Munich/ Zurich, 10th of October 2019 - Effective immediately, Swisscom Trust Services is the only European provider to offer companies in Germany a qualified electronic signature for the legal areas of the EU (eIDAS Signature Regulation) and Switzerland (ZertES Signature Act). This makes it possible to have the same legal status as a handwritten signature and enables companies to handle business processes entirely digitally and comply with the law thanks to the connected identification procedures. This eliminates the media disruption associated with the manual signature of a contract and enables companies to accelerate processes and open up new business models. Swisscom Trust Services is therefore looking for solution partners in the German market who want to take their business models to the next level with trust services.
"User-friendliness and efficiency are the decisive factors of digital business models today. Users today are used to handling all processes digitally. However, signing a contract is often an obstacle, as it has to be signed by hand and returned by post," says Marco Schmid, Head of International Expansion Strategy at Swisscom Trust Services. "Companies with their customers identified and electronically signed without a media break meet today's expectations. In this way, they handle their processes more efficiently and increase the conversion rate, as customers can move smoothly through the customer journey from start to finish."
The cloud-based signing service from Swisscom Trust Services can be easily integrated into existing solutions via standardized interfaces, even under industry-specific compliance regulations. The identity verification of users required by eIDAS and ZertES can be carried out with the help of various providers using procedures such as BankIdent, VideoIdent, or face2face with an app. When signing, no data is transmitted to Swisscom, only hash values, which do not provide any information about the document's content. The user can thus confirm his identity and sign contracts electronically without leaving the house or visiting a branch. In this way, companies can provide their customers with a completely digital customer journey without media disruption. Swisscom's remote signature service remains virtually invisible and "white-labeled" for the user and is fully integrated into the partner application.
Swisscom Trust Services is therefore looking for further solution partners in the German market who want to exploit the innovation potential of their business models.
"We are already working successfully with numerous companies in different industries who have recognized the potential that an electronic signature and simple identification offers for their business models. In Germany, too, we are now looking for partners who want to improve the user experience of their offering through our trust services or who are looking for innovative business models," says Marco Schmid.
The time-saving and efficient handling of processes offers companies opportunities to open up new business opportunities and to make customer communication more user-friendly, as the hurdle to a conclusion on the part of the customer is lowered. For example, banks can interact with customers via messenger solutions and easily have contracts sent and signed on the same channel. This is not only more efficient but also meets the increased expectations of consumers. At the same time, the electronic signature lays the foundation for new services in neo-banking and in the context of the sharing economy, which can be handled entirely via mobile applications, as they are too cumbersome, expensive, and slow in paper form.
The same applies to insurance companies, which can open up innovative business models through mobile contracts that are not economical in paper form. "Someone on holiday might want to take out insurance for their SLR camera. However, a two-week term is too expensive and time-consuming for insurance companies due to the paper-based processes. If they enable customers to take out such a policy in a few minutes on their mobile phone, they can also tap into the potential of such granular services," explains Marco Schmid.
Another example is in human resources. If candidates can sign an employment contract digitally, companies can shorten the time it takes to conclude contracts, thus securing advantages in the search for skilled workers. In addition, high contract volumes can be handled more efficiently by companies with project-based employment contracts or recruiters.