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Project · energy supply

E-signature rollout with Adobe Acrobat Sign at an energy supplier

For an energy supplier, I supported the rollout of electronic signatures with Adobe Acrobat Sign. I developed a bilingual training plan, quick-start guides, videos, and recommendations, delivered training sessions tailored to specific audiences, held office hours via Teams, and supported users with questions and form migrations.

Discuss a similar projectAll case studies
  • 04/2022 - 04/2023
  • more than 7,500 employees
  • Consulting
Industry
Energy supplier
Company size
more than 7,500 employees
Scope
more than 40 locations, international sales
Period
04/2022 - 04/2023
My role
Design, creation of materials, delivery, and user support (via a staffing agency)
Type
Consulting

82

training and office hour sessions between 12/2022 and 04/2023

4

target groups with their own format

2

languages for all materials and sessions

6

training videos (three each in German and English)

880h

Project effort from 10/2022 to 04/2023

01The situation

Where the project started.

The energy supplier replaced an existing token-based signature process and expanded Adobe Acrobat Sign as its platform for electronic signatures. Employees with very different levels of prior knowledge, from administration to the power plants, were to be able to digitally sign agreements and request signatures and to make forms signature-ready themselves.

Goals

  • Create a suitable introduction to Adobe Acrobat Sign for each target group
  • Provide materials in German and English
  • Answer users' questions quickly and update the materials to address common problems
  • Establish uniform rules for library templates

02Solution

What I designed and built.

Training tailored to each audience

I developed a training plan with separate profiles for beginners, requesters, and advanced users, later supplemented by a format for employees in the power plants. Each profile combines self-study material, videos, and virtual sessions.

  • Beginners: signature types, interface, sending, signing, and managing
  • Requesters: form fields, signature-ready forms from Word, Excel, and PDF, Office add-ins, and mobile devices
  • Advanced users: web forms, prefilling via URL parameters, and activating and hiding

Guides, videos, and recommendations

In addition to the training materials, I created bilingual quick-start guides on signature types (SES, AES, QES), on signing and requesting signatures, and on bulk sending. These were complemented by training videos, a handout for workplaces in the power plants, guides for HR forms, and a naming convention for library templates.

Sessions, office hours, and feedback

Training sessions took place virtually via Teams, alternating between German and English, with weekly office hours for consultation. After each training session, quality was evaluated using a Microsoft Forms survey.

03Tricky parts

Challenges and how I solved them.

One platform, very different users

Instead of one-size-fits-all training, there were four formats with their own content and depth, plus a printable handout for workplaces without regular screen access.

04Approach

Step by step to the result.

  1. 1

    Planning

    Target group profiles, content, and formats defined and agreed.

  2. 2

    Materials

    Training materials, quick-start guides, and videos created in German and English.

  3. 3

    Delivery

    Training sessions, office hours, feedback evaluation, and ongoing updates to the materials.

05Result

What works differently today.

  • Between December 2022 and April 2023, 82 training and office hour sessions took place.
  • Video recordings of the training sessions were provided for self-study.

Technologies

  • Adobe Acrobat Sign (incl. web forms, library templates, bulk send)
  • Adobe Acrobat Sign Office add-ins
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Microsoft Forms
  • TechSmith Camtasia
  • Microsoft PowerPoint

Demonstrated skills

  • Adobe Acrobat Sign
  • Electronic signatures under eIDAS (SES, AES, QES)
  • User materials tailored to target groups
  • Bilingual project communication

06Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions

Which electronic signature is needed when?
That depends on the document, the applicable law, and statutory or agreed formal requirements. For transactions without formal requirements, a simple electronic signature can be sufficient. If the law requires written form, in Germany and Austria it can generally only be replaced by a qualified electronic signature (QES) under eIDAS, and not even in every case, for example not for the termination of an employment relationship in Germany. In Switzerland, a QES under ZertES with a qualified time stamp is equivalent to a handwritten signature; a QES under eIDAS is not automatically equivalent there. Your legal counsel is responsible for the legal assessment.
Why do you need naming conventions for signature templates?
Without rules, duplicate and unclear template names quickly arise. A convention with the category first, underscores instead of spaces, no umlauts or special characters, and a fixed date or version number makes templates easy to find and sort.

07More case studies

More projects in detail.

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