The Association for the Promotion of Voluntary Social Services has been organizing the Voluntary Social Year (FSJ) in Austria for more than 56 years. The association does this to give young adults insights into the social sector; and this is well accompanied pedagogically by FSJ employees who care about the well-being of the FSJ participants. The non-profit association cooperates with numerous large social organizations, such as Caritas, Lebenshilfe or state clinics, but also with many smaller institutions such as private children’s groups.

The FSJ participants work 34 hours a week in a social institution in Austria, gain experience, can orient themselves professionally and develop personally. The association ensures conducive and fair conditions in the social institutions with mandatory mentors and reflection meetings for quality assurance. Depending on the area of application and location, different activities are required. The main goal of every FSJ assignment is to support the respective team and the clients to be cared for.

Organization Name:
Association for the Promotion of Voluntary Social Services – Voluntary Social Year

Short description of the project:
Digitization of signature processes to significantly reduce administrative effort and optimize contract processing.

Why sproof sign:
“It was important to us to find a solution that is practicable and affordable. Data protection had to be met. The tool used to process the signature had to work competently, trustingly, professionally and, above all, “listen” to what we need. We found all of this at sproof.”

How did the decision to introduce the digital signature come about?

When I took over the management three years ago, the association, which had been in existence for over 50 years, was in its infancy in terms of digitalization. Until then, all contracts with the social institutions and FSJ participants were drawn up by means of a form letter, printed, signed, stamped, put in an envelope and taken to the post office. And signed back by post. If a change was necessary, everything started all over again. This was still feasible with a smaller number of participants, but the more young adults do an FSJ, the more impossible the undertaking becomes. Not to mention the probability of errors of the various Excel lists. Thus, digitized solutions appropriate for the 21st century were needed.

In the first step, an IT company was found that brought all our processes into a digital process. Thus, we could no longer receive the applications as an attachment in an e-mail (the information of which then had to be inserted into Excel lists), as was common and necessary in the past, but via a registration tool. The data could then be used directly to automatically create the necessary contracts after the fixation of an FSJ assignment. This clarified the creation of the contract, but then the digital signing option was still missing. After some research and mainly thanks to a recommendation from a friend, I finally came across sproof.

How important is the digital transformation for the FSJ?

The importance of digital transformation for the FSJ cannot be overestimated. An FSJ year always starts with autumn. Thus, the summer is the peak phase of mediation and also the peak phase for the contracts. Two contracts with our association are necessary for each person placed: with the social institution and with the FSJ participant. We have to sign these contracts and, of course, the other side as well. sproof offered and still offers us the ideal solution today! This year we expect around 700 FSJ assignments, and thus around 1400 contracts that have to be signed.

What criteria were decisive for you in your search for the right e-signature provider?

It was important to us to find a solution that was practicable and affordable. Data protection had to be met. The tool used to process the signature had to work competently, trustingly, professionally and, above all, “listen” to what we need. We found all this at sproof.

For which use cases is the digital signature used?

For the subscriptions of our FSJ agreements with the social institutions and with the FSJ participants and also for contracts with sponsors, service contracts, etc. Simply for all documents that require an officially valid signature. And so sproof not only helps us with the contracts around the FSJ assignments, but also with documents that have to be signed by the chairwoman of the association and the managing director, as we don’t see each other so often – which makes it difficult to sign by hand – but are mainly in contact via email and telephone.

Since we have sproof, which also makes it possible to make drawings via ID-Austria, there is no longer any need for meetings, which used to be mainly about getting a signature for an important document. We also celebrate the paperless solution. This allows us to save valuable resources. Today, we print almost nothing at all.

Until then, all contracts with the social institutions and FSJ participants were drawn up by form letter, printed out, signed, stamped, put in an envelope and taken to the post office. And signed back by post. If a change was necessary, everything started all over again. This was still feasible with a smaller number of participants, but the more young adults do an FSJ, the more impossible the undertaking becomes.

MMag. Elisabeth Marcus
Managing Director of the Voluntary Social Year Association

How did the integration of the cloud work?

The IT company that did the digitization for us and sproof took care of that directly. From expert to expert, so to speak. For us as a customer, this was ideal.

What demands does an organization like the FSJ have in terms of security, compliance and data protection?

Of course, we have extremely high standards here. The privacy and security question was one of the first we asked when we came across sproof.

What do you particularly like about sproof sign?

All employees at sproof are incredibly competent, friendly, professional and always eager to find the best solution for us. They are there and available for questions and problems and do everything they can to ensure that we as customers achieve the result we need and want. sproof is the best thing that could have happened to us, next to the great IT company with which we tackled digitization.

Are signature workflows used for your use case?

Yes. Especially when I digitally sign documents with our chairperson, the signature workflow comes into play. But also in the contracts with assignment sites and FSJ participants. By switching from manual signatures to agreements sent by post to digital signatures by e-mail, we have also ensured digitization in the more than 700 social institutions, because the managers of the social institutions then also had to deal with the digital signature.

Now we are already in the third year of use and everywhere it works quite wonderfully. sproof is experienced as a trustworthy and uncomplicated partner. By the way, digital drawing was never a challenge for the FSJ participants. From the very beginning, the young adults did it in no time at all with their mobile phones, as if they had never done it any other way. This also speaks for the easy and understandable usability of sproof. We say a heartfelt THANK YOU for the great cooperation!!