We all know that PEC (Certified Electronic Mail) is the computerized "substitute" for the expensive registered letter with return receipt, and for this reason it's certainly a generator of important time and cost savings.
When the use of PEC is of the individual professional or citizen it is all rather simple and the advantages of its use are obvious. Quite different is when PEC is used in an organization.
Most organizations defer the use of PEC to their administration and/or secretary, and very often management is unaware of the risks involved in such management...except when sanctions come along and/or it comes to loss of opportunity!
Only in these cases, and often in emergency, the management begins to attente the issue discovering that, a correct management of communications via PEC in organizations, constitutes a real challenge and that, in order to face and overcome it, it is necessary to equip oneself with adequate tools and appropriate re-organization that will allow, by solving the issue, also a rather quick return on investment.
Let us try to elaborate. When a PEC arrives in an organization on one of the managed mailboxes, the correct recipient of the message will be one of the dozens (or hundreds) of people working in that organization.
That message gets to the people charged with PEC management who, of course, have so many other tasks in that organization.
These people should specifically:
- Watch out for that message that often gets confused among dozens and dozens of other e-mail messages
- compriend what it is and forward it to the correct recipient who will have to follow up with the processing it needs
- Take care to understand whether the recipient has received and is performing the required actions on time (PECs often impose deadlines that if not met certainly create problems)
- remember to follow up
- close the process by providing the correct response to the sender
What are the chances that, especially with not one but dozens and dozens of messages a day, something will go "wrong" and that an important message will result in a failure to process and respond? Experience says they are very high.
Clearly, if the message were "captured" by a tool that could ensure all those steps by also taking care of automatically keeping track of timing and escalation we would have increasedeffectiveness and achieved a reduction in risk as well as a recovery in efficiency.
Already with this simple example, which illustrates just one of more than 20 typical scenarios for the use of PEC in an organization, it is clear how the return on investment is achieved from a mix of effectiveness, efficiency and risk reduction to which are added compliance issues and integration requirements that, an issue such as PEC management in an organization, requires.
We have tried to rank a number of "typical features" offered by a PEC Manager precisely against the above parameters.
Those who are faced with deciding whether to invest in introducing such a tool into their organization may find the table below useful:
| EFFECTIVENESS |
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| RISK REDUCTION |
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| EFFICIENCY |
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| COMPLIANCE |
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| INTEGRATION |
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To complete the overview, trying to be helpful to those who have to make a choice, there is another factor to consider that concerns the type of tools. In fact, not all PEC managers are the same. Some are little more than a super email client.
Others are true frameworks that allow PEC boxes to be decoupled from the individuals who manage them, making it possible for PEC boxes to become an asset of the organization and IT systems.
Some of these frameworks have features of integrability and customization possibilities that make them suitable for enterprise-class applications.
As always, there is no one tool that is better than another, one simply has to look at one's need and choose which proposal allows us to achieve the goal.
How a document repository outsorucer can derive value from a no-code approach
Specializing in document management, Pròdeo S.p.A. was established in 1985 to address the ever-increasing need for proper management of both paper and digital document assets.
Pròdeo S.p.A. can manage the entire life cycle of document archive management in its main steps:
Taking charge of, transferring and storing the material in its own archival repositories dedicated exclusively to the safekeeping of documentary assets, adequately equipped, in absolute security and in compliance with current privacy regulations;
Computer reorganization and cataloging;
Research and delivery of the document in original/digital form, according to the timing and needs dictated by the client;
Discarding, destruction and disposal of both analog and digital documentation no longer subject to archiving requirements.
Over the years, it has become a point of reference for Companies and Public Administration, particularly Health Companies, and has always paid attention to two types of issues: the safe custody of the information in its possession and theevolution of data that over the years that has transformed from physical data (paper documents) to digital data (documents in electronic format), supporting Administrations in the process of digitizing paper documents and related provision of digital archives according to AgID guidelines.
