Digital signing throughout Europe

The digital signature is here to stay.

When we talk about "digital signature 1.0" at sproof, we are generally referring to the digital obtaining and issuing of signatures. Many entrepreneurs are already familiar with the benefits of an intelligent signature platform. Mapping signature processes or "signature workflows" is making important contract or approval processes easier for more and more people, especially in a business environment. Regardless of whether signatures are signed internally in a team or throughout the company, or whether external signatures, e.g. from customers, suppliers or clients, need to be obtained first: The digital signature has been able to place itself at the top of the list of successfully implemented digitalization initiatives.

As with all "tools", only if the benefits can create immediate added value will the decision be made to turn traditional, established processes upside down and adapt them to the times. The signing of documents is one of the oldest business processes, so you can imagine that many companies see a challenge when it comes to replacing traditional pen-on-paper signing.

However, it turns out that even people who like to make decisions by hand, who are used to affixing an artistic signature that has been consolidated over the years, appreciate the advantages of digital signatures.

From a sober point of view, these advantages of the digital alternative to "paper & ink" have become too great. A simple calculation shows that even with just a few regular signature processes, a digital workflow can make a significant saving in time and personnel resources. Of course, it can be attractive to approve an important decision collectively on site by hand. But: Signing digitally means 1) Savings instead of laboriously preparing and sending documents 2) No waiting times for the returned, signed documents 3) Enormous savings in printing costs, shipping costs and paper costs.

The bottom line is that the arguments are overwhelming and only a few companies have not yet planned the introduction of a digital signature.

In addition to the process-related advantages and the saving of resources, many security-conscious entrepreneurs have also recognized another advantage of digital signatures: If you opt for qualified digital signing (QES) of documents, you benefit throughout Europe from the fact that this type of signature is legally equivalent to a manual signature.

To do this, people must identify themselves with their passport or ID card and enter a confirmation code, e.g. via their cell phone. The signature is thus uniquely assigned to a person. However, the one-off identification cannot be done just anywhere, but must be carried out with a licensed trust service provider. Once you have identified yourself, you can then use various signature platforms (such as sproof) to sign your own qualified signatures.

sproof has deliberately positioned itself as a provider for companies in the European legal and data protection area. The user experience has been specially adapted to signing with the highest standard, qualified signing.

A new challenge for digital signature processes is on the horizon

The number of trust service providers has been growing rapidly for some time now. For example, if I have to sign a document for one company or customer and then later for another customer, I may have to identify myself each time. Although this process is not complicated, in practice it can be time-consuming and unnecessary if carried out repeatedly.

For the first time, sproof now offers a solution for this and allows existing identifications to be used directly. This means that when a document is signed with sproof, it is not necessary to go through a new identification process, but existing identifications, such as the ID Austria, can be used directly.

"When analyzing the new problem, we looked at various solutions, some of which were very successful," says Clemens Brunner, CEO and co-founder of sproof. "We found an apt model in Stripe's solution and very often drew comparisons with the company's business model when strategically planning our solution. Stripe's approach of creating a central platform for interoperable payment processes was a big game changer for thousands of web stores at the time". We have found clear parallels in this success story to our solution approach for interoperable qualified signing in Europe.

The central interface for qualified signing in Europe has been released as a beta test

The solution presented by sproof reinvents digital signing in Europe and makes it easily accessible to many people for the first time. This was preceded by intensive development work, for which experts from the fields of UI/UX, software development and cryptography were involved in close cooperation.

Once the problem had been identified and analyzed with the help of qualitative expert interviews, the next step was a design thinking process lasting several weeks, which resulted in a comprehensive design study.

The finished prototype has now been transferred to an official beta test phase with selected power:users, customers and investors. The aim of the beta phase is to intensively test the usability and the new workflow. At the same time, the list of integrated QES providers will be successively expanded. Ultimately, sproof aims to become the overarching platform for qualified signing processes in Europe. "We have developed a platform that can grow with our customers, from small law firms to international corporations. The QES interface also helps us reach our next milestone: From now on, we want to tap into new markets and, in addition to further expansion in Germany and Austria, also target selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Baltic states," adds Fabian Knirsch, CTO and Co-Founder of sproof.