When originally founded in 1839, the company’s main focus was light installations, both residential and public.

Over time, the company developed from a civil, electrical, and industrial engineering business into a multi-technical service business in the areas of communications and energy. 

SPIE Netherlands, which is a subsidiary of the SPIE Group, provides a wide range of services to assist its customers with designing, installing, maintaining and operating their energy networks, facilities, infrastructure and (industrial) buildings.

Following the acquisition of Strukton Worksphere in in January 2022, SPIE Netherlands is now the largest multi-technical service provider in the Netherlands with more than 6,000 employees across 41 locations.

Strukton Worksphere was specialized in managing, maintaining, designing and developing different technical installations in buildings, and has been a pioneer in the market when it comes to data-driven maintenance and digitizing business processes.

They are therefore continuously searching for new ways of creating more efficient and sustainable work processes.

In 2020, the Program Manager for Digitization Sandra Bakker, came to the realization that there could be major efficiency improvement if the document signing process would be fully digitalized. The company therefore started the search for a e-signature provider to initially use for singing external documents, like quotations and purchase agreements.

When Strukton Worksphere merged with the Building Solutions division of SPIE Netherlands in 2022, the entire application landscape of Worksphere was incorporated at SPIE, including ValidSign’s e-signing solution.

Sandra Bakker says “earlier, a quotation was drafted digitally, then by printing, signing and scanning (sometimes crooked), the initial quality was greatly reduced to a point where it could even be hard to read. Additionally, having agreements signed by multiple parties was often a time-consuming process, and where agreements sometimes got lost in the mail. But since the implementation of ValidSign, a quotation can be signed within 1 minute!”

Summary

When implementing ValidSign, SPIE tested the e-signature solution for an entire year before introducing it across departments to sign all kind of documents including,   employment agreements.

“The ValidSign platform is userfriendly and provides better control over document flows. The dashboard shows all outstanding signing requests including their status, this means we must take fewer actions to find out where in the process the document is pending action. You can then easily schedule and send reminders after a few days for the signing process to proceed timely,” says Bakker.

Sign wherever, whenever

In addition to having a great overview of document flows, ValidSign offers the possibility to sign whenever and wherever wanted. “It often happens that, for example, offers have to be amended and signed at the last minute. If this would happen after working hours, or if a signatory is not currently in the office, that is no longer an issue! The required signatory can simply sign the documents at home or from any another location, even on their phone,” says Bakker.

The digital signature solution has enabled agreements to be signed fast and easy as signatories can sign as long as they have internet. This has changed the process significantly, from taking weeks to only days, or even just a few hours.

The future with ValidSign

Digitally signing with ValidSign is now an essential part of SPIE. More than 16 thousand documents are digitally signed severy year and that number is only increasing. “ValidSign is slowly being implemented across the organization. It is currently being investigated at what additional SPIE divisions and departments, the digital signature can be rolled out.

SPIE Netherlands is also expecting to start using the integration between ValidSign and SharePoint Online in order to automatically carry out the last step in the signing process, the filing work,” says Bakker. They believe the integration with SharePoint Online is an important add-on for any organization who wants to set up a fully digital working environment!

Want to know more about how ValidSign’s e-signing solution can be implemented in your organization’s workflow?

Contact our sales department on: sales@validsign.eu/ +31(0)85303 3676 or request a free demo HERE!

Stadgenoot, one of the largest housing corporations in the Netherlands, has implemented the e-signature from ValidSign to streamline the signing process within its organization. This is a major step forward for Stadgenoot in terms of digital transformation and promises to deliver substantial improvements in efficiency and customer experience. In this article, we take a look at the benefits of this new technology and how it is being implemented across the organization.

Stadgenoot is a housing corporation in Amsterdam and rents out more than thirty thousand social rental properties, that has an average rent of 500 euros per month. The housing corporation was formed in July 2008 through a merger between two Amsterdam housing corporations, the General Housing Association (AWV, founded in 1910) and Het Oosten (from 1911).

With more than 300 employees, spread over the four business units, Stadgenoot is an organization of size. Two business units provide financial and public housing management: Finance & Operations and Strategy & Portfolio. The customer-oriented work is housed in the Customer & Home business unit. The real estate-oriented projects are at Real Estate & Development.

