Press & News
August 17, 2006
Co-operation agreed between Danet and AuthentiDate
Document generation now meets essential legal requirements and tax law stipulations
Düsseldorf and Weiterstadt, – A co-operation has been agreed between the Danet Group, generally acknowledged in the global market as an experienced Information-Communication-Technology service provider, and AuthentiDate, an accredited certification service provider and leading company in digital signature and time stamp products, as stipulated by under German Signature Act and the EU Signature Directive.
Danet provides IT support for telecommunications services, focusing, in particular, on the integration of its products into systems in the telco and automotive industries as well as financial and logistical service providers. To deliver these services, Danet combines its high level of technical expertise with its knowledge of the business processes and models of its customers. This enables Danet to develop, implement and operate innovative, customised solutions with long lifecycles, resulting in a measurable value contribution to the core business of its customers. In the area of document management Danet now works with AuthentiDate, adding qualified electronic signatures and time stamps to its own solution (“DSS”) for the generation of documents from raw data.
By integrating AuthentiDate signature and time stamp solutions, Danet has taken a further step towards becoming a full service and full solution provider for billing processes, electronic documents and document processes. As well as offering a technical solution, Danet has a team of experienced consultants, covering related areas such as public key infrastructures, identity management and enterprise content management.
Through its partnership with AuthentiDate, Danet now has a single source for a wide range of proven and internationally usable products for the integration of signatures and time stamps in all types of business processes. It is an important feature of AuthentiDate products that they allow the signing of vast volumes of data in a way that is transparent, automatic and centralized, thus meeting the relevant statutory requirements.
Using AuthentiDate signature products, Danet now also offers legally compliant electronic billing processes in combination with electronic signatures. The use of qualified electronic signatures for electronic VAT invoices and a commitment to meeting the latest amendment to the German Principles Concerning Data Access and the Verifiability of Digital Documents are elements that have emerged as “must-haves” in recent years, particularly in the telecommunications, financial and automotive industries.
In the telco market electronic invoices with electronic signatures are increasingly gaining ground throughout Europe. This is an area where Danet, as a leading provider of billing solutions, sees considerable growth opportunities for its own solutions.
By combining Danet’s document generation and AuthentiDate’s signature products – which warrant compliance with the German Signature Act – Danet’s customers can now achieve substantial cost reductions in their billing procedures through a conversion to electronic bills with electronic signatures. Legally binding support is also provided for e-mail correspondence, web presentations and SMS text messages. The alternative generation of paper invoices continues to be an option. One special benefit for Danet customers is that the AuthentiDate signature solution is the only software that is currently available in the market for which a software certification by one of the world’s leading auditing companies is available. This means that all Danet customers can receive confirmation from an independent third party that their signature solution meets the special requirements of financial accounting, e.g. under the German Commercial Code, the German Charges Regulations, German Accounting Principles, and the German VAT Act.
In financial accounting an electronic signature on a banker’s card is seen as a possible alternative that may replace the existing procedure which is currently based on PINs and access codes – a method which is still regarded by the industry as requiring improvements in matters of handling and security.
In the insurance sector, particularly in vehicle insurance, there has been a marked increase in the need for personalised secure invoices that will boost customer loyalty. Here, too, the integration of a flexible document generation system with electronic signatures will lead to substantial benefits for Danet customers.
In the automotive industry the area that can be secured very simply through electronic signatures and time stamps is that of B2B invoicing dealership processes in relation to the documentation that is generated each time.
“With the internationally proven signature solutions from AuthentiDate,” says Ralph Cramer from Business Development at Danet, “we can offer our customers a legally secure all-round solution for their billing requirements, which will lead to cost savings in their business processes.”
By concluding this strategic co-operation with AuthentiDate, Danet has added a vital functional component to its document management portfolio and is now consolidating its position as a leading service provider in billing, document generation and output management.
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