The case for secure e-document delivery

E-mail is one of the most pervasive technologies influencing the way businesses conduct their operations and how people communicate in general.

Companies are increasingly using e-mail for either marketing or billing, or both. Research published by DoubleClick, on e-mail usage among consumers in the US, confirmed more than 30% want invoices and statements by e-mail, or are already receiving electronic bills, and more than 40% would like to replace the paper-based direct mail they receive with e-mail.

Undoubtedly e-billing presents a strong business case; and it is both tangible and measurable. However, are there perhaps other areas where e-mail can provide the platform to reduce the challenges and costs associated with traditional communication?

An area in which the power and efficiency of electronic communication can provide significant benefits is secure e-document delivery technology for the financial services industry. In the local market, vast amounts of time-critical and confidential information need to be distributed by the financial services industry daily.

Let's examine some of the factors that affect the financial services industry as far as the conventional issue and delivery of confidential and time-sensitive documentation is concerned. Delivery by fax, hand or post amounts to a serious administrative burden, is labour-intensive, costly and very often does not meet the delivery time requirements.

Typical financial services documentation such as share transaction notifications, deal confirmations, portfolio valuations, analyst reports or forex trade confirmations can, however, be sent via e-mail over the public Internet. So what is holding this back?

Few service providers have the capability to overcome the difficulties in doing this securely and in large numbers. Delivering thousands of time-sensitive share analyses, forex trades or critical market research reports confidentially is not a straightforward exercise. Firstly, it requires a highly secure, high volume technology platform and great depth of e-mail delivery expertise if the documentation is to reach the right person at the right time.

Secondly, it requires high levels of Internet knowledge and experience to ensure spam filters or other blocking mechanisms do not reject the documents. White-listing and capacity to send high levels of e-mail quickly and securely with confirmation of delivery are critical.

Undoubtedly e-billing presents a strong business case; and it is both tangible and measurable.

Alison Treadaway, Striata sales and marketing director

E-document delivery solutions have to go beyond an implementation of technology. When choosing an implementation partner, experience and intellectual property are crucial to consider in what they can add with regards to adoption strategies and deliverability. To maximise deliverability, a team and system must be in place to check delivery rates and statuses, and implement solutions to ensure the e-mails get through.

Because the communication is system generated, encrypted and password-protected if necessary, the confidentiality of information is maintained, with only the sender and recipient being able to access it.

No matter how sound the secure e-document delivery system is, initially at least, it is only as good as the financial service provider's address database. One of the objectives for a financial services organisation adopting the solution is to ensure that either it, or its e-document delivery service provider, has skills to monitor, clean up and maintain the customer database.

Detailed analysis of the returns from every bulk e-mailing exercise must be conducted to gain the data needed to implement appropriate follow up steps to ensure correct e-mail addresses and addressee details are maintained. Only with focused database management will the objective of attaining delivery rates of 99%-100% be achieved.

A secure e-document delivery solution may also be required to go beyond a purely e-mail delivery approach. Multiple delivery formats, using e-mail, fax and SMS or any combination of these, may be required to ensure the time-critical communication gets to the person for whom it is intended via the medium that person prefers. Flexibility must therefore be inherent in any solution to meet the major objective of financial services providers - maximising the delivery of time-critical information in accordance with the customer's preference.

Two-way communication with recipients via built-in mouse-click options or an automatic reply SMS provides a simple, quick method of accepting or rejecting offers or transactions, and at the same time provides a convenient means for updating customer details.

The financial aspects of a secure e-document delivery solution are also appealing through paper turn-off, reduced telephone, telefax and postage costs, more effective use of resources and consolidation of document deliveries. Sounds like a solution with a good business case to me...