DD2670 DocuSign

1.1.    In spring 2021, DocuSign was piloted in three GLA units, led by: a cross-organisational steering group; a project manager; and a lead product user from Housing and Land. The pilot ended in October 2021. The steering group recorded issues, resolutions, savings and benefits in their project documents. 
1.2.    In October 2021 the DocuSign steering group presented these findings to the Governance Steering Group (GSG). The GSG approved the corporate roll-out of DocuSign, with the continued support of the dedicated project manager from the Digital Experience Unit for the implementation phase. After this phase, it was decided, DocuSign would move to a ‘business as usual’ product under a service owner.
The corporate roll-out commenced in October 2022 and is now live in every Directorate of the organisation. There are over 150 active users, across all directorates. As a result of the implementation phase, the GLA has:
•    saved over 100,000 sheets of paper 
•    in 250 instances, completed an envelope in under four hours (an “envelope” being the act of sending a document for a digital signature by one or more people)
•    saved over 40,000 litres of water
•    saved over 260kg of solid waste
•    saved 11 trees.
1.3.    In March 2023, the Head of Performance and Governance was assigned as the service owner to provide strategic leadership to the roll-out. The service owner’s role is to: ensure the project continues to meet the needs of the GLA; retain ultimate accountability and assurance that the service continues to realise the product benefits; and manage the budget. 
1.4.    In July 2023, the DocuSign project board approved the addition of Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, and the Old Oak Park Royal Development Corporation, for the existing contract held by the GLA. Access to the GLA envelopes enables further collaboration between organisations in the GLA Group; and furthers our goal to seek economies of scale, and ensure smooth contracting through a central service owner. Recharging agreements will be put in place as appropriate.
1.5.    Previous expenditure on DocuSign has been within the limits of the financial delegations to managers, set out in ‘Mayoral Decision Making in the GLA’.
1.6.    We are now seeking to purchase DocuSign and its support services for a further three years, with an option to extend by a fourth year. DocuSign has been procured through the TfL Reseller Framework. The framework consisted of five companies that contacted DocuSign; agreed pricing and commercial terms; and submitted a proposal to the GLA that met their needs. The GLA evaluated the framework reseller proposals, and agreed to accept Secure Computing Corporation ( SCC)’s proposal as the most economically advantageous offer. Awarding the contract to SCC will enable the GLA to explore opportunities to collaborate with the rest of the GLA group, in order to increase the economies of scale and group-wide efficiencies, and reduce the burden on the environment, by making legal documents paperless. This will support our pathway to achieving net zero by 2030.
1.7.     The Head of Performance and Governance will remain the permanent service owner and will continue to: ensure good budget management; realise the projected benefits; and manage any issues that arise, and the contract with DocuSign. 
 

2.1.    This approval will enable the GLA to continue using DocuSign to execute contracts and deeds electronically for up to four more years; and realising its embedded benefits. These include the ability to:
•    dispense legal documents more efficiently, and track progress of signatories
•    reduce the environmental impact of our operations by reducing our consumption of paper, ink and electricity. 
2.2.    Engagement with professional services will help the project team to carry out the following:
•    Review the account strategy in alignment with our scalability objectives. This will enable the GLA to identify and implement the appropriate governance structure to ensure secure scaling.
•    Design a use case management framework, encompassing elements such as a use case intake form; prioritisation methodology; and a roadmap. This framework will expedite the identification of high-potential use cases; allow for return on investment (ROI) assessment for each use case; and help maximise the ROI for the GLA’s DocuSign licence costs.
•    Establish a knowledge library to support self-service issue resolution. This central document repository will foster in-house expertise and facilitate knowledge sharing.
•    Develop a training model tailored to the needs of each user role. This model will empower the GLA to create customised learning paths for individuals based on their specific roles, enhancing their skill sets and promoting efficient knowledge. 
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Mayor and the GLA are subject to the public sector equality duty and must have due regard to the need to: 
•    eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
•    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not 
•    foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not. 
3.2.    The “protected characteristics” are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage/civil partnership status. The duty involves having appropriate regard to these matters as they apply in the circumstances, including having regard to the need to: remove or minimise any disadvantage suffered by those who share or are connected to a protected characteristic; take steps to meet the different needs of such people; and encourage them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low. This can involve treating people with a protected characteristic more favourably than those without one.
3.3.    Overall, no adverse impacts have been identified in using DocuSign. DocuSign has a dedicated team of accessibility professionals, and the service is built with accessible components – meaning GLA users with disabilities can experience the same ease of use as other user's experience. These components include enhanced keyboard navigation and control, and expanded compatibility with screen readers and browsers.
 

