You can take this ability one step further and enable the performance of a real-time biometric verification of a person’s signature by comparing the recorded parameters of his handwritten signatures against his pre-enrolled profile. Thus business transactions are only processed if their signers were authenticated and companies can prove who signed which document and when it was signed.

You can try yourselves and download the SIGNificant Client for a 90 days trial for free without any registration:  http://www.xyzmo.com/en/resource-center/Pages/SIGNificantClient.aspx

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• Gather the facts where paper is used today in your business processes.
• Develop a process map for these processes
• Bring together teams representing all departments involved in the process to brainstorm new out of the box thinking for improvements.
• Develop a process map for your desired Future State process.
• Complete a Cost Benefit Analysis to see what savings you could achieve.
• Set priorities for which processes can be implemented first.
• Determine an action plan.
• Start small with one easy to implement process.
• Celebrate your win and make it public inside the company
• Choose the next process from your list.

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LCD Signature Tablets STU-300 and STU-500

The new tablet enables users to capture handwritten signatures without having to print off hardcopies. This will mean that transactions and workflows where paper documents are still involved will become much more efficient. Customers will be able to sign contracts, approve payments and confirm deliveries quickly and securely. The STU-300 comes with tempered anti-glare protection glass making it extremely durable, and scratch resistant. Thanks to its embedded sensor, the STU-300 offers an extended lifetime in comparison with conventional, resistive touch sensors.

Wacom’s STU-300 is intuitive and easy to use. Signatures are captured on a LC display using a cordless, battery free pen. The sensor captures biometric information from the signature such data coordinates and pressure signals. The individual pressure profile, writing rhythm and speed build a unique biometric signature profile meaning forgery is made almost impossible. The screen is wide enough even for long signatures. Last but not least, the pen is attached to the STU-300 to prevent loss – and can be easily stored in the device when not in use. 

The STU-300 is available from February 2010 through xyzmo (www.xyzmo.com) and is supported by all xyzmo’s digital signature solutions.

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For 35 years, prophets of the “paperless office” have been waiting for any convincing shred of evidence that Americans are less committed to paper.

The paradox of the digital age, at least until the economy soured, is that a Web-connected, wireless world was using far more paper than it did before trashing its typewriters. About a year ago, however, Jake Wang noticed a reversal in one trend he has tracked for years from an office in Los Angeles. Using computer software that monitors the whirring of 700,000 printers and multifunctional devices in businesses, Wang charted the first-ever drop in the number of pages Americans were printing. “It was like going over a waterfall,” said Wang, an analyst for the business consultant and market-research firm IDC. “Starting with the fourth quarter of 2008, we saw a definite drop in page outputs,” which nonetheless totaled 1.5 trillion pages for the year – or 5,000 sheets of printouts per man, woman and child. That number will be lower this year, perhaps by more than 10 percent, although it had been climbing steadily since 2000. A temporary effect of the slow economy, or the beginning of a society truly less glued to paper?

“When an economy sheds millions of workers, there are that many employees who aren’t doing the printing,” Wang said. “I’m thinking fewer contracts are signed. Fewer documents sent from one person to another.”  He expects our passion for printouts to climb again when the economy does, maybe in 2011, but the dip in pages printed does parallel a downward slide in the number of pieces of first-class mail being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, which peaked in 2006. Postal officials do not anticipate ever delivering so many cards, letters and utility bills again, even after the recovery.

“The idea of a paperless society? It will never happen, and I do believe that,” said Xerox Senior Vice President Jim Joyce, “but the idea of paper-less is happening.” By that, he means we really ought to be using less paper in the coming decade because of the convergence of four trends:

• The pressure on businesses to cut costs where they can, especially in a weak economy.
• Technology that will reduce paper output, erase printouts and make reading off a screen easier.
• Concerns for the environment (with paper manufacturers being the fourth-largest user of fossil fuels on the planet, Joyce said).

To be sure, generational preferences dictate the paper trends. To older people, “there’s a psychology to paper, reading something on paper you can hold,” said Karen Unger, founder of the Florida-based American Document Management Co. “I’m old enough to know: There are people who just really need to have things on paper.”

Yet that feeling of control is something the younger generation doesn’t seem to have the need for,” she said, particularly those who spent their youth on the couch with a laptop on their bellies. A recent Forrester Research survey showed the popularity of electronic bank statements hitting a wall this year, with roughly half of online consumers sticking to paper statements only. Seniors and Baby Boomers, when compared to younger people, were twice as likely to voice concerns for privacy and a need to have “the paper version for my records.”

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He stated that a growing number of enterprises are turning to software and services that provide dedicated functionality supporting the disciplined electronic signature process flows and controls for one or more disparate lines of business.

