DE-MAIL LAUNCHES PILOT IMAGE TRANSFER PROJECT

Mentana-Claimsoft, a subsidiary of market-listed Francotyp-Postalia Holding AG, has laid the technical foundations for sending passport photos to identification authorities electronically. At the beginning of March, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) launched a pilot project for transferring images by De-Mail in the cities of Cologne and Göttingen. For this, the project uses Mentana-Claimsoft's De-Mail channel via the De-Mail web service, Connector.

Electronic image transfer simplifies the process of applying for an ID card or passport. In future, photographers will be able use De-Mail to send the required passport photo to the relevant authority in digital form. The applicant's photo would therefore be encrypted electronically, enabling third parties to integrate a signed photo into the digital application procedure.

A working group on electronic image transfer was set up under the direction of the BSI last year. The members of this group, which included representatives of Mentana-Claimsoft, laid down the necessary technical and organisational foundations for digital transmission. Back in 2013, Mentana-Claimsoft presented a proof-of-concept along with the working group's other findings at the CeBIT consumer electronics fair. "At the end of the development phase, BSI chose Connector, our De-Mail web service. This means that we can help to simplify the process of applying for personal ID documents," explains Hans Szymanski, CEO and CFO of the Francotyp-Postalia Group.

The advantages are clear to see. If passport-issuing bodies and individual citizens use the electronic image transfer service, two steps in the application process can be removed because photos that are already available in digital format do not need not be printed out and scanned back in again. This solution not only saves a great deal of time, but is also more eco-friendly too.