Fujitsu Luxembourg recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of its partnership with Namirial, a Trusted Service Provider specialized in Digital Transaction Management (DTM). For this special occasion, Steve Heggen, Head of Hyper-automation at Fujitsu, together with Antonio Taurisano, Managing Director, and Klaus Fellner, Digital Trust/e-Signature expert at Namirial, are pleased to highlight some of the successes achieved by this fruitful collaboration. 

The roots of a trustworthy partnership

"Our collaboration started 10 years ago when retail banks were seeking to digitalize their branch offices with electronic signing", recalls Steve Heggen, Head of Hyper-automation at Fujitsu Luxembourg. "At that time, we had a very simple goal in mind: helping banks to achieve absolute zero paper. At the beginning, the solution was deployed for a few major retail banks like BGL and BNP. After a while, other banks grew interest in the solution and wanted to implement it in their infrastructure as well", he says.

"At Namirial, we had products that resonated well with Luxembourg’s market needs. We actually are products experts who try to deliver high quality services from the very beginning. Due to the numerous regulations and differences in legislations from one country to another, we need a reliable partner locally with whom we work in close collaboration. Taking all these reasons into consideration, Fujitsu became the perfect partner for us", says Klaus Fellner, Digital Trust Expert at Namirial. 

"Our next challenge was to address the rising demand for other sectors in Luxembourg", says Steve Heggen. "We discovered a myriad of interesting solutions in Namirial’s portfolio, such as a dedicated software development kit for the mobile market. The latter was of interest to the Telecom company Tango, who wanted to implement e-signature in all their shops. In order to succeed, we went to Austria to meet Klaus, Antonio and the rest of the team to learn about the solution. Our relationship is not only about business, it is also a genuine human relationship", he adds. 

"We share a two-way relationship with Fujitsu", says Antonio Taurisano, Managing Director at Namirial. "They rely on us for our products, and we rely on them for the local requirements. In case of issues, both teams work together to find appropriate solutions for the customer". 

A powerful and versatile solution

"eSignAnyWhere is a web platform that people can use to sign on any kind of device, for as long as it can run a web browser. At the same time, it is fully compliant with eIDAS, the EU regulation on electronic identification", explains Steve Heggen. "It’s a very powerful, user-friendly, intuitive and versatile solution. Once the Digital Trust Service is installed, you can send envelopes with documents to sign internally or towards customers, manage workflows, and so on. eSignAnyWhere was very successfully implemented among insurance companies in Luxembourg." 

"In addition, Namirial also is a QTSP (Qualified Trusted Service Provider). This means that it can provide other services like qualified certificates and advanced features such as remote authentication smart ident”, he adds.  

"When you start a Digital Trust Service project, especially when it is for the first time, you want a solution you can deploy that meets all your requirements", says Antonio Taurisano. "The solution has to adapt to your changing needs with advanced features. Moreover, it has to be practical and safe as it is about digital services. For these reasons, we are very rigorous regarding the economical and compliance aspects of our solutions. In addition, the solution saves companies resources by reducing errors related to paper document signature processes. For example, in 2021, we saved almost 10.000 tons of paper and avoided around 50.000 tons of CO2 emissions", he adds.  

Next steps

"There are 3 areas on which we would like to work together in the future: Digital Identity, Consent Management and Certified Communication", Antonio Taurisano indicates. We would like to develop these areas because they represent appealing market opportunities. 

There is a growing interest in Digital Identity which is the base of the European Union's new concept: the Digital Identity Wallet. If the EU carries out this project, everybody in EU will have a wallet on their smartphone and decide what type of information they are willing to reveal to a third party.”

"Consent Management is really booming now", he adds. "A Consent Management solution does not change much from a user point of view, but it helps to get consent in a certified way and to store it in the blockchain as a proof."

"Certified Communication allowing you to prove the electronic delivery and acceptance of documents via standard email or SMS is a topic that is dealt with in several countries", says Klaus Fellner. 

"It was already implemented successfully in Spain and Latin America. However, we see many European Countries struggling with that topic. This is due to the fact that digital solutions often require recipients to pre-register, which does not work well as many consumers do not want to sign-up.

Namirial offers a fundamentally different approach to electronic delivery where this obstacle is removed simply by using standard e-Mail or SMS. Senders can proof delivery of their messages without requiring an action from recipients. We think that is a great market opportunity for Europe", he concludes.

Left photo caption : From left to right : Klaus Fellner, Digital Trust/e-Signature expert  (Namirial) and Steve Heggen, Head of Hyperautomation (Fujitsu)

Right photo caption: From left to right: Antonio Taurisano, Managing Director (Namirial) and Steve Heggen, Head of Hyperautomation (Fujitsu)