It’s always exciting to be part of a visionary undertaking—especially one that is succeeding so well, and on such a large scale.

A full seven years after commencing the largest e-signature initiative ever undertaken in government, the US Army continued its commitment to paperless processing by renewing its annual electronic signature enterprise license with Silanis.

The original enterprise license was awarded as part of the Forms Content Management Program (FCMP)

Not only will the Silanis e-signature enterprise platform help save the US Army approximately $1.3 billion every year, but our solution’s recently added native e-signatures integration to the IBM Forms server moves the Army even closer to its paperless goal.

With the Army’s direction towards fully web based, zero client e-forms solutions, Silanis added native e-signature integration to the IBM Forms server allowing Army users to sign an e-form in a browser-only environment. In addition, this new functionality includes interoperability between client based and zero client based solutions. Army personnel can start the signing process with the e-signature/e-forms solution in a zero client, web browser-only mode while maintaining the option to complete the process offline at a later date.

In the paper-signing days, getting a signature from a superior officer sometimes meant sending convoys into hostile territories. Now, Army personnel can safely and securely sign online from anywhere in the world, using just a browser and without having to download files.

In addition, the fact that our software transitions seamlessly between client based (desktop) and zero-client based (web) solutions, Army personnel can start the signing process online without giving up the ability to complete it offline at their convenience. In this way, our solution is web-enabled, but not web-dependent.

This kind of flawless interoperability was one of the driving factors behind this project’s success, according to a 2008 Gartner case study that also highlighted the implementation’s emphasis on simplicity, efficiency and high end user satisfaction.

To date, under the FCMP, 2,500 of the most critical Department of Army forms have been digitized and made available to more than 1.6 million users.

It’s a remarkable achievement considering that the US Army was the first government department to spearhead automation and that once completed, the project will hold the title as the largest e-signature and e-forms deployment in the world.