Viafirma’s digital signature has played an important role in the digital transformation of the Dominican Judiciary, we tell you how!
The Dominican Judicial Council is the constitutional organ of justice and one of the three branches of the Dominican State, together with the Legislative and the Executive. Its objective is to administer justice through the courts and tribunals, ensuring the protection of the rights that have been established in the norms or laws of the nation.
Since the beginning of the digital era, the Dominican Judicial Council has been aware of how necessary digital transformation is for them. A fact that motivated the development of the institutional strategic plan Vision Justice 20/24, which includes digitization and the use of technological tools to make the judicial service more effective and efficient.
The challenge
All public administrations are characterized by processes that generate a huge amount of documentation. The global health crisis of 2020 has led to a slowdown in procedures, reaching extremes that jeopardize the rights of citizens. Fortunately, the Judicial Council was prepared to deal with this problem long before the pandemic.
The solution was to digitize the processes and even, due to COVID-19 restrictions, to carry them out completely remotely. And for this digitization, it was essential to implement electronic signatures.
The main objective of the institution was to eliminate the use of paper, although, after the mobility restrictions due to the pandemic, they saw that the “delocalization” of some processes was also an element to be taken into account. To this end, it became necessary:
- The implementation of a digital signature system in the Judicial Council.
- The elimination of paper in internal management processes, and in judgements, rulings and other judicial documents issued.
- Ensure the legality of signature processes and signed documents.
In order to carry out this ambitious project in an agile manner, it was necessary to advance in parallel in the regulatory and technical dimensions.
First, an internal policy for the use of electronic signatures was established within the institution.
In April 2020, the Electronic Signature Policy of the Judicial Branch was approved by its Council. This regulates the use of electronic signatures in jurisdictional and administrative functions, valid for judges, magistrates, magistrates, as well as other judicial servants.
The solution
In order to achieve the goals set, it was deemed necessary to implement digital signature and authentication solutions remotely.
Specifically, the use of Viafirma digital signature holder and its efficient management system of signature workflows was implemented; very useful for those processes that require validation of people within the institution through our SMS OTP system, mail or signature with certificate in the cloud accessible from any device and place.
The solution offers a mail-like inbox where electronic documents are sorted. Our bulk signature (several documents signed at once) reduces operating costs and increases productivity.
The result
Today, the Dominican Judiciary continues to increase the use of our software uninterruptedly thanks to its ease of use and the trust placed in Viafirma, with 12,000 signatures per day and more than 4.5 million documents signed since its implementation in May 2020.
Although the initial scope was to electronically sign documents issued by the courts, the benefits of the solution broadened the vision and its use was extended to the institution’s own administrative processes.
In the last year, internal management has become more efficient and environmentally friendly, drastically reducing the use of paper and achieving significant savings in waiting times, paperwork and costs.