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Sign Here: Digital Certificates Simplify University Business
2/12/2002
Digital certificates, the electronic equivalent of a handwritten signature,
have been legal and available since 2000, when President Clinton signed the
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. Digital signatures
allow an organization or individual to transmit legally binding documents via
the Internet with embedded signatures that are guaranteed to be authentic. They
are in use in various everyday applications: You use them without even realizing
it when you order a product from an online retailer or verify your identity
to your bank in an online transaction. Digital signatures used in place of hard-copy
signatures save time and money and reduce red tape.
Like commercial institutions, universities have a vast number of appropriate uses for digital certificate technology. Using digital signatures allows a university to conduct the grant writing and management process entirely online. Digital certificates also ensure that highly confidential research data can be sent from one institution to another securely. They can facilitate human resource administration, student services, and curriculum management. Most colleges and universities, however, are only beginning to explore the uses of digital certificates.
At the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), administrators are conducting
pilot programs as they lay the groundwork for the installation of digital certificates
in all twelve UAB academic and health sciences schools this summer. According
to Clair Goldsmith, vice president for information technology at UAB, the rollout
will occur in several key areas, beginning with intellectual property management.
Says Goldsmith, "Using digital certificates, we'll be able to manage
the patent application process, delivering applications that are legally binding,
encrypted documents."
Next in line is the benefits department, which will use digital certificates
for several purposes, including allowing employees to sign benefit documents
via the Internet. "This will allow us to give better customer service to
our new hires," says Goldsmith. "Now employees won't have to
travel to campus to fill out forms before they begin work here." He adds,
"Everyone will have access to the forms around the clock, instead of just
during business hours."
UAB, along with three other universities, is working with the National Institutes of Health to develop a system for delivering digitally signed documents between the university and the federal government. UAB is also developing a model for grant writing across the campus, which will allow the university to submit and manage all of the institution's grant forms digitally. Eventually, even student services will make use of the certificates, when financial aid, registration, and other functions participate. Students will have secure access to campus services from their dorm rooms.
UAB is using the services of TrustID from Digital Signature Trust Co., which claims to be the world's premier provider of digital identification solutions for secure online transactions. But how d'es digital certification differ from simply delivering a document from one address to another?
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