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The eIDAS regulation is the ultimate chance for the digital transformation of your organization. It enables the creation of legal documents with a qualified digital seal.
In addition, the eIDAS regulation stipulates there is no legal difference between a document on paper or in electronic version. These principles pave the way for real paperless business processes.
The last few years digital transformation is worldwide trending, with all its derivatives and impacts: paperless, NWOW (new way of working), BYOD (Bring your own device), … And yet, when we take a look to business processes, we notice that paper continues to be king.
Business documents are still frequently printed for legal or process purposes, digital versions are kept without knowing which one is the latest or which one has a business or legal value.
And what is even more disturbing, is that managers take decisions based on that information. In enterprise management, lack of information or misinformation is one of the biggest threats on daily operations.
The value of digital seals:
Thanks to the EU eIDAS regulation you can start imagining your business processes without paper. This regulation provides two very interesting new principles to help you improve your information processes.
The first one is the creation of digital seals. The previous directive, published in 1999, only covered e-signatures which trust on an individual and was a bit complicated to apply for companies. Now, a company can create legal documents using a qualified digital seal.
Electronic documents are legally equal to paper versions:
The legal landscape of eIDAS stipulates that an electronic signature shall not be denied legal effect and admissibility as evidence in legal proceeding solely on the grounds that it is an electronic form (art. 25).
Basically, it means that for any European court there is no legal difference between a physical or electronical version of a document. This equivalence principle is a big business opportunity for the digital transformation of your business.
How to ensure information integrity:
In order for a digital document to be legally equivalent to a paper document, you will have to prove the document was not altered.
Therefore, you need to think about digital sealing and make sure it is strong enough to ensure information integrity. The regulation defines how you can provide this functionality by using qualified trust services.
These third-parties are certified by a European supervisory authority (SPF – FOD economy in Belgium) and can provide you a qualified digital seal. That way, a digitally sealed document will have a complete legal value. This means you can stop printing and storing paper versions.
Digital seal with legal value in all EU member states:
In contrast to the previous electronic signature directive, the eIDAS regulation does not need to be transposed to the member state law.
The new regulation is effective in the EU since June 1st 2016. More importantly, this means that a digital seal from a qualified trust service from any member state is legally valid all around the EU.
Digitize your business processes with Docbyte:
eIDAS stimulates the use and management of digitized documents without losing their business or legal value.
Paper versions are not required anymore. This creates a major opportunity to start the digital transformation of your organization. Docbyte is the ideal partner to help you reshape your business processes, get rid of paper and improve your information management.
Interested to read more about eIDAS? Then check our blog for more Interesting reads about eIDAS. And if you should have more questions about the Docbyte Solution for eIDAS, you can contact our eIDAS experts for a personal chat and start your digital transformation today!