Steps in items 1 - 4 involved specific procedures and instrumental resources. Step 3, for example, centered on an email, from a contact person in the client organization, requesting access to the paper or digitized document and its delivery to the requester via secure modes (courier or pec respectively). This delivery was successful if the requested document was actually in the archive, verification made on the database created in step 2 on dedicated solution. If not, notification to the requester of document not on file.
This brief description highlights a number of critical process issues
- Fragmentation of activities with major operational inefficiencies
- Use of specific fragmented solutions for archival repository management, computer cataloging, digital document repository etc.
- Email-based communication tools with user identity management, security and privacy issues
- Difficult tracking and monitoring of activities with potential disputes with the customer on contract SLAs
The solution to these problems was the implementation of a single BPM application on the Jamio Openwork PaaS. The entire application platform operates following the directions provided by the guidelines of the Italian Digital Agenda, that is, in cloud mode, with service delivery in SaaS mode.
The implemented solution orchestrates "end to end" job management activities, structuring in a single environment on the cloud the document archive management, in charge of Pròdeo, of the client organization, the back office activities carried out by the company's employees and the fulfillment of requests coming from the users surveyed and enabled by the client organization, enabling document sharing and process management in a structured and secure way.
On the application side, this solution has the following innovative features:
- implements document management models aimed at streamlining internal processes within the client organization and Pròdeo, based on digital procedural workflows for improved internal efficiency and effective use of resources;
- streams are digitized;
- the system operates in a proactive not reactive mode: all actors involved are guided in the activities to be performed;
- process information and documents are made available to authenticated users according to relevant visibility policies;
- provides rule-based security policies to condition/control/limit access to data and functionality based on user profile and role in the organizational context;
- activities are tracked and data collected in order to present timely work progress and the definition of functional KPIs for service improvement analyses shared with the client organization
- results in compliance with the privacy management of sensitive data according to the dictates of the European Privacy Regulation, 679/2016. In particular, in the context of the GDPR, the Platform is configured as an enabling platform for compliance, whether national or international, by providing a set of native tools, functionalities, technical and organizational measures that effectively meet the principles of Data protection by design and by default [Art.25 GDPR] or more specific protection requirements
All the advantages described translate into tangible benefits such as:
- Efficiency enhancement of operational activities with performance improvement estimated at 15%;
- Reducing solution delivery time to a few weeks with Jamio's no-code approach
- satisfaction of the customer organization's contact persons, always connected with any browser and always updated on the status of their requests
This can be achieved in many different ways using a wide variety of approaches, methods, and tools.
We then asked Piero Cosoli, chief operating officer of Pròdeo: Why did you choose Jamio?
"Apart from the no-code approach i.e., the possibility of growing the solution in a co-creation process made possible precisely by the fact that we literally shared the "designs" of the solution as it was being created the thing that interested us most is the concept of extended organization that Jamio implements allowing to make possible and with enormous simplicity the collaboration of multiple organizations i.e., that of Pròdeo, outsourcer and that of all its customers who find themselves not simply passive subjects involved with messages but active actors in the processes, obtaining an advantage both for Pròdeo, which has been able to bring externally various activities otherwise in charge of its own backoffice , and for the customer who, as an actor, can monitor at any time in real-time the progress of only the processes that concern him, avoiding unnecessary activities of difficult information gathering and being able to monitor with simplicity the SLA."
University of Turin: no-code featured at itAIS Conference Oct. 13-14
Accelerating digital transformation: the key role of "no-code" and AI in management processes is the title of the itAIS 2023 Conference to which Openwork contributes the speech New frontiers to bridge business and IT: Citizen Developer and no-code application development.
These scheduled speeches:
Prof. Silvana Secinaro - Full Professor of Business Administration and Accounting, University of Turin
Introduction
Prof. Guido Boella - Full Professor of Informatics, University of Turin
Presentation of the public engagement project University of Turin (AI Aware)
Prof. Davide Calandra - Assistant Professor of Business Administration and Accounting, University of Turin
How AI and no-code can support in the preparation of sustainability reporting
Dr. Philip Vitale - Head of Learning Academy, Openwork s.r.l.
