In financial podcast episode 16, Darlene interviews the CEO of Signority, Jane He.

“Financial podcast” was created and developed by Customplan Financial Advisors Inc. to promote financial literacy in Canada. They interview professionals from various fields on topics that matter to you. Jane was invited to talk about e-signatures in Canada in their 16th episode.

Jane has been in the hi-tech industry for 25 years, and In 2010, she started Signority. The company made many several significant milestones: in 2016, the Department of National Defense of Canada successfully deployed that platform through the federal government innovation program, and, for the first time in history, Signority helped the Government of Canada eSign the first MoU with the Government of Great Britain.

In the podcast, Jane states that “in the legal definition, a signature is your intent to consent to an agreement. As long as it proofs your intent, a dot, a line or any other format is a legal signature.” She adds that signatures may not be easily legible as people tend to add their own styles and personalities, but as long as they are authentic, they are legal. Then she states that “in the digital world, we have the technology not only captures the handwriting signature, but also captures IDs, when, and where a person signs a document. These data serve as court evidence and legal proofs.”

Although she admits that it can be hard to prove a simple signature without evidence, we can solve this problem with the concept electronic signature, secure electronic signature/digital signature and the signature workflow to meet legal requirements. Those legal requirements are stated in the PIPEDA (The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act):

• the electronic signature must be unique to the person using it;
• the person whose electronic signature is on the document must have control of the use of the technology to attach the signature;
• the technology must be used to identify the person using the electronic signature; and
• the electronic signature must be linked to an electronic document to determine if the document has been changed after the electronic signature was attached to it.

Signority’s many features such as multi-factor authentication, and digital seals ensure that these requirements are met. Jane sees eSignature technology as a process; like a signature ceremony rather than scribbling your name on a digital document.

When asked about security,  Jane assured that all documents signed using Signority are secure. Signority has the Canadian government security clearance. She states that there is a security officer and privacy officer at Signority, that policies are reviewed by their lawyer periodically, and that they have established a privacy breach protocol.

Signority is not only secure, but as Jane details in the podcast, anyone with access to a browser can use Signority. In the signing process, there is no special software or equipment required.

She also highlights that eSignatures can be used in all sectors; it’s also suggested to talk to your lawyers before you use it and also check your industry’s regulation and by-law besides federal and provincial acts. Signority has been serving insurance and banking companies for several years, and is proud that CSIO, Canada’s industry association of property and casualty insurers has selected Signority as its eSignature provider since 2015. For individuals, the CRA has given the green light for Canadians to file personal and corporation income tax by eSignature for the first time in history, largely due to the pandemic.

If you would like to listen to the podcast yourself, click on the link below!

https://financialpodcast.ca/podcast/electronic-signature-made-in-canada-episode-16/

New Application Release from Signority

Release 5.0.1

July 6 2020

In this unprecedented global pandemic situation, we have received an overwhelming number of requests and questions from individuals, companies and organizations that have recently adopted work-at-home policies. We are working around the clock to take in all the tips and suggestions and turn them into new features that we believe will best help you to continue to work remotely and safely. Here’s an overview of what’s included in our latest Release 5.0.1.

Usage Report

This release brings to production a new dashboard usage report.  When you log into your Signority account, you will now have instant access to all the basic usage information for your account.  Here are the changes that have been made to the dashboard usage report:

• The dashboard now displays your team role, team usage, subteam usage, your individual usage, and overage
• The usage report coincides with subscription periods

A more detailed usage report can be accessed from your account’s “Team” page. The report includes:

• Usage for each team member, as well as totals for each subteam, and a grand total for the entire account
• Custom date range

Masked Tags

The need for a secure method to receive personally identifiable information (PII) remotely has become especially important today as many operations have turned online. As a result, a way to encrypt certain fields on a Signority document became imperative. Masked Text Tags allow you to request information from your recipients, just like a regular Text Tag, but any information entered into it will be encrypted on the document and cannot be accessed by anybody except for you as the sender through a .csv file. For more information on how to use this feature, visit our tutorial.

