Adobe Acrobat Sign

Adobe Acrobat Sign

Adobe Sign is a cloud-base e-signature tool that allows designated campus members to sign, send, track, and manage signature processes using a browser or mobile device. 

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Adobe Acrobat Sign Help & Support

Guiding Principles

e-Signature

  • Contracts: All contract signatures at Cal Maritime are subject to the University’s Contractual Delegation of Authority. Please ensure that people added as signers to the workflow are operating within their delegated authority.
  • An Annual Access Review for all Employees will be conducted by the Information Technology Office.
  • All assigned employees with the ability to send documents through Adobe Sign shall use this privilege carefully! We recommend reviewing Adobe Sign documentation and/or request training here.

Forms

  • Form Ownership: Each campus form (and associated process) is managed by Information Technology Office. Do not assume a form may be handled via Adobe Sign without first confirming with IT. IT owns the forms; however, the content of the forms belongs to the respective department. To change the forms, IT needs to be contacted and a change request should be submitted.

Workflow

  • Adobe Sign is used to route documents, sign documents, and is not intended for long-term document retention.
  • Colleges/departments must maintain fully executed documents per the document retention policy. For long term record retention using Campus’ SharePoint is preferred.

Signers

  • Any employee who is authorized to sign an agreement on behalf of the University and who chooses to do so through Adobe Sign must sign the agreement using your Cal Maritime username. Personal or non-Cal Maritime Adobe Sign accounts may not be used to sign agreements on behalf of the university.
  • A signer always has the option to print the document, "wet" sign it and return a hard copy to the sender, instead of agreeing to sign a contract through Adobe Sign.
  • The signer may not delegate signing authority to those who do not have the authorization to sign documents. In order to maintain the security of Adobe Sign and all other Cal Maritime services, never share your username and password.
  • Please keep personal Adobe Sign accounts separate from official Cal Maritime issued Adobe Sign accounts. Access to Cal Maritime 's Adobe Sign account is made through your Cal Maritime email address and your Cal Maritime password.
  • Your electronic signature, with Adobe Sign, is a legally binding signature.
  • Delegation of Authority are required for all agreement.
  • Records must be maintained outside of Adobe Sign. The University will soon purge any complete documents after 90 days. Adobe Sign is used to execute routing and signatures, not for long term document retention. Employees may use Campus SharePoint Site to archive your signed forms and documents.

Senders

  • Adobe Sign senders must review training prior to sending documents through Adobe Sign.
  • When using workflows through Adobe Sign, it is the responsibility of the sender to verify that all signers for contracts dealing with university affairs or monetary agreements have signature authority.

Data Retention

As long as your Adobe Sign account is active, the unsent documents in your account will be stored in Adobe Sign indefinitely. Completed documents will be stored for 90 days after the date of completion, then they will be removed from the system.

It is recommended that you download and save your documents to the campus’ SharePoint site.  

Legality

There are two common terms used when discussing electronic signatures:

  • eSignature is the process a person goes through to demonstrate their intent during an electronic transaction.
  • Digital signature is the encryption technology containing critical details pertaining to the e-signature. (Certificate Authority Services are not available at this time.)

At Cal Maritime, the e-signature is the legally binding record, and the digital signature is the underlying technology that helps verify the authenticity of the transaction. See What is an electronic signature? as defined by the California Secretary of State.

Under California law, an "electronic signature" means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic record and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the electronic record. The Uniform Electronic Transaction Act (UETA) authorizes use of an electronic signature for transactions and contracts among parties in California, including a government agency. One of the most common forms of an electronic signature in use today is the millions of people use every year to sign their tax returns. The digital signature regulations adopted by the Secretary of State do not apply to the definition or use of electronic signatures as they are governed by the UETA (Civil Code Section 1633.1 - 1633.17).

Level 1 Data

Adobe Sign is not recommended for use with Level 1 data. To limit the university's liability all completed documents will be purged from Adobe Sign servers 90 days after completion. You still need to responsibly store the completed documents on campus in a secure way once the routing is complete.

FAQ

For E&IT & Requisition requests, please include the following:
Add both Lorrie () and DeDe () to the CC field, so the procurement office gets a copy of the signed document.
  • IT Requisition
    • Please add the CIO signature field at the bottom of the page for IT/CIO approval
  • EIT Form
    • Please add checkboxes next to each of the options under Section 3
    • Please add a text field in the blank space under the checkboxes of Section 3
    • Please add the CIO signature field at the bottom of the page for IT/ATI approval

 

If you have more questions, please email Help Desk at helpdesk@csum.edu or schedule a training