Congratulations to our 2018 Impact Prize winners!

The Certification curriculum is a rigorous, three-level training program held in New York City for agencies aiming to turn staff members into true AWARDS experts. The AWARDS Certification Cumulative Exam on Basic User Skills is now available online for completion! There is no charge for this exam and no obligation to enroll in Certification upon successful completion of the exam.

In order to be eligible to enroll in the AWARDS Certification program, you must pass this qualifying exam with a score of at least 80%. The exam will be available through September 4th and must be completed during that time.

Progress Notes Electronic Signatures

As noted in previous FootNotes, we have been hard at work with E-Signatures in AWARDS. The new E-Signatures format - currently available only in Plans and Reviews - will be rolled out for Progress Notes during the months of August and September.  

With the August enhancements, the signature configuration feature will be deployed. This will allow users to take the necessary time to thoughtfully configure electronic signatures for note types and program types in their database - without affecting the existing signing process currently in use with Progress Notes. During the configuration period, AWARDS will still utilize the current E-Signatures rules for Progress Notes.

With the September enhancements we will deploy a feature that will allow agencies to make the switch and activate their new Progress Notes E-Signatures configuration sets. This activation will be a database wide step. But note that agencies will not be forced to switch to the new model at that time. After the full release of this feature, the old Progress Notes E-Signatures configuration will still be available and in use by AWARDS until your agency decides to switch to the new model.

Some benefits of the new Progress Notes E-Signatures configuration include:

  Ability to determine the number of signatures available, with options for staff, clients, and external signers

  Configurable labels for signatures

  Options for documenting refused or unavailable for signature

  Ability to allow a note text box for signatures

  Alert messages when notes are ready for signing

  New reporting allowing for true quality assurance of note signing status

  Ability to set up signing order workflow requirements

Stay tuned to FootNotes and our New Features announcements for further details and links to related Online Help materials.

When we originally released our electronic signature capture capability, we did so with signature pads made by a company called Topaz; however, after several years we found we needed to change direction.  At the time, modern browsers were - for security purposes - increasingly locking out the different mechanisms Topaz used to allow their signature pads to access a secure web app like AWARDS. We worked extensively with Topaz to encourage them to use the same security framework for their signature pads as that used with AWARDS, but we were ultimately unsuccessful.  As a result, in the December 2015 and January 2016 editions of FootNotes we detailed the end of support for Topaz signature pads in AWARDS.  

As we moved away from use of Topaz signature pads for the AWARDS e-signatures functionality, we put our focus into developing and supporting touch screen capability in its place.  Touch screen devices are a flexible and user-friendly means of signature capture that exist in numerous forms, such as touch screen monitors that can be retrofitted to existing workstations, tablets, two-in-one Windows and Chrome OS devices, and more.  These different options support nearly all of the workflows and use cases that an AWARDS user might encounter.  

We understand that in some instances agencies chose not to transition to "touch" signatures, and have instead been able to continue using Topaz signature pads beyond end of support.  This has often required use of older browsers and plug-ins that are not as secure as their more modern equivalents, and which may also not be supported for use with AWARDS, ultimately impacting user experience.  If your agency is actively using Topaz signature pads, we encourage you to take this opportunity to learn about the other options currently available to you.

We know electronic signatures are extremely important to agency operations and that any kind of hardware change can be a difficult transition, but we're confident that touch signatures will meet the needs of your staff and clients, and we have a variety of online resources available to provide guidance in the review and decision-making process:

Did you know...

...that there are ways for you to proof your FormBuilder forms as they're being built?  In AWARDS you can:

  Spell check your Field Labels using the Spell Check tool available when adding or editing a form field.

  Check out the look and feel of your form in its entirety using the Preview tool available from the forms menu or from your form's sections/fields list during the form configuration process.

Bonus tip! 

While in preview mode, use <Ctrl+A> on your keyboard to select all of the form's content, and then paste it into Microsoft Word or another word processor to check for typos and grammar mistakes.

Check out the latest in Foothold news and recent entries from the Foothold blog!