Signing with Maarch Courrier: all available solutions

Simple signature with Maarch Courrier

The definition of simple signature is broad enough to be open to interpretation.

In short, these are forms of signature that are neither advanced nor qualified.

Although it has no legal value, it can still make its case with a complete audit trail and robust authentication procedures, for example via a company directory.

Maarch Courrier offers this type of signature through its built-in signing platform. Documents to be signed must be prepared with a grey rectangle indicating the signature’s position — a simple graphic stamp producing a result equivalent to stamping machines.

This method proves sufficient in the vast majority of cases and is used by many clients.

Simple, fast, and visual, the electronic stamp is perfectly suited to administrative correspondence with no major stakes. It allows the outgoing document production process to be digitalized quickly, at zero cost.

Maarch Courrier retains all traces of approvals and signatures, with or without delegation, allowing the context of the simple signature to be attested.

Advanced signature with Maarch Courrier + Maarch Parapheur

This option does not yet exist, but will be available in the next version of Courrier and Parapheur, planned for October 2020.

This involves using a certification authority that will host a server seal for the organization.

The certification authority signs the document on behalf of the client organization and the user, provided the latter is duly identified in the client’s system. Because a third party is involved, there is a cost associated with each signature.

The added value is significant:

• Ability to sign any PDF, with no prior preparation (a scanned document becomes signable)
• A green checkmark appears on the PDF: the signature is recognized by Adobe. The green checkmark also appears when the document leaves the organization
• Any user registered in Maarch Courrier can sign without any special device
• The document does not leave the organization

This process targets documents for which the organization wants to provide assurance of authenticity, for example Human Resources certificates.

Qualified signature with Maarch Courrier + DIS PdfSigner, or market signing platforms

The qualified electronic signature is the most demanding stage of electronic signature. As it can be particularly restrictive, it is only used in specific cases required by regulation.

Certificates are contained in a physical device such as a USB key or smart card (“something I have”) and are accessed with a PIN code (“something I know”).

This signature is mandatory for signing acts subject to legality review. It is also mandatory for suppliers in the context of public procurement.

The eIDAS qualified signature is mostly represented in France by the RGS2** qualification.

Maarch Courrier has native connectors to the leading RGS2** signing platforms on the market: FAST Parapheur, SRCI iX-Parapheur, Libriciel iParapheur, SPL-XDemat Parapheur.

If you want to avoid the cost of these signing platforms, the company DIS publishes a module that can be integrated into Maarch Courrier (from v18.04 onwards). It calls on a Java application to query the key, request the PIN code, and apply the qualified signature (with an RGS** certificate) to one or more documents output from the standard Maarch Courrier signing platform. Its implementation requires configuring a standard Maarch queue for outgoing mail to be signed in qualified mode.