 Some Key Findings 

• E-signature software and services represent a small but growing market.
• E-signature software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers have gained an increased competitive foothold in the U.S.
• North American markets strongly favor “click to sign” solutions, while other geographies adopt digital signature solutions in keeping with prescriptive legal requirements and national initiatives, such as smart ID cards. 

Some Recommendations 

• Conduct analysis of functional needs and capacity requirements — particularly transaction volumes prior to receiving and analyzing pricing proposals. Without this analysis, it will be difficult to accurately compare offerings from different vendors that use different pricing models and tactics.
• When planning the purchase of e-signature software, or when planning to integrate systems directly with a SaaS provider, budget an initial amount for professional services at least equal to software costs.

 For more information about the study please contact Gartner.

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May the Year 2010 bring us all Joy, Happiness, Success, New Opportunities and Prosperity.

xyzmo SIGNificant Group
Dedicated Signature Solutions
to Streamline Your Business Processes

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Hospitals and healthcare institutions processes include a variety of documents that need to be signed, each with their own unique requirements. xyzmo SIGNificant provides the flexibility needed to support the diverse applications of the healthcare sector and accelerates the transition to electronic records, thereby increasing employee efficiency and enhancing patient service and safety. We offer expedited signing solutions that streamline general hospital and emergency department patient experiences, spanning from admission to discharging procedures.

Think of this simple process and imagine the benefits!

Nothing is easier than completing a form automatically simply by scanning/swiping the patient’s insur-ance card or driver’s license to obtain important and possibly confidential information. Any additional required data can be captured via a soft keyboard or pin pad (for instance social security number). Signing and sealing healthcare forms and documents can now be performed electronically and these document can be automatically sent to the patient, using the provided email address. Verification of the authenticity/integrity of the documents and storage problems will no longer be an issue for hospitals or healthcare institutions and their patients.

xyzmo SIGNificant Can Streamline Various Healthcare Scenarios:

• Patient admissions
• Physician prescription signing
• Physician orders
• Chart signing
• Integration into electronic medical records systems (EMRs)
• Emergency department information systems (EDIS)
• Mobile signing

Benefits:

• Helps improve patient care by streamlining patient admission processes
• Significantly reduces patient waiting times
• Enormous cost savings due to labor reduction and the elimination of the need for printing, faxing, scanning, storage, shipping, shredding & mailing/courier
• Eliminates processing delays, errors, lost documents, etc. associated with paper-based processes
• Enables a true paperless workflow
• Reduces the risk of fraud
• Easily integrates into existing EMRs, EDIS,DMS, ERP and CRM Systems due to web-services in-terfaces
• Enables compliancy with current e-signature legislation (HIPAA, UETA, ESIGN, FIPS, etc.)
• Offline signing capability for mobile workers
• Optional real-time biometric signature authentication
• Hardware independent

xyzmo SIGNificant gives your organization the chance to reap the benefits of having a legally binding document in electronic form.

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Benefits

• Paper Free Process – accelerates work processes, raises productivity and efficiency within existing procedures. The electronic document cycle will no longer be broken solely for the purpose of capturing and authenticating a signature. You will save money, time and trees by making your office 100% paperless. ROI within 12 months.
• Reduces Fraud – enabling dynamic verification of the handwritten signature against a predefined biometric profile and a detailed protocol of security relevant actions.
• Seamless Integration – using an extensive API that allows biometric authentications and enrollment of profiles to be an integrated part of any legacy application.
• High Reliability – based on the fact that two signatures can never be the same. The SIGNificant Biometric Server has been evaluated by a number of leading graphologists and forensic experts that found it to have equal or even improved abilities compared to proving the authenticity of a signature written on paper.
• Easy To Use Interface – includes an intuitive easy to use graphical user interface for enrolling, making it very user friendly.
• Part of a Total Solution – the all-in-one SIGNificant Suite includes a Server, Client and Biometric Server and enables electronic signing of any type of document in a variety of signing methods (handwritten/biometric/digital – simple, advanced or qualified).
• Device Independent – a device independent solution, enabling the use of a broad range of signature capturing devices from various manufacturers in addition to smartcards, tokens and software certificates.

