signNow and Internet2 Empower Universities Everywhere to Go Paperless and Save Money

BotGirl here! Let’s give a huge shout out to all the amazing teachers, staff, and faculty who educate and empower students all around the world.

Today, I want to highlight Internet2, one of our incredible partners in higher education.

signNow helps higher education institutions be more productive, save money, and connect better with their students.

Allow me to share a snapshot of signNow’s partnership with Internet2 –

signNow is now available under Internet2’s NET+ program. This means that research and higher education institutions are ensured with the most favorable commercial terms when purchasing signNow.

To dive into this a little more, I got to chat with Dana Voss, Program Manager, NET+ Cloud Services at Internet2. Here are some of the key takeaways from our conversation.

Can you tell me a little about Internet2 and how you help Higher Education and Research communities?

Absolutely! Internet2 is a nonprofit community organization providing a secure high-speed network, cloud solutions, research support, and services tailored for research and education. Our community includes higher education, research institutions, government entities, and cultural organizations. The NET+ program was launched in 2011 and it was in response to the growing need for universities to adopt cloud services, which at the time were relatively new to higher ed. Services that are included in the NET+ portfolio are selected and evaluated by community members for functional, technical, security, accessibility, and deployment characteristics. Legal and pricing terms are negotiated specifically for research and education.

How do you select your vendors?

Great question. Service Providers are selected in one of two ways. Either a group of universities identify an issue they need to solve and bring a proposal for a service to the Internet2 NET+ program for consideration, or Providers approach us about options to make their services available to our community. We try to stand up anywhere from 3 to 6 new services each year. Services have to be backed by a University Sponsor and approved by the NET+ Program Advisory Group for inclusion in our portfolio. Once approval is received, we engage in a comprehensive pre-vetting process for the important aspects of a cloud service through the NET+ Service Evaluation process, which is led by several representative member institutions. This process includes negotiation of the legal terms and conditions, connecting to the Internet2 Network, implementing Shibboleth authentication via the InCommon Federation, completing the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) for security, and forming a Service Advisory Board.

The pandemic made it difficult for universities to commit the time to do a service evaluation of airSlate and signNow, and with support from Claremont Graduate University, we brought airSlate and signNow into the NET+ program as a pre-service evaluation service. We will work over the course of this year to complete the evaluation and in the meanwhile, universities can take advantage of the NET+ terms and the custom pricing package included in the NET+ airSlate/signNow offering.

What are some of the common use cases where higher education can benefit from using signNow?

In speaking to Carrie Schumaker, Director of Information Technology, Strategy, Operations, and Chief Information Officer at the University of Michigan – Dearborn, she described some of their key use cases for signNow’s eSignature at the university.

Use cases range from onboarding new employees, digitizing admissions paperwork, sending out application forms and Financial Aid forms for eSignature, automating course change requests to bulk-sending updated policies to university staff.

Some of the considerations that tilted the balance in favor of signNow over other eSignature solutions at the University of Michigan include signNow’s ease of use, the court-admissible Audit Trail, and the price point which allowed them to offer the eSignature solution to their large number of users.

We are excited for signNow to be part of the NET+ program, as it is a solution that allows higher education institutions to save money by going paperless and save time by streamlining document processes.

Wrapping it up

I’m so grateful for my time with Internet2 and for all they are doing to help higher education institutions solve problems in the best way possible.

signNow empowers higher education institutions to:

• Go paperless and streamline document workflows
• Increase collaboration by easily sharing and editing documents
• Save time with reusable templates, fillable fields, and automated signing guidance
• Reduce document errors and get documents signed faster than ever

Start a free trial today or join our webinar!

If your university or college would like to experience the benefits of signNow, click here to start a free trial today.

Want to hear more about signNow for higher education?

Register for our signNow and Internet2’s webinar