eSignLive' Enhanced ApproveIt?OSolutions Facilitate Government Adoption of Online Portal Applications and Digital Signatures

Desktop and web solutions ensure hassle-free transition from paper to online

June 3, 2003 — Montreal, Canada, June 3, 2003 - Silanis Technology Inc., a leading developer of electronic signature and approval solutions, today announced a new updated version of its ApproveIt product line that optimizes the US government's significant investments in security infrastructure. These enhancements facilitate the efficient automation of decisioning and approval processes within, amongst, or external to government departments and agencies.

The enhanced desktop and web-based solutions leverage the significant investments in public-key infrastructure (PKI) and portal technologies that are a necessary component of achieving a fully automated government by October 21, 2003 - the Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) compliance deadline. ApproveIt solutions support industry standards and DoD authentication protocols as well as provide unprecedented flexibility, scalability and ease-of-deployment.

"The Government runs on the ability to make informed and accurate decisions. Silanis provides proven mature solutions that enable the decision process to take place in a completely electronic environment - resulting in enhanced readiness, improved decision speed, and greater accuracy." said Tommy Petrogiannis, president of Silanis Technology. "Our approach has always been to leverage what's already there. ApproveIt solutions deliver public-key-enabled applications (PKEs) that operate seamlessly with existing paperless initiatives including PKIs and Common Access Cards (CACs)."

Leveraging the Government's investment in PKI, portals and backend systems

Both Silanis' ApproveIt Desktop and ApproveIt XHTML Server are DoD DISA JITC certified enabling secure and efficient interoperability with the DoD public-key infrastructure. Both products also support Civilian agency PKI extensions that provide interoperability for the various PKI Infrastructure products used across the agencies and their external partners. These commercial off-the-shelf solutions drive the adoption of PKI and portal applications by providing robust and easy-to-implement digital signing and approval solutions.

The ApproveIt family of products contain enhanced approval features that permit the rapid implementation of approval processes without needing to redesign existing form templates or re-train users. These features include the ability to automatically insert signing-related data-such as the date, name, comments and signing location-into forms without invalidating previously applied digital signatures. Multiple signatures and sectional signing processes within a single document are also supported. Approvals are permanently embedded in documents so that end users can route approved documents via any mechanism, including email, workflow, the internet or document management systems.

With existing support for DoD PKI, the enhanced versions of ApproveIt Desktop and ApproveIt XHTML Server now add the capability to access multiple Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) across multiple LDAP servers. Also added is native support for Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) with CRL fallback capability, which will enable the gradual implementation of OCSP-based environments.

Following this philosophy for advanced support of signing in PKI environments, the solutions were enhanced to allow disparate civilian agencies with different PKIs to cross certify ApproveIt signed documents via the Federal Bridge Certificate Authority (FBCA). Documents can be signed electronically using digital certificates that are validated by the Certificate Arbitrator Module (CAM) via the Discovery and Validation Engine (DAVE). This means that recipients of ApproveIt signed documents can accept a sender's electronic credentials with the assurance that the embedded certificates have been verified by the trust path offered by the DoD PKI, FBCA, or other standard certificate authorities.

Driving the use of the CAC

With a deployment of over 1.5 million units within the Department of Defense alone, CACs are a trusted tool for enabling comprehensive interoperability and authentication. ApproveIt more than just leverages CAC functionality-it expands it by giving cardholders the ability to use their CAC everyday, whenever an approval of any type of document needs to occur. White Sands Missile Range, which has been electronically approving internal documents since 2001, has implemented ApproveIt as one of the very first PKEs to leverage CAC technology within the DoD PKI infrastructure.

Mature, easy-to-adopt technology for eGovernment

Silanis ApproveIt solutions facilitate the adoption of digital signing and automation processes, for both day-to-day and mission-critical business documents, without disrupting established procedures and policies. Currently being used by over 100 Government organizations, ApproveIt Desktop integrates effortlessly with existing government processes and supports the largest number of government file formats and document types, including Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® Excel, JetForm® (Adobe) FormFlow®, PureEdge® InternetForms® and Adobe® Acrobat®. ApproveIt xHTML Server extends ApproveIt's full feature set into the web environment by facilitating electronic signing of XHTML forms. Approval of web-based forms can help to broaden communication and promote decentralization of the government by eliminating interoperation restrictions imposed by client-based applications.

ApproveIt's standardized approval process and intuitive interface enable users to approve documents without costly training, downtime or the frustration inherent in learning new programs. In addition, ApproveIt shields users from the complex processes that occur behind-the-scenes, which provides greater user comfort and adoption.

Incorporating more than a decade of experience in automating business processes, the ApproveIt product family is based on sixth generation technology, and is compliant with government guidelines and protocols.

About Silanis

Silanis Technology is the leading provider of solutions that automate the Business Approval Process. The company’s award winning desktop and server-based solutions leverage electronic signature and approval technology to achieve total automation. With over 1,000 customers across government, mortgage, auto finance, insurance, banking and FDA regulated industries, Silanis has over a decade of experience in developing and delivering solutions that work the way organizations do. Silanis' flagship customers include the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, US Army Medical Command, GMAC CM, and Stewart Title.

Contact

Mary Ellen Power (514) 337-5255 ext. 1117 [email protected]