign projects, including forms for their Work Study program. By continuing to pursue efficient solutions, OFAS is helping UMBC advance as a modern university.
More Info:
Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group
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Posted: February 27, 2019, 10:35 AM