Me-Sign Enhancements

By using the “Add me” option to sign a document just by yourself, you are able to drag and drop tags onto the document and fill them out as you go. In this release, we fixed several issues with this process including:

• Ensuring that the window to apply a signature or initial closes after clicking “Apply”
• Allowing radio buttons to be renamed

That covers everything in the Release 5.0.1!  As always, we would love to hear from you and know what you think.  If you have any feedback or suggestions you can contact us at support@signority.com.  Stay tuned for our next application release.

New Application Release from Signority

Q1 2020 Release

April 14 2020

In these quarterly release notes you will find all of the new features and bug fixes that were released in 2020. All of these features have been suggested by our clients, and we’ve worked hard to implement them during Q1 of 2020.

French Localization

Signority now offers the option to make the signing process in French. Email notifications can be sent in French and in English, and the signing page is also in both French and English. To use this feature, you will need to select “Français” in the “Settings” in the Document Editor, or when adding the recipients for a new document:

New Feature Notifications

Your Signority account Dashboard now has a notification bell in the top left of the page. If there are any new features that have been released, the bell will swing when you log in. When you click on the bell, you’ll be taken to our Signority Updates page. Now you won’t miss out on any of our new releases and features!

Anchor Text

Anchor text is a group of text-based placeholders for different Signority tags such as signature or initial tags.  For longer documents, using these can save a lot of time.  You can manually type in the anchor text into the document and the system will automatically place the corresponding Signority tag where the anchor text has been typed.  This feature is very useful for API integrations.
Below is a list of anchor text characters and what Signority Tag they correspond to.  The first letter defines the tag type, and the digit represents the recipient.  Placing an “o” in front of the tag-defining character makes the tag optional.

Tag Type	Mandatory version	Optional Version	Recipient
Signature Tag	\s1\	\os1\	Recipient 1
Initial Tag	\i1\	\oi1\	Recipient 1
Date Tag	\d2\	\od2\	Recipient 2
Radio Button	\r2\	\or2\	Recipient 2
Checkbox	\c2\	\oc2\	Recipient 2
Text Tag	\t3\	\ot3\	Recipient 3
Attachment Tag	\a3\	\oa3\	Recipient 3

If you wanted to add a mandatory signature tag to the document using anchor text, you would type \s1\ in the location where the signature is to be placed (see example below).

When you send the document for signing, the Signority system will interpret the anchor text Tags and place the Tags accordingly onto the document.

When preparing a document, the colour of the Anchor Tags can be changed to match the background colour of the document so that recipients will only see the regular Signority Tags.
For more information on how to use anchor text, check out our anchor text tutorial.

Copying Other Users on Overage Notifications and Invoices

This new feature was requested by many of our customers.  Before Sprint 46, invoices and overage notifications could only be sent to the Team Billing Admin.  But now you can set your account up so that invoices and overages can be sent to up to 20 other email addresses.  To control who you want to receive these notifications, simply go to “Profile Settings” in the top right dropdown menu.  From there, go to “Account” and find the option at the bottom of the page title “My Invoice”.  Check the checkbox and then enter up to 20 email addresses.  Make sure to separate each email address with a comma.

Once you’re done, hit “Save” and your invoices and overage notifications will be sent to the saved email addresses.  Now you won’t need to take the time to forward your invoices via email; it can be done automatically for you!

Streamlining the “Push” Feature

Recently we’ve had some customers having trouble with pushing large numbers of documents to another account. In Sprint 46, we fixed that issue, so pushing any number of documents to another account should be seamless and without interruptions.

Signority Printer Driver

Signority’s newly released printer driver allows you to upload documents to your Signority account without having to exit your desktop application. Uploading documents to Signority using the printer driver is like printing to a printer, but you’re printing to Signority.
To use the printer driver, you will have to do is download the Signority Printer Driver Installer Package.  You can find the Installer Package here. The printer driver is designed for the following Microsoft Windows platforms:

• 32-bit English Only – Windows 8.1 & 10, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019
• 64-bit English Only – Windows 8.1 & 10, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

The Signority Printer Driver acts more like a program than an actual printer.  So if your company is using a server to host user terminal servers, or a print server that regular users cannot access, you can install the Printer Driver on each individual user terminal server.  Otherwise, it can be installed on a print server or hosting server.
For the full tutorial on how to use the printer driver, visit out knowledge-base tutorial.
That covers everything in the Q1 2020 release!  As always, we would love to hear from you and know what you think.  If you have any feedback or suggestions you can contact us at support@signority.com.  Stay tuned for our next application release.
 

