Technologists and technology professionals

Take advantage of technology acceleration while meeting your association's guidelines with your professional digital signature.

Find your Professional Association
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Digital Signature
and Signing Tool

The most efficient solutions to sign your professional documents

Protect your identity and the integrity of your electronic documents by converting all of your paper-based processes to digital ecosystems.

The Advantages of your CertifiO Desktop
Digital Signature

More than 50,000 professionals currently use a digital signature in Canada. Digital identities are changing industries and are allowing professionals to digitally transform. Find out why.

 

Find Your Signature and Signing Tools

Digital signatures for individuals Digital signatures for companies Electronic signature tools Document validation tools

Certifio®, the Digital signature for individuals

Digitally sign your documents in respect of your regulatory framework or your company’s requirements.

  • Online identity verification
  • Increased productivity
  • Conformity to your regulatory framework
  • Guaranteed security and reliability
  • Reduced costs
  • Smaller environmental footprint

Digitally sign your PDF documents on behalf of your department or company with CertifiO.

  • Guaranteed security and reliability, Conformity to your regulatory framework, Increased productivity.

Two options:

    • Signature affixed by an individual (generally using ConsignO or Adobe products)
Signature for departments
    • Signature automatically affixed by your systems (usually for large volumes of documents)Signature for organisations

Digitally prepare and sign your documents with ConsignO

Our range of tools makes your document preparation and signing process quick and efficient. With our easy-to-use solutions, you’ll achieve tangible gains in efficiency.

  • Guaranteed compliance
  • Increased productivity
  • Reduced costs
  • Fully digital process
  • Smaller environmental footprint

Verify the reliability of your documents with VerifiO

Verify a signer’s identity, as well as the integrity, authenticity and longevity of both your electronic PDF documents and printed documents.

  • Increased productivity
  • Identity validation
  • Secure processes

An enhanced practice

A growing trust network

We are the only provider in North America that complies with the regulatory and legal requirements of the majority of professional technology associations in Canada (9 out of 10). In addition, all engineering and architectural professional associations in Canada issue digital signatures to their members using our trusted network. With your association's digital signature, join those cities, governments and organizations that are digitally transforming themselves to increase efficiency and reduce archiving costs. 

Innovate faster with ConsignO Desktop

Improve your productivity and efficiency by watching the  20 training videos that explain each fonction of your digital signature software included for FREE with your digital signature! →Watch the playlist

 

Documents with integrity, authenticity and long-term reliability

The digital signature issued by your association confirms your identity and professional affiliation every time you sign. It leaves no doubt about the legitimacy of your practice and protects your documents against forgery.

Combined with ConsignO Desktop, our advanced digital signature tool and PDF reader, you will be able to produce authentic, PDF/A compliant documents that will still be available for consultation decades from now.

Carbon footprint and cost savings

  • Eliminate printing and handling costs.
  • Greatly reduce approval times.
  • Eliminate shipping costs.
  • Minimize the cost of archiving.
  • Greatly reduce your carbon footprint.

Find out how much you could save

60 000

professionals use our digital signature in Canada.

24/7

Sign from anywhere in the world, any time of day. Don’t let a signature prevent a project from moving forward.

Up to

86%

Savings. The status quo is more expensive than making the digital transition which, in its totality, significantly increases team productivity.

100%

verifiable. A CertifiO digital signature protects your original document. All future alterations are detected.

“We have been conducting business in the same way inefficiently for many years, even decades, and in some cases centuries! (...) But the time has come to modernize our industry and our built environment.”

- Bill Moore, Associated Engineering

Notarius and your Association

Learn more about digital signatures and find out the responses to your questions in the video series and the Q&A PDF.
5-bonnes-pratiques

5 Best Practices to Ensure Compliance

Best practices that are easy to implement and which are essential to ensuring that your electronic drawings are reliable.

Questions & Answers

What is the legal value of my signed document once it is printed?

Regardless of the medium, what is most important is the preservation of information. In Quebec, according to An Act to Establish a Legal Framework for Information Technology, RSQ, c C-1.1, to argue in evidence, it must be shown that the integrity of the information has been maintained throughout its life cycle. In other words, the content of the printed version must remain identical to its original, digitally signed, electronic version to maintain its legal validity. Conversely, the same principle can be applied, for example, to the original paper version that is digitized and sent by email. The whole of the information must be preserved and we must ensure that it has not been falsified or altered by using protective measures such as a digital signature, an electronic seal, time stamping, etc. Such measures assure that any changes made to the document can be traced.

Why do professional associations choose to issue digital signatures to their members?

Controlling the use of seals and protecting the public is an integral part of an association’s responsibilities. In paper form, this is accomplished by placing a seal that embeds the name, member number and designation as a member and is made official by hand-signing and dating the document. But how can associations securely seal official documents in a digital world where a seal can easily be replicated and copied from one document to another? Associations that offer digital signatures choose to control use of seals in a digital world to ensure that only members in good standing can sign official documents. It also allows clients and government agencies to instantly verify that the document has been signed by a professional with the authority to do so.

Are Notarius digital signatures recognized worldwide?

Notarius digital signatures are used to sign official documents and meet the standards of many countries. However, each jurisdiction may have specific requirements that must be met in order to be recognized. For example, in France, many agencies will only recognize French certificate authorities. In the United States, requirements for authenticating engineering documents will mostly be limited to a technological baseline, but not specific to a provider or a standard. As such, Notarius digital signatures meet or exceed the minimum requirements for all US states (except Hawaii). It is important to verify local digital signature requirements with recipients prior to submitting signed documents that use Notarius digital signatures.

Of course, other considerations need to be evaluated before making a digital shift. Please feel free to reach out to Notarius for a working session on the subject for further discussion

How are digital signatures secure? Can they be hacked?

Digital signatures are based on cryptography that was originally designed in the 1970s and is still considered the standard to secure different types of data. Digital signatures and their cryptographic derivatives are used in our daily lives to secure websites, communications, documents and financial transactions. If digital signatures were “hacked,” the first case of attack would likely be in the financial, military or government sector. An individual’s signed PDF document would be the least of a signer’s worries.

Why are Notarius digital signatures trusted and recognized by government agencies?

Not all digital signatures are issued and controlled in the same manner. Governments tend to limit the number of certificate authorities they will recognize or authorize. Strict guidelines are established and audited to ensure that the approved digital signature certificate authority has the proper technology, security, policy and process in place to guarantee the identity of all digital signatures issued. Notarius was created in the 1990s by Quebec’s Chambre des notaires (Board of Notaries) to build a government-grade certificate authority recognized by the Government of Quebec’s electronic land titles registry. Even today, very few third-party certificate authorities are authorized to issue trusted digital signatures for interaction with government agencies. Notarius is the only third-party certificate authority recognized by multiple provincial governments in Canada.

What is the difference between your digital signature service and the image of my seal?

The image of your seal is what is called an “electronic signature.” It is the visual representation of your identity; however, the legal reliability of this type of signature is very limited. A digital signature, on the other hand, is an electronic locking mechanism that protects your original PDF. The only way to modify the original content is to break this protective mechanism. However, once this mechanism has been broken, the modified copy is simply an altered copy since the original document must conserve this cryptographic protection in order to be considered as the original.

What happens when I print an “original” PDF copy?

The printed version is a copy— nothing more, nothing less. You can produce one or two original copies of the electronic document and make multiple subsequent copies of it. It is the same as scanning a paper document into PDF format: the PDF is simply a copy. The ability to produce an original document and make copies is what is essential. A digital signature allows you to produce an original document in electronic format.

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