In what is believed to be an Australian first, Gatekeeper-certified digital certificates from eSign Australia were used to sign the contract between Victoria's Transport Accident Commission (TAC) and Fujitsu Australia.
According eSign, it is the first time high-grade Gatekeeper certificates have been used to sign a digital contract under Australian law.
Gregg Rowley, managing director eSign Australia claimed that it is a unique capability as "no other Internet security provider has both Gatekeeper accreditation and plug-in capabilities to do the authentication or the signing of the documents".
While TAC's executive general manager, IT, Tony Marxsen, said he was surprised to find it was the first such digital contract, he explained that the organisation had a "strong commitment to minimal paper use".
Marxsen said that, instead of a paper contract several inches thick, which requires initials on every page, the digital contract sits on a single CD-ROM as a secure electronic document.
"Digital signature technologies are the key enablers of the TAC's move to an e-business mode of operation," Marxsen added.
An initiative of the TAC to make it a digital contract, eSign was responsible for all the registration authority services, including validating the individuals involved in signing the contract, as well as providing the authentication of their identities.
The PKI solution provider created and issued electronic credentials in the form of digital certificates for the TAC and Fujitsu.
According to Iain Waters, eSign Australia's director of technology, teams from both Fujitsu and the TAC participated in the contract signing process and the general consensus was that the digital certificates simplified and streamlined the entire process. The certificates were put on to smartcards by Authentic8.com for all the parties involved in this deal.
