Digital Signatures for AEC Organizations

Back to Digital Signatures for Engineering

“It used to be ‘we can get you signed drawings next day’. With CoSign, it’s ‘we can get you the signed drawings in the next hour’. We want to provide world-class service and this helps set us apart from our competitors.”

- Dustin Cole, Director of Engineering, Star Building Systems

With the vast majority of U.S. state Professional Engineering Boards now accepting digital signatures, AEC firms have the opportunity to embrace secure, fully electronic processes that enhance collaboration and quality, cut project delivery times and reduce operational costs. Digital signatures enable geographically dispersed engineers to securely and compliantly add their signatures and professional seals to electronic drawings and other documents, and deliver them in minutes rather than days. By securely binding the liability to its source, this allows AEC firms to tap into their best resources – regardless of location – and deliver the highest quality results.

Digital signatures seamlessly integrate into engineering documentation.
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CoSign® - A Digital Signature Solution for AEC Organizations

By eliminating the need to print documents for obtaining signatures, digital signatures cut the costs and hassle associated with paper-based approval processes (i.e. printing, routing, manually signing, replacing lost documents, etc.) while enabling organizations to reduce project delays, improve collaboration, and significantly increase client satisfaction. The CoSign digital signature solution enables engineers to place their signatures and seals on a variety of popular document formats including Adobe® PDF, Microsoft® Word, Excel®, Outlook, InfoPath®, AutoCAD®, TIFF, Bentley® MicroStation, etc. CoSign then securely seals the signed document from change, providing proof of signer identity and intent, and content integrity. Moreover, CoSign signatures are non-proprietary, self-contained, and globally portable. This means the digitally signed documents can be easily verified by anyone, in any location, at any time, without the need for proprietary verification software or third party support.

CoSign digital signatures are automatically invalidated if/when any modification to the document occurs after it has been signed and sealed. As such, documents signed with CoSign are transformed into transportable electronic records that can be used for both internal and external collaboration, as well as compliant, accurate and reliable e-submissions.

CoSign Digital Signatures for Engineering – Business Benefits:

Secure Collaboration. By allowing engineers to approve and deliver electronic documents from any location that has an Internet connection, digital signatures can allow your geographically-dispersed and on-the-go engineers or external partners to collaborate on projects quickly, securely, and efficiently.
Increased Customer Satisfaction. By enabling increased responsiveness and reduced paper-based delays, digital signatures allow AEC firms to improve client satisfaction while achieving faster project turnaround times and reducing late submittals.
Cost Reduction. Reducing the costs associated with paper (such as ink, paper, printing, routing, archiving, etc.) improves your firm’s bottom line.
Compliance. A tipping point in using digital signatures for e-submissions has been reached, as the vast majority of state P.E. Boards now accept digitally signed e-submissions.
Environmental Sustainability. Reducing paper use and routing-related pollution will help your firm be more environmentally friendly.

“In the past, it could take several weeks to turn a document around with wet signatures. Today, with CoSign, our engineers can electronically sign from our remote offices, as well as remote locations with Internet access, thereby allowing us to turn documents around in a day. Feedback from our customers has been phenomenal!”

- Chad M. Zielinski, Branch Engineering Manager, Haag Engineering

2 Minute Overview