Safe signing

Since the beginning of 2020, a large part of the organization has been digitally signing with ValidSign’s cloud based platform. The desire to make the switch over to an e-signature was fueled by the possibility to guarantee the security around the signing process and personal data seamlessly, as the manual signature wasn’t able to offer this guarantee at all times.

After Stadgenoot had made the decision to implement the e-signature, they were referred to ValidSign through their ERP system supplier Aareon. They scheduled a demo with ValidSign to have a tour of the signing platform and to discuss the possibilities for implementing it in their workflow. Ibrahim Hassan, functional administrator at Stadgenoot mentions, “Finding a digital signature supplier is quite easy, but you rarely find a supplier who also identifies as a partner and always thinks along with the customer. We found this in ValidSign.”

Except from two departments, ValidSign’s e-signature has now been rolled out across the organization. These two departments are currently using an e-signature platform from another supplier, but will soon make the transition over to ValidSign.

By using an e-signature, each department provides the highest level of security for the signing of their documents, and at the same time they have full insight into the signing process through the platform’s dashboard. The organization has chosen to identify signers through a second-factor authentication, this SMS authentication feature ensures that in addition to the regular email verification, the signer’s phone number is also verified to make sure it’s the correct person signing.

Then the iDIN authentication is being used by tenants for when signing the leases etc.

Most of the departments uses the platform for signing forms, assignments and/or contracts by external parties, while the finance department signs internal payment orders.

Sign anywhere and at any time

Because of the COVID pandemic, and the new way of working, there is an increased need for the digital way of signing. Ibrahim says: “Like the rest of the Netherlands, in the beginning of 2020 everything changed abruptly when we were only allowed to work from home. Getting an a signature from your manager or director was then a tricky task, and we were forced to rethink the processes. For example, the signatories were not present on location or did not have their own printer at home. ValidSign now allows us to sign, whenever, wherever!”.

Increased efficiency

In addition to the fact that the e-signing solution guarantees a high level of document security, the process has also become more efficient. “The time it takes to receive a signed document has been significantly reduced because a number of actions no longer need to be carried out. The volume of paperwork has also been drastically and employees have more time to spend on other important tasks. The users within Stadgenoot are satisfied with the new way of signing, and they were able to get started working with the platform after an initial introduction, which was nicely organized by ValidSign.

About the future

Within now and a few weeks, we expect the two departments that aren’t currently using the ValidSign platform to make the transition and then even more documents will be digitally signed. In addition, ValidSign and Aereon are developing the integration between the ERP system Tobias AX and ValidSign so that Stadgenoot and other companies can start signing from the trusted ERP system.

Once the integration has been implemented, several departments will be using it. Ibrahim says: “The e-signature is an indispensable part in our processes, and the use of it will only increase in the coming years. That is also why we like to work with ValidSign and Aareon to make the integration even more future-proof. We like to invest time and effort in this, because we believe that we will get a lot in return”.

Want to know more about how ValidSign’s e-signing solution can be implemented in your organization’s workflow?

Contact our sales department on: sales@validsign.eu/ +31(0)85303 3676 or request a free demo HERE!

Tilburg University has taken a major step in digitizing its processes by implementing ValidSigns e-signing solution.
Validsign makes document processing and acceptance easier as it allows documents to be easily signed electronically. Thanks to this partnership, the students and employees at Tilburg University can securely sign their digital documents from SAP SuccessFactors. In this Case Study, we will explain further how this collaboration works and what the benefits have for Tilburg University.

“Serving society and making it better for its citizens”, that’s what drives Tilburg University. The university’s founder, Martinus Cobbenhagen, believed that anyone who wants to understand society must be actively and consciously involved in it. This philosophy still forms the base of the organization today.

Tilburg University is originally a catholic and as one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands, it celebrated its 95th anniversary in 2022.

With more than 20,000 students and 1,500 employees in 2021, numerous internal, but also external documents are signed yearly. A large number of these documents are now digitally signed, thanks to its collaboration with ValidSign that started in 2019.

Process efficiency

Tilburg University came to ValidSign through the DMS supplier HuRis. HuRis is one of ValidSign’s partners that offers its customers the e-signing solution integrated with SAP SuccessFactors. This way, Tilburg University digitizes the entire process from creating the document, to digitally signing it and then directly storing it on their HR portal.

