Electronic signatures

E-signatures are used to sign off documents for legal purposes or for strict internal control.

You can specify the settings for signing documents in the Documents to Sign (ttesg1100m000) / Document to Sign (ttesg1600m000) sessions.

Examples of documents for which an e-signature is required include Production BOM, Shipment, and Service Contract.

For the documents, you can specify several qualifications:

  • The reasons for signing a document.
  • The signers who must sign the document.
  • The companies in which a document must be signed.
  • The conditions, which determine in which situations an e-signature is required.

The type of document determines the session in which a signature is requested after a user performs an action for which signing is required. An e-signature request can, for example, be triggered by an action such as approval, confirmation, release, completion, and closure.

Note: The trigger for signing applies only to actions performed at the individual session level. When the action is performed through a batch session, for example batch approval, no e-signature is requested.

If the document is Customer Defined, an e-signature can be requested in any session as long as the change and save is done on the main table specified for the customer defined document.

For more information on e-signature triggers, see E-signature triggers for documents.

The document data with the signature is stored in the e-signature (ttesg) tables in the LN Tools, separate from the active LN applications. Storing the data separately in the LN Tools environment secures the data. The data can never be changed, including the related data such as names and descriptions are included.

To meet legal obligations, the stored data with the e-signature can be audited by institutions such as the FAA or FDA. Internal control or auditors can run audits to meet internal procedures, depending on internal business cases.

The data in e-signatures can bypass the GDPR regulations, as the name of the person who signs is not anonymized. Any other name or description in the e-signature is also not anonymized or erased. The data for e-signatures can never be archived or removed.

Note: E-signatures are not supported in combination with OCM or Workflow.