New Application Release from Signority

Sprint 46

February 9 2020

We’re happy to announce to our customers the launch of our latest application release, Sprint 46!  As usual, we have taken your feedback and suggestions to put together this new batch of bug-fixes and features.  Today we’re going to do a quick rundown of what’s included in Sprint 46.

New Features and bug fixes

1. Copying other users on Overage Notifications and Invoices

This new feature was requested by many of our customers.  Before Sprint 46, invoices and overage notifications could only be sent to the Team Billing Admin.  But now you can set your account up so that invoices and overages can be sent to up to 20 other email addresses.  To control who you want to receive these notifications, simply go to “Profile Settings” in the top right dropdown menu.  From there, go to “Account” and find the option at the bottom of the page title “My Invoice”.  Check the checkbox and then enter up to 20 email addresses.  Make sure to separate each email address with a comma.

Once you’re done, hit “Save” and your invoices and overage notifications will be sent to the saved email addresses.  Now you won’t need to take the time to forward your invoices via email; it can be done automatically for you!

2. Streamlining the “Push” feature

Recently we’ve had some customers having trouble with pushing large numbers of documents to another account. In Sprint 46, we fixed that issue, so pushing any number of documents to another account should be seamless and without interruptions.
 
So that’s all for Sprint 46.  We hope to see you soon in Sprint 47, our next application release.  As always, we would love to hear from you and get some feedback on our service.  We are always looking for ways to make your experience with us better.

New Application Release from Signority

Sprint 45.2

January 30 2020

Dear Signority Users, today we launched another application release!  This time, we have released a long-awaited feature: the Signority Printer Driver. This printer driver is designed for the following Microsoft Windows platforms:

• 32-bit English Only – Windows 8.1 & 10, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019
• 64-bit English Only – Windows 8.1 & 10, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019

Signority’s newly released printer driver allows you to upload documents to your Signority account without having to exit your desktop application. Uploading documents to Signority using the printer driver is like printing to a printer, but you’re printing to Signority.  Today we’re going to show you how to download and use Signority’s printer driver. The video tutorial can be found on the Signority Youtube channel here.
The first thing you will have to do is download the Signority Printer Driver Installer Package.  You can find the Installer Package here.  The Signority Printer Driver acts more like a program than an actual printer.  So if your company is using a server to host user terminal servers, or a print server that regular users cannot access, you can install the Printer Driver on each individual user terminal server.  Otherwise, it can be installed on a print server or hosting server.

Once you’ve done that, open the file to launch the installer.  If you’re using Windows, you might get a warning sign saying that Windows protected your PC.  In this case, click on “More Info” and press “Run Anyway”. Then you will be taken to the installer UI.

After clicking next, a window with the end-user license agreement will show up.  Read the agreement and check the “I accept” checkbox to continue.
 

 
You will then be able to set where you want to install the application.  The default location is C:\Signority\.
 

From here, finish the installation process and you’ll be ready to start printing!
There are two ways to print to Signority.  The first method is very simple. It works exactly like a regular printer.  Open the file you want in any document viewer and click “Print” (or Ctrl+P) like you normally would when printing a document.  Then, select Signority Printer as your printer and click “Print”. This should open the Printer Queue, and your document will show up in it. You can also drag and drop documents from your File Explorer directly into the Printer Queue window.  The first time you use the application, you will need to enter the username and password of your Signority account.

You can print multiple documents into the Printer Queue, where the documents are listed.

You can also rename the documents by double-clicking on them, and delete documents by pressing the “Delete” button.  Note that you are not allowed to modify the document’s extension.  For example, if a document is a PDF document, you cannot change the “.pdf” extension to something else.
Once you have all the documents in the Printer Queue, click “Send to Signority as a document”.
From here, you will be taken to the Document Editor page in your account where you can edit your documents for signing.

Also, you can check out our video tutorial for the Printer Driver below:

https://youtu.be/ZrfiNnnw1AI

As always, we want to thank all of you, our customers for all the suggestions and feedback you’ve given us.  This wouldn’t be possible without you.  If there’s anything you would like to see us implement, don’t hesitate to contact us.  We’re always looking for new ideas to make our service more useful.  In the meanwhile, stay tuned for our next application release!