Features

• Dynamic Signature Verification – the system utilizes distinctive aspects of the handwritten signature such as rhythm, speed, pressure, acceleration and movement by measuring the physical activity of signing.
• High Security Concept – secure storage and communication of captured biometric signatures.
• Automatic Detection of Variations – the server automatically detects variations between signatures to build the personal profile as secure as possible, since some users sign in a very consistent way, whereas others sign with a greater discrepancy between signatures.
• Versatile Threshold Factor – enabling a varying authentication process for different environments, allowing organizations to easily adjust the balance between customer acceptance and security.
• Clear & Fast Verification Results – the verification is performed in a transparent manner. The server compares the signature to the updated personal profile in the database and enables or rejects the entry within milliseconds.
• Constant Profile Enriching – a dynamic mechanism recognizes the fluctuation rate in each of the signature parameters in real time, thus nourishing the authentication engine with added parameters and enhancing the profile every time a signature is profiled.
• Audit Trail – detailed protocol of users’ security relevant actions (enrollment, signature verification, suspension of signature profiles).

Product Description

Enrollment

The process is initiated by the user’s enrollment. The enrollment process requires up to 6 initial signatures or can be done continually over time. Using a digital pen and tablet, the user naturally signs his personal handwritten signature, exactly the same as using a wet-ink pen and ordinary paper.

Signature Profile Creation and Handling

The user’s signatures are stored in profiles. The system can handle numerous profiles per user, for instance one profile for the standard signature and another profile for signing only with the initials. When verifying a signature, the SIGNificant Biometric Server compares the signatures to the profile.

Signature Verification and Learning

Each time a user utilizes the system to verify his signature, the Biometric Server compares the current signature to the signature profiles. Upon each authentication, the server continues to learn and fine tunes the user’s profile. This enables the system to track gradual shifts in the handwritten signature over time.

For detailed information regarding the hardware requirements, please contact our sales team at: sales@xyzmo.com

For more information, please visit our website at: www.xyzmo.com

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You can read more in the following blog article about how digital signatures contributes to that: http://blog.xyzmo.com/en/blog/2009/08/27/sign-green-with-xyzmo-significant/

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 PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 12, 2009 – ETSI has published a multi-part standard that will facilitate secure paperless business transactions throughout Europe, in conformance with European legislation. The standard defines a series of profiles for PAdES – Advanced Electronic Signatures for Portable Document Format (PDF) documents – that meet the requirements of the European Directive on a Community framework for electronic signatures (Directive 1999/93/EC).

The ETSI standard supports a European Commission Action Plan that seeks to build on existing experience in this area and further improve the efficiency of cross-border use of electronic signatures. Open technical standards, such as those produced by ETSI, provide an ideal means for ensuring the required interoperability such that, for example, a document created and signed in one Member State can be validated in another.

The standard also recognizes that digitally-signed documents may be used or archived for many years – even many decades. At any time in the future, in spite of technological and other advances, it must be possible to validate the document to confirm that the signature was valid at the time it was signed – a concept known as Long-Term Validation (LTV).

The new standard was developed by ETSI’s Electronic Signatures and Infrastructure (ESI) Technical Committee in collaboration with PDF experts. PDF is defined in a standard (ISO 32000-1) published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), so the ETSI activity included reviewing and documenting how ISO 32000-1 can satisfy the European Directive. The resulting PAdES standard, ETSI Technical Specification (TS) 102 778, also introduces a number of adaptations and extensions to PDF to satisfy the Directive’s requirements. ETSI will feed these European-specific elements back into ISO for inclusion in the next release of the PDF standard, ISO 32000-2.

PAdES is complementary to two other Electronic Signature concepts also developed by ETSI’s ESI committee, both widely recognised within the European Union and suited for applications that do not involve human-readable documents: Cryptographic Message Syntax Advanced Electronic Signatures (CAdES) and XML Advanced Electronic Signatures (XAdES).

PDF and PAdES – major enablers for electronic commerce

PDF provides an electronic analogue to paper documents and also allows richer digital content to be stored and presented to the user. The transition from paper to PDF is eased by PDF’s ability to electronically represent nearly any form of paper document and by its support for electronic signatures which are today’s equivalent of yesterday’s ink signatures.

An electronic signature is a paperless way to sign a document using a unique credential associated with a given person that is logically attached to or associated with the document, carrying an authority equivalent to a handwritten signature. It can be used to authenticate the signer as well as to detect any changes in the document made after it was signed. Electronic signatures are recognized as a catalyst to electronic commerce, notably Internet transactions. Availability of electronic signature techniques has already been a major stimulus to eBusiness and eGovernment.

For PDF documents, the signature data is incorporated directly within the signed PDF document, much as an ink signature becomes an integral part of a paper document, allowing the complete self-contained PDF file to be copied, stored and distributed as a simple electronic file. The signature can also have a visual representation as a form field, just as it might on a paper document. A significant advantage of PAdES is that it is being deployed by means of widely available PDF software: it does not require development or customization of specialized software.

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