Utimaco today unveiled at CeBIT the SignatureServer SmartCard for SAP. This innovative product creates legally-compliant mass signatures directly from mySAP.com applications.
German businesses still have some way to go to catch up when it comes to using electronic communications pathways consistently - at least where important commercial documents like invoices are concerned: 74 per cent of the 1,000 largest companies in Germany still entrust their invoices to normal postal services, just as they did a century ago. This archaism costs businesses dearly: according to data provided by E-Finance Labs in Frankfurt the top 1,000 companies alone could make annual savings of up to half a billion Euros if they sent their invoices automatically and electronically.
However, unlike traditional paper invoices, electronic invoices that are created by computer fax or e-mail are not yet fully legally binding in Germany. At present, financial authorities only accept digital invoices in their sales tax calculations if they are accompanied by a qualified electronic signature.
Using Utimaco's SignatureServer SmartCard for SAP, premiered today at CeBIT, companies can automatically add digital signatures to electronic invoices that have been created directly in SAP systems and then encrypt them. This technology also protects SAP R/3 data or documents when they are saved and transferred.
"For the first time, legally-compliant electronic invoices can be created and processed efficiently within a structured digital workflow. This means users can avoid media disruption, further optimise their business processes and therefore make considerable savings", stated technology expert Andreas Philipp, deputy vice president of the Transaction Security Division at Utimaco. "Using electronic invoicing, companies can also improve the quality of the service they provide for business partners and so strengthen their links with customers."
The SignatureServer SmartCard with the "Sign & Crypt for SAP" software module can be integrated easily into existing business processes. Via the SSF interface, a number of other external security products from the SAP Security Library can be implemented in parallel with the SignatureServer SmartCard.