Using e-SignRoom with IBM SmartCloud for Social Business 

Introduction

Silanis' electronic signing session involves identifying who needs to accept or sign what document and where to sign. e-SignRoom allows you to electronically review, modify, and sign documents in a secure way.

IBM® SmartCloud for Social Business subscribers can easily access their existing files for signing and can also add existing contacts as signers. Participants receive an email invitation with a link to e-SignRoom, where they are presented with all documents to be reviewed and signed.

e-SignRoom requires a subscription with Silanis and works with SmartCloud Engage and SmartCloud Connections.

Accessing e-SignRoom

1. First, log in to LotusLiveSmartCloud Engage and confirm that the e-SignRoom link is available in the Apps menu (see figure 1). If e-SignRoom is not enabled for you, then you need to contact the Administrator to enable it.

Figure 1. e-SignRooms link in Apps menu

How a Administrator can enable e-SignRoom

Once a Administrator is logged in, he/she can enable or disable e-SignRoom from the Integrated Apps page. The Administrator can enable / disable e-SignRoom for all the users in the organization or a particular user.

To enable e-SignRoom for all users in the organization:

1. Log in as Administrator and select Integrated Third party Apps.
2. Click the “Enable for all current users” link (see figure 2).

Figure 2. Enable e-SignRoom for all current users


To enable e-SignRoom for a single user:

1. Log in as Administrator and select Integrated Third party Apps.
2. Click the Enable link, if e-SignRoom is not enabled for the organization.
3. Select the option “Individual user“ and click OK.
4. Go to the User Accounts page, and click on the User; the Edit user page will open.
5. Select the checkbox for e-SignRoom (see figure 3) and click Save.

Figure 3. Enable e-SignRoom for an individual user


Once e-SignRoom is enabled, the user will receive an email notification, and when the user logs in, the “Terms of Use” page will display. The user must accept it, to work on e-SignRoom.

Using e-SignRoom

Once the e-SignRoom link is available in Apps menu:

1. Select Apps e-SignRoom
2. Click the “Grant Access and Leave LotusLive“ button.
3. Click the Accept button in the e-SignRoom Service Agreement page; you are directed to e-SignRoom's dashboard page.

Now you need to create a Room in which to place all the files that are to be signed:

1. Click the “Create a new e-SignRoom” or “Add e-SignRoom” link.
2. Enter a name for the room and add a description (see figure 4).
3. Click the Create Room button.

Figure 4. Create a Room


Once the Room is created, you can add files to the room that are to be electronically signed and can upload files from your local system or from SmartCloud Engage files. e-SignRoom supports the Adobe PDF (.pdf), Microsoft® Word (.doc or .docx) and IBM Symphony^TM (.odt) file formats. To do this:

1. Click on the Room and click the Add Document button.
2. Click the Browse button to add files from the local drive, or select the files tab to add the file from the filer (see figure 5).
3. Select the file and add to the room.

Figure 5. Add Document to the Room


Once the Room is created, you need to add members to the room. You can add any member who has SmartCloud Engage or Connections subscriptions or can include users who are not subscribers by inviting them, using guest account functionality.

After you add a gues user in contacts, invite the user as a guest. The guest user will receive an invitation mail with a registration link, which they need to click on and register. Once the user is registered as a guest, he/she can participate in e-signing. To do this:

1. Click the Add Participant button; the Participant tab displays (see figure 6).
2. Fill in the Email and Full name fields, and select the desired authenticate option, for example, Email.
3. Or, you can select the Contacts tab to add add a user from the Contacts.
4. After selecting the user, click the Add Participant button at the bottom of the page.

Figure 6. Add member in the Room


After documents and members are added in the Room, we need to activate the Room so that members can sign the documents:

1. Click the Prepare link at the top right-hand corner of the page, to add signature blocks
2. The Signer drop-down list in the toolbar displays the names and email addresses of all the participants added in the room. Select the desired participant (see figure 7).
3. Add the participant's signature block by clicking the Add Approval button and dragging it to the location in the document where the signature is required.
4. Click the “-->” button to navigate to the next page, and repeat the above steps for adding more signature blocks.
5. Click Save, and Click Activate, to activate the Room.

Figure 7. Add signature blocks



Once the room is activated, the participants will receive an email with a link to the e-SignRoom, where they are presented with all documents to be reviewed and signed. After all the documents in the room have been signed by the required participants, you can mark the room as completed. To do this:

1. Click the “Start signing” button in the tool bar.
2. Click the “Click to Sign” box wherever it is present in the documents (see figure 8).
3. After the user has signed wherever their signature is required, Click Confirm.
4. After all the required participants are signed, click the Room and click “Mark as Complete”.

Figure 8. Signing the document


Users can download the documents once signed. The e-SignRoom provides a secured e-signed PDF document.

Managing Rooms

You can manage the eSignRooms by marking the Room as active, inactive, or complete. To view all the rooms, click “Manage Rooms”; the window shows all the inactive, active, and Completed rooms.

The Manage e-SignRooms window has three tabs, Inactive, Active, and Completed (see figure 9); clicking each tab will display all the Rooms that are not active, active, and completed.

Figure 9. Manage e-SignRooms

Conclusion

You should now be familiar with how to use e-SignRoom in LotusLive. E-SignRoom enables multiple subscribers to e-sign multiple documents at one time. You learned how to access the e-SignRoom and the detailed steps to create a Room, add participants, add files, add signer blocks, and how to sign the documents.

Resources

IBM SmartCloud for Social Business product page:
https://www.lotuslive.com/en/

IBM SmartCloud for Social Business wiki:
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/bhwiki.nsf

IBM SmartCloud for Social Business Live Demonstrations:
https://www.LotusLive.com/en/training

IBM SmartCloud for Social Business online demos:
https://www.LotusLive.com/en/demos

Silanis News article, “Silanis brings electronic signatures to IBM LotusLive online collaboration and social networking services.”

About the author

Nisha E Kuriakose is a Tester currently working on the functional verification testing of BSS UI and Reseller features of the LotusLive application. She also worked on ISV testing, before which she worked on IBM Lotus SmartSuite, and has around five years of experience in software testing. Nisha can be reached at nishaelza@in.ibm.com.