A soon-to-be-published report by a leading academic test group staffed by representatives of M.I.T., NASA, the San Diego Supercomputer Center and the Boston University Computer Lab estimates that in 2004 there were 31 billion e-mail messages sent worldwide.  They contend that corporate users sent an average of 34 e-mail messages per user per day, while receiving only 10 messages per day.  This statistic takes into account over-filled mailboxes, mailx resolution issues, misspelled e-mail addresses, messages that did not require a response and general send/receive network issues, but the most alarming statistic is this:  one or two of those missing 24 e-mail messages were more than likely intercepted.  Whether bored teenagers or malicious cyber thieves, someone’s targeting our electronic business communications — and we can’t protect them on the Internet.

With electronic privacy, client security and privileged communications so much in the news and coming across our desks these days this may not surprise you.  You may have been working with your technology committee and network staff to come up with a viable solution for getting your documents across the Internet safely for some time now.  If you have, you’re likely frustrated by the lack of any real standard or direction in this new type of business service, or indeed, of any general consensus as to what specifically this new type of business service should provide you.  In determining your needs, an analogy to the send/receive processes for paper documents is in order.

Registered E-Mail to the Rescue
Registered e-mail and secure digital package delivery is exactly like its out-of-date paper counterpart.  It is a sealed, registered, completely traceable package which can only be opened by the listed recipient.  So why is it so hard to find a solution that fits?  There are a number of reasons this technology hasn’t become as standardized as it should.

First, there is no standard.  Some solutions currently offered integrate with your existing e-mail software and offer basic encryption at the push of a button.  Others are stand-alone locally installed communications tools.  The problem with these integrated solutions is that they are just that — integrated.  That means it’s yet another piece of third-party software that your firm’s already overworked IT department has to load onto the standard workstation image and support when there’s a problem.  You can opt for a server-based enterprise solution, but now of course you’re adding hardware to your support requirements.  Most of these rely on Microsoft Outlook or Exchange to shoulder the communications burden and provide tools like contact information and folder management.

These solutions generally require your recipients to have the software or a proprietary document viewer installed on their systems as well in order to receive and decrypt the documents you’re sending.  So now, not only do you have to integrate new software into your complex systems and support it in order to create and manage secure electronic document delivery, but you have to convince your client to do the same thing.  Past Web-based solutions, although a step in the right direction, have also required the same end-to-end configuration — your client needed to have an account as well.  In addition, the older Web-based applications were very thin, offering only the most basic tools to get your documents from point A to point B; no contact management, no log archiving, no subfolder filing system.

Another issue that has hindered the growth of secure digital document delivery is that many providers haven’t figured out how to price the product.  Some, like the U.S. Postal Service and Canada Post, for example, base the pricing on the paper counterpart; in this case the conventional registered letter.  Is anyone going to send a four-dollar e-mail message?  Probably not.

Finally, there hasn’t previously been an all-in-one solution that combines ease-of-use, deep tracking and management tools and offers robust security and encryption.  So, are there any solutions today that offer the features necessary to replace conventional document delivery with a digital solution?

Yes there are; some of them are even free.  But before we get to the solutions currently available that meet some or all of the modern businesses electronic communications needs, let’s consider the components of the ideal secure digital document delivery system.

It Should Be Web-Based
The business software of the future is powerful Web-based productivity applications, and this application should be no exception.  Your in-house IT staff has enough on its plate without having to become a virtual courier service as well.  With Web-based electronic document delivery you’ve essentially hired a light-speed, electronic courier to look after your confidential documents, and the only technological requirement for using the software is the browser you use to access the Internet everyday.

It Should Be Secure
Of course, the environment you log into should be bank-level 128-bit SSL encrypted; but more than that, you should have the option of adding extra encryption to your digital documents, and wrapping the whole thing up into what is being referred to in this emerging industry as a “digital package.”  The encryption offered should be industrial-strength strong-bit encryption at 1024-bit to 2048-bit, or ideally 4096-bit.

It Should Be Traceable
When the recipient retrieves the digital package, the essential information should be captured, including identity verification, IP address, as well as an accurate time and date.  This information should be available to the sender indefinitely.

It Should Require Nothing of the Recipient
If all you need is a browser to create the package, then that’s all your client should need to get the package.  If courier companies required both the sender and receiver to have a current account with that company to send and receive packages, no one would use them.  As it stands now, the courier only requires the sender to have an account, and the recipient only has to be at the address and sign for the package, or if they are picking up the package at the courier depot, they will likely require photo identification as well.  Your digital package retrieval requirements should be no different.  The client should only have to follow a link using a browser, enter a password, certify their identity, have their IP address captured and be granted immediate access to their package.

It Should Be Self-Supporting
Any digital document delivery system worth using should provide a robust support solution to alleviate the strain on your IT department, and it should be free.  If the support is free, you can assume that they are not losing money on support calls.  And the only way not to lose money on support calls is not to get many of them; of course the only way to eliminate your support calls is to build good software.

It Should Have Robust Management Tools
The software should be able to import your contact information, handle the creation and management of subfolders and files for organizing your correspondence, allow you to create and manipulate distribution groups, and select delivery preferences for your packages, such as time-delay.  On an enterprise level, the system should be able to use your existing login protocols and should offer administrator management tools for configuring client accounts if the solution itself has this as an option.

It Should Be Easy to Use
The learning curve for a new Web-based communications tool should be under 15 minutes.  If it’s cryptic, crowded with tiny buttons or poorly explained in whatever language you’re using, consider something else.

It Should Be Free
If you have cost recovery tools for your fax, photocopier and courier, then your digital document delivery system should have them as well.  You should be able to set up client accounts (if they want them), and track each transaction by client/matter number or by any system you currently employ.  Ideally, the system should furnish you with a monthly report that can be imported automatically into your accounting software and provide the necessary billing information.

Go shopping.  A quick Google search for [+”registered e-mail, +”secure e-mail”, +”digital package”] (typed without the brackets) will bring you to some of the leaders in this new communications field, and then you can decide for yourself which ones meet the ideal features listed above and which will fit best with your firm.  In the end, with the addition of this powerful new tool to your technological arsenal, you will have lowered or eliminated some of your costs, safeguarded your client’s information, streamlined communications, alleviated IT support strain and complied with international privacy legislation.  And that should help you sleep at night.

About our author . . .

Ryan Pannell is the Director of Operations and Development for Blue Circle Software Limited, an international software development and consulting firm.  Blue Circle Software has helped some of the largest financial and legal centers in North America, as well as groups in the EU, to better streamline their technological systems and leverage new technologies.  Ryan can be reached at 1.866.243.2678 or at rpannell@bluecirclesoftware.com.