De digitale toekomst in de praktijk

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

http://www.id.ee/pages.php/03030302,411

The Estonian office of Hedman Osborne Clarke Alliance law firm uses digital signature and ID card in business communications with its partners
and customers.

Background
Established in 1975, Hedman Osborne Clarke Alliance is based in the centre of Helsinki. Hedman Osborne Clarke Alliance is a member of
Osborne Clarke Alliance, a pan-European grouping which offer access to 500 lawyers in 14 European commercial centres, as well as in Silicon
Valley, USA. The Tallinn office of HOCA (hereinafter Hedman) was founded in 1992.

Starting Point
Hedman decided to start using digital signature for a number of reasons:

digital signature is not a magic wand, but it enables to do business more efficiently and securely
a law firm's most valuable resource is time and digital signature helps to save it
customers demanded using digital signatures while communicating with Hedman
Solution
Prior to full-scale usage, Hedman initiated the planning phase where the hardware and software necessary for using the digital signature was
analyzed. As they were not particularly high, Hedman decided to equip all the company's PC-s with card readers and make it mandatory for
employees to have an ID card.

The initial concept was followed by a testing and training phase. Digital signatures on documents were tested out throughout the office and all the
employees were trained to use it. Also, Hedman held seminars where everyone discussed how to make the most of ID card and digital signatures.

Hedman has drawn the following observations from its experience.
employees accept the ID card readily if the can see both business and personal benefit from it (logging in to Internet bank, transmitting personal
digitally signed documents etc)
the notions "copy" and "original" lose their meaning in the digital world - all documents are original
printing out digital signatures is not possible, document storage and archiving must be done digitally
digital document management presents new requirements to corporate IT environment: reliability, backups, security need to be ensured
fax machines will become obsolete in Estonia, things can be done on the Internet
digital documents are much easier to handle than those on paper
document processing becomes quicker
you need to run out of office less and less
the readiness of government agencies to accept digital signature varies greatly - some can do it right away, others need more time. Eventually,
they all have to do it as it is required by law.
if you send digitally signed document to someone for the first time, also add short info about how to verify the document and where to get the
software (DigiDoc) from
In the future, Hedman plans to use the ID card also as access token in place of door locks, and as primary user identification tool for logging on
to computers.

(Cees: aangezien vermeld wordt dat 'you need to run out of office less and less' is het ook noodzakelijk te voorzien in een 'office gym' om
gezondheidsproblemen te voorkomen :).
Overigens lijkt me dat het 'papierloze'-kantoor hier wel aardig dichtbij komt.

Groet,

Cees Binkhorst - cees at binkhorst.xs4all.nl

Steven Wright: Remember that half the people you know are below average.

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