The main reason for incorporating the e-signature into their process was to increase the efficiency of these processes. Maurice Driessen, project & information manager at Tilburg University says: “Previously, signing an employment contract or parental leave letter could take days. In fact, almost all HR documents have to be legally signed by our directors and/or the (future) employees. These signatories are often not in the same place, at the same time and for this reason, the documents were often carried from signer to signer by mail or a courier. With ValidSign you can sign, anywhere and at any time, so the signing process is now handled within minutes.”

Security

With ValidSign, the security of signing, and the confidentiality of handling personal data is perfectly guaranteed. Driessen says: “By adding multifactor authentication to the signing request, the identity of the signer can be verified, and we know for sure who is signing. Additionally, a complete audit trail is reflected in the proof document, which is made available in ValidSign immediately after the signing is completed.”

Currently, all HR documents requiring a legal signature are digitally signed with ValidSign. This is approximately 7,000 documents on a yearly basis!

Overview

“Additionally, ValidSign provides better control of document flows, and the platform’s dashboard shows all outstanding signature requests with its status. By having this feature, we save a lot of time wondering and checking where in the signing process the document currently is. And if someone, for example, forgets to sign, the reminder schedule can send out a reminder with another request to sign the document. Which helps us to get the documents signed faster.” says Driessen.

User-friendly

Digital signing is now a requirement for the future development within Tilburg University. End users are very satisfied with using the e-signing solution. According to Driessen; “our colleagues experience the platform as user-friendly and thanks to the integration with SAP SuccessFactors, it ensures a fully streamlined process, from generating a document, to (multiple) signing and automated storage on the HR portal!”

Want to know more about how ValidSign’s e-signing solution can be implemented in your organization’s workflow?

Contact our sales department on: sales@validsign.eu/ +31(0)85303 3676 or request a Free Demo HERE!

“Both our employees and customers are very enthusiastic about the digital signature. Every year, more than 12,000 documents are digitally signed with ValidSign within Accon avm”.

Accon avm is originally an agricultural cooperative. The accountancy firm was founded in 1917 by the parent company from Leeuwarden and quickly grew into a national, full-service consultancy and accountancy organization for SMEs. In 2017 Accon avm celebrated its 100th anniversary.

With approximately 1000 employees and more than 40 branches, Accon AVM is an accountancy firm of size. The organization has a large knowledge network in which location-independent working is central. This means that advisors are close anytime, anywhere. They like to come to the entrepreneur, digitally but certainly also on location.

Durability

Sustainability and innovation are of paramount importance and determine the success of Accon avm and its customers. Partly because of this, the organization chose ValidSign’s digital signature in 2016, as the first accounting firm. Documents no longer need to be printed and transported by post or courier. By greatly reducing printing, paper consumption fell by about 20% every year until 2020.

Easy and fast

ValidSign was broadly deployed within the organization immediately after its extradition to digitally accelerate various signing processes. Accon avm started digitally signing documents that need to be signed by the customer, because mainly these processes took a lot of time. Anita van Gelder, Director ict and facility at Accon avm says: “Several parties regularly have to sign, for example a partnership where there are several shareholders who are not all present at the same location at the same time. It could take weeks for documents such as declarations, agreements and financial statements to be signed. With validsign’s user-friendly solution, the document is completed within 15 minutes as a way of”.

High-quality services

In addition to making the organization more sustainable and accelerating various business processes, the digital signature also contributes to the high-quality services that the organization provides. “Customers regularly indicate that digital signing is so much easier than on paper. The customer no longer has to walk to the mailbox or wait for the other signatories to sign. She now receives all documents in a bundled email and the documents are available for inspection and download via the same link immediately after signing,” says van Gelder.

AFAS Connector

ValidSign is used for more than 90% of the processes where signing takes place. Every year, more than 12,000 documents are digitally signed with ValidSign within Accon avm. In order to make the signing process even more streamlined, Accon avm has been working with validsign’s AFAS connector since April 2021. The link allows users to submit documents for signing in AFAS. Any process that requires signing can be monitored from A to Z in the system. Van Gelder says: “By using ValidSign from AFAS CRM, we are taking the final step in our digitization process. The fact that I can select contacts in AFAS for each signature and signed documents are archived directly in the right place in AFAS is very useful”. Only one-sided signings are occasionally done the old-fashioned way. The organization strives to digitally sign these documents in the near future and to help persuade the last colleagues to sign digitally.