ILumin Corp. Monday renamed its application suite for digital signatures and announced 40 pilot users and 20 strategic partners for the Digital Handshake technology including Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. The company plans a full market release of Digital Handshake in early October when U.S. federal digital signature legislation is due to come into effect.
Software vendor iLumin Corp. aims to facilitate EOLTs (enforceable online transactions) allowing users to engage in electronic commerce using secure and validated digital signatures, according to Brent Israelsen, iLumin chief executive officer and president.
"Today, e-commerce is all about buying books, flowers and Furby dolls and you don't care that much if you don't receive your Furby doll," he said in a phone interview Friday. "Tomorrow, e-commerce will be all about buying cars, houses and companies."
This week, iLumin will participate in a U.S. first -- the complete closing online of a mortgage application via digital signatures and XML (extensible markup language), Israelsen said.
To enable EOLTs, three things are required -- the Internet, digital signature technology together with legislation, and applications, Israelsen said. Think of the Net as the highway and the technology and legislation as car keys, then the applications are the cars, he explained. "We (iLumin) build the cars and partner with digital signature companies," Israelsen said.
Formerly known as E-conomy Server Suite, Digital Handshake, the third version of iLumin's Java-based software, consists of three pieces -- an online signing room, a digital clerk and an e-cabinet.
The online signing room provides an environment where multiple parties, whose identities have been verified in advance, can gather, review the document to be signed, attach their digital signatures and close the transaction. In future versions of Digital Handshake, iLumin plans to add instant messaging and video capabilities to the online signing room so that the parties involved can communicate in real-time over any last-minute details, Israelsen said.
After the document has been signed, the digital clerk validates the digital signatures, collects any fees necessary from the parties and enters a time and date stamp. The clerk then files the document into an e-cabinet. Authorized parties can access the document from the e-cabinet at a later date if they need to view or audit it.
Digital Handshake can be easily integrated into existing applications and Web sites, Israelsen said.
ILumin intends to make Digital Handshake available in a number of ways, for instance, through the company's own Web site at www.ilumin.com, where a would-be user will be able to try out the technology. Then, iLumin partners will brand the technology with their own names, for example Wells Fargo Bank can host the Wells Fargo Bank Online Signing Room, Israelsen said. Such branding will contain the Digital Handshake logo. ASPs (application service providers) can also host the Digital Handshake suite. Ilumin isn't releasing specific pricing as yet, but the cost will be per transaction, he added.
Israelsen welcomed the recent passing of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN) legislation by both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. "It's very significant," he said. "It's a statement by federal government that it's serious about e-commerce. Now, we have a unified floor across all states." Previously, although 46 U.S. states had passed some legislation, it was varied in scope and coverage, making interstate e-commerce problematic, he added.
E-SIGN is also good news for the U.S. Government Paper Elimination Act (GPEA). Passed in October 1998, the bill requires the U.S. federal government to make its services and forms available online by 2003 and enables users to submit forms electronically. "E-SIGN gives life to the (GPEA) bill, we have the legal environment so it can be carried out," Israelsen said.
With U.S. federal legislation in place, Israelsen estimates that digital signature technology will provide users with plenty of cost and time savings.
He gave the example of the U.S. Department of Education which receives 10 million applications for student loans annually. By law, the department is required to sign those applications and hold them on file. To handle the applications currently costs $8 per application, but using Digital Handshake and related technologies, the cost falls to under $1, resulting in annual potential savings of more than $70 million, according to Israelsen.
Another example he gave is the $1 million Hewlett-Packard Co. now spends on managing tax forms for its more than 85,000 staff. Deploying digital signature technology could cut that $1 million figure to under $100,000, Israelsen said.
HP is one of the strategic Digital Handshake partners iLumin announced Monday together with Microsoft, IBM Corp., Cisco Systems Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc., Intel Corp. and the major digital certificate authorities Baltimore Technologies Inc., Entrust Technologies Inc. and VeriSign Inc. Organizations piloting Digital Handshake include VerticalNet Inc., RSA Security Inc., the Board of the Canadian Government, Novell and Dell Computer Corp.
Novell sees digital signature technology as particularly useful in handling electronically the more than 10,000 contracts the company negotiates with third-party organizations, Israelsen said. Dell is interested in Digital Handshake, both for its own use internally and to promote to its customers, he added. Like many e-commerce companies, at some stage in the sizeable business Dell does online, some issues are still handled on paper. Microsoft and iLumin have had an alliance for a couple of years and are working on digital signatures especially in the areas of court filings and real estate, Israelsen said.
For the individual, use of digital signatures could result in an easier life, Israelsen said. Eventually, a user could find themselves signing the final papers to buy a house while on holiday on a beach in Hawaii, he added.
With EOLT documents, users need only enter data once, and the documents can be displayed with private information such as social security or credit card numbers filtered out to preserve a user's privacy, according to Israelsen.
The company takes the issue of security very seriously. "We trademarked the phrase 'paranoid by design' and we like to say we support five levels of paranoia," Israelsen said. Security can be tied to what a person knows, for instance a password, what they have, such as a smart card, or what they are, in terms of biometrics like a thumbprint or retinal scan, he added.
Ilumin has just closed its third and largest round of financing raising $20 million, bringing to $24 million the total investment the privately-owned company has received to date. One of the leading venture capitalist companies investing in iLumin this time is part of Deutsche Bank, a fact which Israelsen hopes will make the company attractive internationally. The firm is keen to open its first international office, which will probably be in Europe, he said. It also plans to open offices in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Ilumin intends to use the funding it has raised to expand its staff from 40 today to 100 employees by year-end and pull in more Digital Handshake partners and build the Digital Handshake brand, he added.
Israelsen hopes to have 100 Digital Handshake partners by September. He said iLumin is talking to a wide range of organizations about its technology and partnership opportunities including credit card companies, online transaction companies, financial services firms, and healthcare benefits companies.
As for going public, iLumin plans an IPO (initial public offering) "at some point," but expects that its primary focus for the next year will be building the Digital Handshake brand and expanding its operations, he added.
ILumin, based in Orem, Utah, can be reached at 801-852-8800 or via the Internet at www.ilumin.com.
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