Use of digital/electronic signatures
Good morning,
I'm an SQF Practitioner in a paper food packaging manufacturing company, and our current SQF system relies on paper control copies of documents that are stamped and physically signed by each required approver. I'm looking to start keeping only digital copies of control docs and records to streamline our system, but I'm running into a bit of a roadblock when it comes to the digital signatures for our control docs.
Just wondering how you manage digital/electronic document approvals? We are open to purchasing new software or additional licenses through software we already have (such as Adobe). We do also have SharePoint in our organization so if any of you use that it may also work for us.
My manager seems to think that if we all pick a different font and have a register of the font we picked and who it corresponds to, then that would be okay for everyone to just type their "signature" and date in the required field in the word document. But I don't really think that would hold much water with an auditor?
Thanks in advance!
Your control software should be able to "audit" who has indicated approval to a document, I know sharepoint can do this.
You could back this up with scanned signatures - which can be inserted into the appropriate field on a document - as long as finished docs are stored in PDF format this should satisfy an auditor?..
We use the cloud based program VERSE for storing and approving documents. It keeps a history of who edits and also approves the documents. We have been using it for 4 years and our SQF auditors have always been satisfied and/or impressed.
I am switching to GoCanvas on January 1 (hopefully everyone will be able to access the docs (they call them apps) I have created. It allows you to push out documents to individuals for signature. All docs are automatically stamped with date/time/GPS location and the PDF version will show where person A signed electronically..........
Our company purchased Safety Chain back in March. So far we really like it! It is easy to use/install/write programs, and they have a great tech support.