e-Boks chooses to adopt CEF eDelivery to deliver secure messages to 15 million users

Why was the project setup?

Day-to-day e-mail is unlikely to be secure enough to deliver sensitive information and official documents. This happens because encryption of email exchange is not widely practiced in daily life. Even by accepting the security limitations of common email for our 'routine' exchanges, the exchange of official documents and sensitive information must be handled according to different requirements. eBoks is a private partnership between Nets and PostNord (postal office in Denmark and Sweden) that have responded to the need, they offer companies, institutions and citizens a secure platform for the digital distribution and storage of electronic messages. With e-Boks, Denmark set up a mandatory Digital Post, where citizens and businesses receive messages from the authorities in a secure electronic mailbox. The messages come from a wide range of public and entities and include information such as pension statements, information about state education support, changes to housing benefits, replies to applications for childcare, letters from the Danish Tax and Customs Administration and more. Furthermore, the platform offered by e-Boks is not just providing secure electronic messages but also includes a long list of other connected services such as signing and validation of documents, electronic pay slips, credit card and bank payments and electronic invoicing (based on the CEF standard).

What are the benefits of the project? 

By setting up a mandatory Digital Post in Denmark, public administrations have made huge cost savings and contributed to the environment, while citizens and business have a secure digital mailbox through which they receive official documents from public administrations. 

How do the CEF building blocks fit in?

The secure transfer of data across borders and sectors is fundamental to the creation of the Digital Single Market. e-Boks, has chosen to use CEF eDelivery in their solution for secure digital mail. The impending adoption of CEF eDelivery will see AS4 implemented for public authorities, businesses and citizens - in total 15 million users with over 400 million transactions per annum - in Denmark, Sweden, Norway mainly but also in Finland, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Ireland.

e-Boks’ far-reaching adoption of CEF eDelivery also comes as it signs a Letter of Understanding with the Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (Difi) promoting usage of AS4 within the OpenPEPPOL network. e-Boks will expand their strong collaboration with the public authorities in Denmark, Sweden and Norway and support Difi with their Oxalis and ELMA sample implementations and further development towards AS4. The continued adoption of CEF eDelivery and the AS4 message exchange protocol is a major step in creating a connected Digital Single Market in Europe and reducing costs for citizens, businesses and public administrations. 

What's next?

e-Boks will integrate the CEF eDelivery infrastructure as of end 2018. That means that documents sent via e-Boks can be exchanged with all other systems linked to CEF eDelivery as of mid-2019, and can be exchanged across EU borders without additional transaction costs. e-Boks has also decided to specify CEF eDelivery in its tendering process for the next generation of Digital Post in Denmark. “The support for CEF eDelivery was an option in the invitation to tender for the next generation of Digital Post. We want to future-proof our products to all our users by integrating this new infrastructure and offer many new types of documents for them to use. CEF eDelivery is based on an open standard that is publicly available. This allows for data exchange across the borders, and provides better and cheaper services to new customers” explains Ulrik Falkner Thagesen, CEO of e-Boks. 

What are the results?

The adoption of a common standard for data exchange will lead to a significant reduction in costs, benefiting citizens, businesses, public administrations and the Digital Single Market across Europe. This adoption of CEF eDelivery is one of the largest examples of a service provider connecting so many users at once. It underscores the value and importance of having industry driving the adoption of common standards in Europe.

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