The use of electronic document is a clear trend in the corporate world, either in large, medium or small-sized companies. This process started as from the second half of the 1990s with the propagation of the Internet and the use of e-mail as companies’ main way of communication.

Nowadays, the main reference when it comes to document electronic management is the Electronic Invoice (e-EI), which was created with the purpose of subsisting, in national scale, the issue of paper fiscal documents, as well as allowing the user to follow all commercial operations of its clients or suppliers through the Revenue.

e-EI is an electronically issued and stored document, the legal validity of which ensured by the issuer’s digital signature and the authorization for use provided by the tax management of the taxpayer’s residence.

Electronic issue, in addition to making collection faster, enables participating companies to simplify their tax procedures. There are many other benefits, such as cost reduction in areas such as printing, paper acquisition and document storage and transportation, etc. According to the Revenue Department, it is a more effective way of controlling information and fighting frauds.

Since April 2006, the Electronic Invoice National Project has become effective. The service is being implemented in six Brazilian states with the adhesion of 19 large corporations, Souza Cruz being the first one in the country to issue an electronic invoice. Currently, Sefaz SP system has the capacity to issue 240 thousand invoices per month, and such figure is expected to reach 30 million up to the end of 2007.
However, one of the important points in the electronic invoice implementation process regards security, once the value of information has become more and more expressive for organizations, the competitive differential for many of them being exclusively based on information.

Electronic invoice issue security and communication among issuer, revenue and receiver must be made by specific hardware, which takes into account the cryptography platforms for the integration with the national or municipal system.
In addition to the highest data processing capacity, HSM (hardware security module) use becomes important as it precludes the copy of the company’s private key, reducing any kind of vulnerability in the system. Hardware also allows recording of auditing, multiple activation channels and user access control.

Brazil’s large companies must follow open patterns when implementing the e-EI system, which must take into account digital signature for each e-EI issue in accordance with the ICP-Brasil standard, consisting of the set of techniques, practices and procedures to be implemented by public and private Brazilian organizations with the purpose of establishing the technical and methodological principles of a digital certification system based on a public key.

With the success obtained in the first e-EI tests, hundreds of companies must adopt the system, which will certainly foster the information security service market even more. According to IDC’s research, IT security segment will be among the ones receiving the most investments in Brazil in 2006, and it is estimated that companies will be able to outsource up to 90% of its security solutions until 2010.

Carlos Magno is a True Access partner officer