The College of Management is one of the pioneers of academic colleges in Israel. Over its 45 years of activity, the college has developed a unique methodology in higher education: combining academic excellence with professional knowledge, while placing an emphasis on students’ needs. The institution employs more than 1,000 lecturers from both academia and industry, and offers about 50 programs for bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a variety of fields.
We asked Sinia Breksmaier, Head of Information Systems at the College, to tell us about the business process in which the implementation of Consist’s digital signature server solution – PB eSign – supports and creates value for students and for the institution.
Sinia Breksmaier, Head of Information Systems at the College of Management, can you tell us how you came to choose Consist and PB eSign?
As a leading college, we enable students to access a variety of self-service options, including receiving different certificates. The institution produces and delivers many documents to students, and these digital documents are required to be securely digitally signed. Before the system was implemented, the process was manual and required significant effort from the organization. We were looking for a fairly priced digital signature solution and came across PB eSign. The solution is used by large organizations and has proven itself, so we chose it.
How does the process work?
The implementation of PB eSign allowed us to automate the entire process of generating and sending digitally signed and secured certificates and documents, greatly improving the service experience for students and shortening the processing time of requests.
We created two folders – IN and OUT – where the system securely generates the digitally signed document and distributes it to students according to an automated process that streamlines work and saves time and resources. The entire process is transparent and operates automatically without manual intervention. The solution therefore provides students with fast, professional service: the student submits a request for a certificate and receives it digitally signed by email, without the need to come physically to campus. Digitally signed PDF documents are generated directly from the organizational system ‘Gilboa’ via the digital signature server, and the documents automatically move from one folder to the secure signing folder and return digitally signed.
Can you list the main advantages and benefits of the system?
The solution is simple to implement and integrates seamlessly with existing organizational systems. The system provides top-level information security with certified digital signatures (CA) and advanced document protection. Equally important is the system’s ability to handle heavy loads: it can process very large volumes of documents quickly and automatically, exactly as we wanted. In terms of compliance and legal validity, the system meets international standards and ensures that the signatures are recognized and legally binding. Altogether, this means that as an institution we enjoy all these benefits along with significant cost savings.
Any final thoughts?
It can be said with certainty that the solution has significantly streamlined our work processes, reducing the time and resources invested in document handling. All this was done with the goal of improving the service provided to students and alumni, who often need official certificates from the institution many years after completing their studies. I would like to point out that there is no unified government system that manages and holds this information, so each institution must provide this service to its graduates.
Thank you very much, Sinia! Consist is proud and happy to be part of the activity of a leading academic institution like the College of Management!