New frontiers to bridge business and IT: Citizen Developer and no-code application development
Dr. Roberto Bianchi - IT Partner, KPMG
Dr. Alberto Marocchino - Senior Manager, KPMG
KPMG's strategy for digitalization: between AI and No Code
Dr. Fabio Schena - Head of Studies, Innovation API Torino and Digital Innovation Hub Confapi
API's strategies to support the digitization of SMEs
University of Turin
Corso Unione Sovietica 220 Turin 10134 October 13, 2023 09:00 a.m.
Naica:
the testimonies of Fabio D'Alessano and Lorenzo Quarta
Naica is a cooperative society with no speculative purposes, governed by the principles of mutuality, volunteerism, welfare and social solidarity. Founded in 2006 on the initiative of a group of young students and graduates of the University of Lecce (now University of Salento) who, combining their different academic and work knowledge and experiences, create an environment of integration between skills and knowledge in heterogeneous fields, in order to offer high value-added services to public and private actors present in the national and international context.
From PEC to REM: Openwork working to extend its customers' digital processes beyond Italy
In today's increasingly connected and digitized world, PEC has become an essential part of our working lives that has contributed greatly to the digitization of business processes.
However, the dear PEC, now almost 20 years old, is rather advanced in an IT environment that is fervently evolving with respect to new and more stringent European standards.
In fact, the European Commission, through the EU910/2014 EIDAS regulation, has defined new standards on European electronic transitions in favor of greater interoperability, and Italian PEC is not meeting them.
So, our dear PEC will be replaced, or rather, evolve, into the young, more secure and European REM (Registered Electronic Mail).
This shouldn't alarm us, in fact it's an opportunity; for us Italian PEC users, everything will remain the same, except for a few caveats to be put in place, thanks to the careful work of industry players such as providers, who are studying and adopting procedures to adapt, and to PEC management service providers such as Jamio, who, in step with the providers, are adapting to their procedures.
What is EMR?
REM, Registered Electronic Mail, is an advanced form of email, a new European standard (ETSI EN 319 532-4), aimed at defining a model for the interoperability of CEM precisely in the European context.
In addition to what is already guaranteed by PEC in the Italian context, such as: the time attestation of thesending and receiving of messages and theintegrity of the content, the REM offers the certain identification of the subjects involved in the transmission of messages (sender and recipient) and a more secure exchange of communications with the rest of Europe, through reliable and shared authentication mechanisms. Compared to the exchange of PEC messages, REM in fact provides for the adoption of additional levels of control and specific authorizations for access and management of the service with the definition of2-factor identification, i.e., Strong Authentication.
When will the EMN be operational and how will it work?
The transition from PEC to EMR is expected during 2024. The implementation phases of the process are still awaiting the regulatory DPCM because the European Union has not yet defined an official date for the migration of CEM operators.
About how it will work, Italian providers will ensure the transition from the old PEC to the young REM painlessly and without any change of delivery.
Specifically, those using a PEC box through a PEC management solution, such as those built with the Jamio platform , or an email client such as Thunderbird, for example, will need to perform the following simple tasks:
- Certify one's identity with the provider to ensure the identity of the sender in a certain way (with SPID, digital signature, digital ID card, health card or through an operator);
- Request from the provider a token that will have an expiration date (typically 2 or 3 months,) to be used as a password in the solution itself to perform 2-factor identification. This procedure will need to be repeated periodically by the time the token expires.
Each Italian provider will implement its own procedure for requesting the token, referring to the document drafted in 2019 by the Working Group on the technical rules to be adopted in Italy to comply with the REM regulation.
What is Openwork doing?
Awaiting the issuance of the DPCM by which EMR will become mandatory, Openwork, in line with providers who have already defined an adaptation procedure, is testing its integration in order to:
- Ensure continuity of service for solutions already in use whose PEC boxes will be converted to REM;
- Enable REM-compliant solutions to be implemented according to Policy-IT defined in the European framework.
In any case, it will always be possible to use the old PEC boxes.
With the increasing focus on privacy and data security, EMN offers a reliable way to ensure that PEC messages are delivered securely and that communications are legally valid within Europe. Ample room, then, to extend our digital flows beyond Italy.