New Application Release from Signority

Sprint 44

November 19 2019

Signority users, you asked and we have delivered! For the last two months, we have worked hard to implement features requested by you. Today is finally release day! With your feedback, we have released lots of features and improvements. Now, getting your work done is even simpler and faster.

New Features

Integration with AWS S3 Bucket : Storage for signed documents to protect your sensitive data

• You can now store signed documents from your team in your Amazon S3 bucket.
• Here’s a quick step-by-step on how to set up this exciting new integration!

First, you need to register an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account.  After your account is set up, go to your AWS console and select “S3” from services menu.

Once you arrive at the S3 console, create a bucket, and give it a name.  Bucket names are global and you cannot use a name that has been used by others.

Once you have created the bucket, you will see it show up on the console.
 
Now, you will need to get your Access Key ID and your Secret Access Key.
Go to your account and select My Security Credentials to find your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.


If you don’t have an Access Key, select Create New Access Key.

Then, save your keys.  You will need the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key to activate the integration in Signority.
Once you have done that, sign into your Signority account and click on “Profile Settings”.

Once you’re there, click on “Integration”.

Then click on the button next to Amazon S3.  You will see a pop-up window where you enter your Access Key, Secret Access Key, Bucket name, and Region.

 
Once you’ve entered all the information, hit “OK”, and you’re ready to start signing!  You should see a test document named “Welcome_to_Amazon_s3” appear in your S3 bucket. From now on, whenever a document is finalized, a zip file will be saved in the S3 bucket. Anyone on your team can create documents to be stored in the bucket.

The billing admin and proper team admins can configure the S3 budget setting. Regular users don’t have permission to configure the integration.   
Also, if at any time you want to deactivate Amazon S3 integration, just click on the “Deactivate” button.  You can find it in the same place that you activated the integration.
More storage integrations with Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox will be coming soon!

Bugs fixed

• When you throw something out in the garbage, usually you don’t want to see it again, right?  It turns out that when our clients put their Templates in the trash, our system decided to resurrect them and count them towards their usage!  Oops. With the new application release, the system no longer counts Templates in “Trash” towards your usage. Now you can bin your templates without worrying about ever seeing them again!
• In addition, one of our customers revealed to us that the “All” checkbox used to select all your documents remained checked even after the documents were deleted.  That doesn’t make any sense, does it? We have since fixed this. Now the “All” checkbox unchecks after you’ve deleted all your documents.

There you have it!  Our next Application Release will be coming out in about a month.  You can expect to see even more features and enhancements. In the meanwhile, let us know if you have any feedback or ideas.  We’re always looking for ways to improve your workflow.
 

On October 6, 2017, history was made in the e-signature industry.  The Government of Canada and the UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding separately in Ottawa and London using electronic signature technology.  This marked the first time two different countries electronically signed an international document.
Originally, representatives of the two countries were going to meet together in person to sign the Memorandum.  However, one of the representatives was not able to make it to the meeting, so the Government of Canada turned to e-signature technology.  This let both representatives to electronically sign the document at the same time in two different locations.

Working Towards a Digital Government

The Memorandum itself is a key step towards a digital and open government.  It is also crucial to providing better digital public resources.  The document says that both Canada and the UK will support each other in their goals to encourage the wide-spread use of digital public tools.  Also, both governments will work to encourage economic growth through the open markets by stimulating start-ups and small to medium-sized businesses. This move aims to level the playing field for start-ups and smaller businesses to create fair competition between all companies.  The two governments will also work towards creating a more open government, and making government documents accessible to the public. The Memorandum also mentions teaching children how to code.  This addresses the importance of giving the next generation useful skills in an increasingly digital world.
Canada and the UK are not the only ones aiming to harness digital technology to better the lives of their citizens.  Digital9 is a group of nine countries founded in 2014 by five countries, including the UK, under the name Digital5.  The countries of Digital9 work together to create a more accessible and useful digital world. In February 2018, Canada joined the group along with Uruguay.  Since then two more countries–Mexico and Portugal–have joined.
The signing of this Memorandum of Understanding using e-signature technology is a step towards global sustainable living.  E-signature technology allows governments, businesses, and individuals to digitize their work, and save paper and trees.
Looking to take your business paperless? Sign up now and get free access to Signority’s team and individual plans.