Key risks and issues 
4.1.    It has been established that TfL cannot integrate DocuSign with SAP SuccessFactors by joining the GLA contract. SuccessFactors is an HR management solution that will be used to execute employment contracts for new starters. DocuSign is the single tool used to execute contracts electronically at the GLA. There is a risk to user experience if SuccessFactors is integrated with another e-signature solution, as there will be differences in the look and feel of each tool’s interface. To mitigate this, the risk has been recorded in the SuccessFactors project risk register; it has been suggested that TfL should enter into its own agreement with DocuSign, as the preferred option.
4.2.    The length of the contract is three years (with an option to extend for a fourth year). To deal with any issues arising during the contract, review meetings will be held between DocuSign and the service owner. 
Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
4.3.    This work links to the Mayor’s goal of achieving net zero by 2030. The paper, ink and electricity used for dispensing contracts and other signed documents each make up a small percentage of the GLA’s overall consumption. However, this decision plays an important part in reducing our carbon footprint; and, crucially, catalysing and building momentum for a GLA side shift in paper reduction. The savings reflected in section 1 evidence the alignment of this product to the Mayor’s environmental and sustainability policies and objectives.
4.4.    The GLA’s Information Governance team has been consulted on issues of data protection and records management. This includes documented data protection advice taken from a data protection impact assessment, carried out as part of the process review (as per the GLA’s requirements under the General Data Protection Regulation).
4.5.    There are no conflicts of interest to note from those involved in the drafting or clearance of this Decision Form. 
 

5.1.    This decision requests approval for expenditure of up to £76,000 from 2023-24 to 2027-28 (initially three years, with an optional one-year extension) for the DocuSign contract. This equates to approximately £19,000 per year. The contract also covers DocuSign usage for MOPAC. They will be recharged based on usage on a periodic basis. The current estimation of usage is up to £5,000 per year. The net cost to the GLA per year will be approximately £14,000.
5.2.    The cost will be split between the Digital Experience Unit budget (for year one) and the Information Governance budget (for subsequent years). There is sufficient budget in both areas to cover this cost in the agreed plan for the budget period.
5.3.    The budget plan for 2027-28 has not been determined; this will be factored in as an existing commitment. To mitigate any risk of the budget not being approved for future years to cover costs, following the budget-setting process, the contract will include the usual break clauses that could potentially be exercised if required.
 

6.1.    The foregoing sections indicate that the decision requested of the Director falls within the GLA’s general and incidental powers under sections 30 and 32 of the Greater London Authority 1999 (as amended) to do anything that is considered to promote, or is conducive/incidental to, or facilitates the promotion of, economic and social development, wealth creation and the improvement of the environment in Greater London. In formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought, officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:
•    pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people
•    consider how the proposals will affect:
o    the health of persons in Greater London
o    the health inequalities between persons living in Greater London
o    the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom
o    climate change, and the consequences of climate change
•    consult with appropriate bodies.
6.2.    In taking the decisions requested, the director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty – namely, the need to: eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender reassignment, age, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and marriage or civil partnership status); and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.
6.3.    Officers have indicated in section 1 of this decision that the supplies and services required have been procured using and in accordance with TfL’s Reseller Framework, which was itself procured in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. 
6.4.    The GLA may recharge MOPAC for use of Docusign when exercising its section 30 general power under its power to charge third parties for discretionary services under section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003 provided that the charges levied do not exceed the costs of provision.
6.5.    Officers must ensure that appropriate “call-off” documentation is put in place and executed by SCC and the GLA before the commencement of the supplies and services. 
 

7.1.    The project will be delivered according to the timeline detailed below: