Belgium CertiPost goes into hybrid registered mail
Certipost, the 50-50 joint venture between Belgium Post and Belgacom, is expanding its portfolio with a new internally developed hybrid registered mail service. The company's repertoire already includes e-billing, e-government, digital IDs, secure electronic messaging and document delivery. Scheduled to launch sometime between now and the end of January, the hybrid service will give mailers the flexibility to send either paper-based registered mail or registered e-mail.
Since July, Certipost has been peddling the registered electronic service. Registered e-mail is supposed to guarantee the confidentiality of the message and involves a digital signature. Certipost officials declined to reveal pricing or other specifics of the hybrid service until it's ready to launch.
The way the widgetry works senders can hit both constituencies – paper and electronic – with a single electronic file sent from the Certipost platform.
The company figures the service has no competitors in Belgium.
Like the registered e-mail service, the hybrid service also involves digital signatures.
As Certipost gears up to roll out the hybrid service, the startup has been moving ahead on other fronts. It recently announced a partnership with CEVI, a local concern, to develop and manage electronic or online counters for cities and municipalities. It's resulted in an electronic counter called "e-loket powered by Certipost" that's supposed to combine the advantages of both the Certipost and CEVI electronic counters in one application.
Electronic counters securely provision civil services and provide the forms that people use to request official documents online. Certipost officials say "e-loket powered by Certipost" will be offered in east and west-Flanders.
The new electronic counter combines Certipost's security and hosting with CEVI's 84 e-forms.
Certipost say the combo lets a municipality quickly and easily install an extensive and secure electronic counter or securely add forms to an existing CEVI or Certipost e-counter.
Besides its forms capabilities, e-loket lets citizens, companies and local administrations exchange information safely. MyCertipost's secure messaging gives local governments a secure communication channel and everybody can use the registered e-mail too.
An integrated payment service is supposed to process forms requests r and registered e-mail quickly.
"Certipost's and CEVI's know-how is complementary to each other," said Certipost CEO Erik Weytjens. "The combination of our solutions in a new digital electronic counter gives us the opportunity to offer an even richer product to the municipalities and cities in east and west Flanders."
Users can register for e-loket at www.mycertipost.be or the web site of a client municipality. Access is provided through the online channel of Belgian bank KBC/CBC-Online, Belgian electronic identity cards or when user identities are validated at the post office.
CEVI implements the solution for the towns.
The Certipost-CEVI alliance underscores Certipost's focus on e-government services. Before the CEVI deal, Certipost was working with several Belgian towns to extend their virtual services. It is also closely involved with the government's electronic ID card project and is teamed with the software house VAT Applications so businesses apply the correct value added tax on electronic invoices sent within the European Union. The partnership involves providing hooks between iVAT's application and the Certipost platform.
Certipost is expected to report a loss this year on revenues of $9.67 million. The year-old concern expects to be in the black next year.
