Inperly and eID cards allow remote confirmation of identity and electronic signatures

For the past two years, we have witnessed an accelerated digital transformation that has extended not only to business, but to almost all areas of our lives. Our preferences regarding work have changed: in the majority of cases, we have moved from a stationary model to a remote and/or a hybrid model. According to a survey by Pracuj.pl, as many as 35% of employees in Poland still use this model, and 9 out of 10 prefer to keep it for good. The use of tools and systems supporting work, sharing the resources and communication have also become commonplace. Applications such as MS Teams® are no longer just a solution used internally by business organizations – these apps have become widely used in communication with clients, candidates, and students. The survey conducted by Billennium and EY showed that in the pandemic period Poles quickly learned to use remote communication channels to deal with everyday errands, too. Over 86% of respondents used such tools to contact compa-nies, shops, or institutions. Furthermore, 8 in 10 respondents positively assess this form of contact. At the same time, as many as 75% of the survey respondents said that direct contact with a company or a shop representative is important to them, and about 70% made it clear that they prefer video communication.

Today, we are able to handle many of our everyday tasks completely remotely, but not all of them. Obviously, online shopping and banking were common even before the pandemic. However, there are still many areas where we need to be present in person, for instance to confirm our identity or sign a document. Some-times we also decide to visit some institution ourselves, because the process is so important that we need direct contact with a real person. We need to have an opportunity to ask questions or get some advice. The main reason for this state of affairs is usually the lack of appropriate technological solutions that would allow us to handle the business remotely, ensuring secure contact with a real person.

Jerzy Judycki, Product Owner at PWPW

The Inperly app for MS Teams®, which was developed jointly by Billennium, Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW) and Microsoft, is an example of a solution that meets these needs from the perspectives of organizations, users and all consumers. Inperly, abbreviated from In person, remotely, is a hybrid platform designed by Billennium for communication between an organization and its customer. It has been designed to support remote sales processes and services for business partners. The eDO app (eID card app), developed by PWPW, allows remote confirmation of the user’s identity and digital signatures. To use it, all you need is a smartphone and an eID card, i.e. an identification card with an electronic layer. The combi-nation of the functionalities of both solutions in the form of a single app for MS Teams® commu-nicator allows the handling of various processes between organizations and customers. What’s more, it almost completely eliminates the need for physical presence in the office of a company or another institution. Now, several million Poles could use this app. According to the data shared by the Centre for Document Personalization of the Ministry of Interior and Administra-tion, currently approx. 9 million individuals in our country already have an identity card with a digital layer (so-called eID card). Around half of them have personal digital signature, too. It is estimated that by the end of 2026 as many as 90% of ID cards in Poland will have a digital layer. Microsoft Poland adds that every month the Teams app is used by 275 million people worldwide.

Our solution will be used wherever it is necessary to verify a person’s identity, sign a document, or keep in touch with a consultant using video communication. In the public sector, the app could be used by offices to handle 99% of cases and accept requests or claims, or by courts to conduct hearings remotely. This would reduce the workload and shorten the time needed to make a decision. The second area is higher education: this solution can be successfully used to recruit students or manage examinations. Obviously, businesses will use this solution most widely, whether for customer service, sale of services or products, even such products that require a high level of security and verification – take loans, for instance. All HR processes can also be supported by Inperly: recruitment, signing employment contracts, and other internal processes. Any business organi-zation may also get additional benefits: improved customer satisfaction or candidate experien-ce and, as a result, increased competitiveness, but also digitalization and process automation, elimination of paper documentation, or increased availability of customer service.

Tomasz Goźliński, Inperly Product Owner

The Inperly app has been based on the Azure technology provided by Microsoft, as well as using the digital layer of the eDO App developed by PWPW. In the coming months, Billennium has announced further expansion of the app’s functionality, including one-time qualified signa-tures or biometric confirmation of identity-based on passports and documents issued in other countries.

The app is available on Inperly.com