Most of the benefits from enabling e-signatures gained by NMFS and NMFS' end users are qualitative in nature. In large part, the benefits to e-signatures accrue from making it easier for end users to report or file electronically thereby minimizing paper reporting and filing of information. Some of the following benefits apply generally to the use of e-signatures in the shift from paper to electronic filing and some are specific to using e-signatures to improve the Hawaii Non-Commercial Bottomfish Logbook application.
- Reduced cycle time for submitting logbook data. This is an endangered fishery because some species which have historically been a part of this fishery have been determined to be over-fished stocks. Under the MSRA NMFS is committed to ending overfishing, establishing recovery plans for overfished stocks, and ultimately executing the recovery plans to restore the viability of the overfished stocks. Timly reporting will reduce the chance of over fishing because fisheries managers will have an opportunity to monitor the fishery and intervene if necessary. Timly reporting will also support the more intensive management which is likely to be required under recovery plans.
- An increase in constituent participation and satisfaction. Many commercial fishers already use technology to track their catch as a means to increase their productivity. This electronic reporting alternative may allow those fishers to leverage their investment in electronic catch logging to also address their record keeping and reporting obligations. The potential also exists for independent software vendors to provide integration with navigation devices allowing direct recording of fishing locations which would reduce data entry workload and improve data accuracy.
- Cleaner data and more data analysis opportunities. Having the logbook data collected electronically, with comprehensive edit-checks for valid or reasonable data, and immediate feedback on detection of questionable data, will ensure cleaner data. Cleaner data, available more rapidly, will provide more data analysis opportunities.
- Increase in employee productivity. Receiving the data electronically obviates the need to key in logbook data to be used for analysis.
- Greater information benefits to the public. Because this is an endangered fishery due to overfished stocks, the fishing public is likely to have a high degree of interest in this data. Electronic data capture will provide potential for in-season analysis, possibly modeling differing fishing behaviors and showing the fishing public how they could optimize their opportunity to fish by avoiding areas with high bycatch of overfished stocks, etc.
- Reduced reporting burden on the public. Compared to traditional manual logbook reporting, the electronic reporting process should be more convenient and take less time.
Higher User Participation Rate
Another foreseeable benefit of using e-signatures to support the Hawaii Non-commercial Bottomfish Logbook is an increased user participation and customer satisfaction. It will be possible for users, who are not commercial fishers, to complete their logbook submission at home using a web application that walks them through the process. As occasional reporters, it will be important to minimize burden and complexity to get the users to report their catch. (A little more info on the web application and how user-friendly is would help here). Some of these features include help text and response hints that can be associated with each field found on an online form. (Is this going to be true for this application?) These features provide a richer user experience and make reporting online easier, more interactive, and convenient than a paper process.
Increase in Employee Productivity
Using e-signatures to enable electronic reporting of logbook data should also help to increase employee productivity. Since this is a new reporting requirement for non-commercial fishers, an electronic logbook application should, at the very least, minimize the impact of gathering and analyzing these new data. (There is an open issue in my mind about whether there are edit checks in the web application or e-signature feature that will increase assurance in identity or reduce the changes of misreporting or data errors).
Information Benefits to the Public
(I deleted the entry on data quality for now Not sure that information benefits to this application apply like they do for NPS)
Speed Increase in the Transaction Process between NMFS and Constituents
The most Reduced Reporting Burden
Based on estimates provided the upcoming Hawaii longline logbook, this analysis assumes a less burden for electronic logbook reporting than on paper.
Reduced Cycle time for logbook reporting between NMFS and End Users
One substantial benefit that is gained by switching to an electronic process for issuing permits logbook reporting is a speed increase in all parts of the transaction process between NMFS and its constituentsreduction in time getting the logbook data in a form for further processing and analysis. The most noticeable speed increase is seen in the time it takes to transmit an applicant's the logbook data to a NMFS regional office for processing. Since the paper applications are currently sent via postal mail, there exists a bottleneck in the processing process due to the amount of time that a permit application spends in transit. Once an applicant has filled out an online application form and paid any associated processing fees in NPS, the applicant's information is sent directly to NPS' Processing Module for permit processors to begin working on, eliminating the mailing time needed for a paper permit application.
Furthermore, the time that it takes to review and process a permit request will also be reduced because processors will no longer have to perform data entry for applicants who elect to submit their application electronically. This is especially beneficial for applicants who have never been issued a permit and are not in the system. Even in the case where an applicant chooses to submit their information on a paper application form, if the applicant is already in the system all of their information can be prefilled on to any of the online forms that have been defined for use by a region. Also, applications that are submitted online go through multiple validations, to ensure that the form is complete and the data is in the correct format.
NPS also provides an easy way for permit processors to review the information that was submitted by the applicant and see the information that was submitted the last time they applied for the permit. Since all of the permit information is stored in one system, NPS' search feature makes finding any necessary historical information and relationships between the different "Core Entities" (vessels, individuals, businesses, and permits) quick and easy. Although the review and permit processing processes will not be instantaneous, NPS will help reduce the time it takes to complete these activities by running any automated checks (GCEL checks, Do Not Permit checks, Deceased Person Inquiry check, and others) that were defined to be executed for the permit for which the applicant is applyingThere is the additional time it takes to convert the data to electronic form from the paper logbooks.