May 5, 2016 in Member Spotlights by DIACC

Spotlight on Notarius

 notarius In this edition of the DIACC member Spotlight, we chat with experts from Notarius. Learn about their work, why they believe strong digital documents need more industry-wide attention, and why they joined the DIACC league of experts.

1. What is the mission and vision of Notarius?

Mission: Notarius is the Canadian leader in digital signatures and the creation of authentic electronic documents. By providing state-of- the-art technology solutions, we empower professionals, governments and several industries to create, manage and preserve high reliability electronic documents privately, safely and legally. Over time, Notarius aims to become a worldwide leader in the management of official documents.

Vision: Digital economies are based on two constructs: transactions and documents. Transactions are often ephemeral and typically require authentication of who is conducting the transaction. Documents, in a digital economy, require technologically sound and legally reliable ways of binding a digital identity to an electronic document and provide irrefutable proof of origin and integrity over a period of time. Currently, the Canadian economy is, to varying degrees, hampered by a continued reliance on paper documents. Notarius’ vision is to promote digital economies by providing technologically sound and legally reliable solutions to empower reliable electronic documents for the digital economy.

2. Why is Digital Identity critical for your success? 

All official documents – an official document being a document with high reliability requirements (origin, integrity, authenticity and sometimes longevity) – originate from a person, persons or an organization. Documents become official when they are finalized with a signature. Signing means binding your identity to a document. At Notarius, we constantly research and develop ways to implement digital identities with the right mix of reliability and ease of use. Digital identities are critical to our success because there can be no official electronic documents without robust, effective and efficient digital identities.

3. With regard to Digital Identity, what strategic goals does Notarius target to achieve in the next 5 years?

  • Consolidate its position as strategic advisor and trusted solution provider with regards to official documents;
  • Develop and implement a flexible digital identity model with variable attributes (professional status, affiliations, etc.);
  • Augment the portfolio of Notarius technology solutions to progressively cover the entire spectrum of managing official documents;
  • Significantly increase our presence in the Government, Professional, Banking, Finance, Insurance and Academic sectors.

4. What else would you like us to know about Notarius? 

Notarius adheres and promotes socially and ecologically minded values. Notarius was created by the Chamber of Notaries in 1998 to modernize how notaries practiced law. At the very core of our company are therefore the values of the notarial profession in Québec which include a very strong document reliability focus. Notaries, under civil law, are empowered to create authentic documents. Notarius has since then flourished and now serves over 25 professional associations throughout Canada which share a similar vision of empowering their members to create authentic electronic documents – engineers, architects, lawyers, accountants, land surveyors,

Recently, Notarius has decided to move beyond the professional industry to serve the needs of all organizations and industries with strong document reliability requirements. As a result, for example, Notarius will secure the information and documents of two provincial land registries in Canada.

5. Why did you join DIACC?

DIACC brings together public and private sector on the specific issue of digital identities which is the number one issue for the continued success of Notarius. We joined DIACC because we perceived a DIACC focus on transactions as opposed to documents – the latter aspect appearing to be somewhat overlooked. We believe strongly that there can be no successful digital economy unless the specific legal and technology issues relating to binding identities to documents are discussed and resolved in the form of recognized standards, awareness & education, and inclusion in proofs-of- concept. This is our specific and distinguishable contribution to DIACC.