New Application Release from Signority

Up to Sprint 42

September 13, 2019

Signority users, you asked and we deliver! We have been working hard to design the features requested by you. It’s release day! With your feedback, we have released tons of features and improvements. Getting your work done is now simpler and faster. We would love to hear from you! Feedback is always welcomed.
New Features

• Subteam
  • A billing admin and superadmins can create and manage subteams. Each subteam can view documents shared within the same subteam but not other subteams for document confidentiality. Check out Managing Subteams and Teammates.   
  • Admins can transfer document ownership.
  • Eligible team admins can configure Global Profile Settings for subteams and teammates.
  • Subteam feature is available from Team Plus and higher plans.

• Overage for individual plans
  • Individual plan customers do not need to oversubscribe if you only need a few extra more documents before the service period ends. You will be informed of with usage notifications before the overage is effective. You will have a choice to pay overage or upgrade to a higher plan.
  • There will be no monthly document limitation to an annually paid customer.

Enhancements

• High Performance Encrypted Digital Signature
  • The integration with GlobalSign high performance HSM (Hardware Security Module) has been completed. The enhanced digital signature is available to all team plan users at no extra cost.

• Bulksign Template
  • No more limits to the number of bulksigners at each batch sending.

• Overage Notifications
  • Team Billing Admin will receive two notifications when you or your team reaches 80% and 100% of the plan usage within the service period. You are given the option to upgrade or pay the overage.

• Overlay Template
  • You can overlay a template with selective pages rather than an entire document.

New Application Release from Signority

Tons of Features and Improvements

August 7, 2017

Signority users, good news! With your feedback, we have modified the Billing Payment system and added more features. Getting your work done is now simpler and faster. We would love to hear from you! Feedback is always welcomed.
Billing Payment Improvements

• Simplified plan with Team + API in one place
  • Team Plan now integrated with the API. Now any combination is possible within the document count limit.
  • There is NO extra cost by adding users. Unlimited Users and PKI Digital Signature are included without extra cost!
• Self-Service Trial and Plan purchase
  • You can start a Free Trial on any of Team Plan without contacting us.
• In-Application Self-Service Upgrade/Downgrade/Terminate Account
  • Upgrade by clicking the “Upgrade” button from the dashboard
  • – Or 
  • Upgrade by going to “MANAGE PLAN” from “My Account” at the top right corner, and select a new plan.
    • Downgrade by going to “MANAGE PLAN” from “My Account” at the top right corner. Select new plan.
• Usage Report for Team Administrators
  • Team Admins or Billing Admins can now view team members activities.
  • View team member document transaction activities by Current Month, Last Month, or the Month Before Last.
  • Team Admins can click “Team” and click “Team Activity”.
• Resend Signing Reminders
  • Recipients who have not yet to sign documents can be sent reminders.
  • During a signing ceremony, document sender select “More” at the top right corner. From the drop-down list, select “Status”. Go to “Recipient List” page, and individual signing invitations can be resent to those who have not yet to sign the document.
•  Recipients can be Removed from Signing Flow
  • During a signing ceremony, document sender selects “More” at the top right corner. From the drop-down list, select “Status”, go to “Recipient List” page, and click “Remove” button.  

User Experience Improvements and Other Features

• Mobile device UI improvement
  • If using a mobile tablet or smartphone to sign the document, our application will not show the thumbnail column on the signing page. This allows for an optimal window size to work on the document.
• Overlay Template Workflow Improvement
  • Document Creation Workflow:
    • Upload Document
    • Once uploaded, the “Use a Template Overlay” button appears under “Template Overlay”.
    • Click on button and bring up template list.
    • When a template is selected, the name of the template used in Template Overlay section is shown
    • These will automatically be inherited from the template on current document creation:
      • pre-set tags,
      • ownership of tags,
      • email message,
      • subject lines,
      • “Send reminders to recipients” Options,
      • Page view evidence,
      • Digital Signature.