IT Contract Approval Workflow

DocuSign

DocuSign is a cloud-based digital transaction platform managed by the IWU Business Affairs office for contract management on behalf of the University.  DocuSign allows users to send, sign and manage legally binding documents. 

New contracts

For new products, services, or vendors, when an IT-managed contract has been reviewed and approved by a client, project team or IT staff member, the document should be reviewed by the IT director(s) for the particular area.  For example, project-related contracts should be reviewed by the Director of Project Management, software agreements should be reviewed by the Director of Software Development, etc. 

Once the appropriate director has reviewed the contract, the appropriate IT Executive Team member (typically the DCIO, ISO or Data Officer) should receive the contract from the director, along with details about how the contract is being funded, and any other pertinent information.  For any applications or services that incorporate, handle or store IWU data, Chief Information Security Officer review is required.  After this final review, the Executive Team member will alert the CIO that the contract is being forwarded to the Business Affairs office for legal review and sign-off.   

Once the CIO has been informed, the contract should be sent by the IT designee via email to contracts@indwes.edu.  In the message, the IT designee should include any specific information that will help the legal review process and should also include the name and email address of the vendor contact person who will be responsible for executing the contract on behalf of the vendor organization.  The name(s) and email address(es) of IWU staff who should receive a final signed copy of the contract should also be listed in the email.  IMPORTANT: The IT Budget Coordinator should also receive signed copies of all contracts.  If the contract is part of an official IT project, the IT Project Manager should also receive a signed copy. 

Once the contract is reviewed by IWU legal counsel and loaded into DocuSign, it will be routed to the CIO and to the CFO, who serves as the official signatory for IWU.  The document will then be forwarded via DocuSign to the vendor representative for signature.  Finally, fully signed copies of the contract will be sent automatically from DocuSign to the vendor and to the requested IT staff members. 

Exceptions

Exceptions to the above process:  
For items costing less than $100K, with existing vendor partners, CIO may execute the contract without review of CFO.  For contract renewal with an existing vendor partner, CIO may execute the contract without review of CFO.  In these instances, requests should follow the regular IT purchasing process, including the purchase order request process. 

Contacts

Key contacts for questions related to DocuSign:

• Shelley Isler,
• Shawn Matter