The Genesis of the Electronic Archiving System
From paper to digital documents
Documents are simply a flow of incoming and outgoing information between different organizations or companies. They are usually related to data exchanged with third parties through different means. Before 1960, paper had been mainly used to transfer information, thus becoming a medium to deliver content created by one person to another person.
The delivery method of these documents was essentially physically transferring paper documents from a sender to a receiver. Hence, companies started to entrust third parties to provide those services such as those offered by “La Poste” in France. In addition, expensive services were implemented when sending important documents, in order to provide proof of delivery.
In the 1970s, the advent of new media had changed the way companies used to transfer their documents. The arrival of fax machines provided new ways to simplify the exchange of information without physically transferring the original document.
The deficiencies of telex were entirely erased by this new communication medium based on international exchanges norms (CCITT) that reproduced a copy of the original document to be sent on the receiver’s machine. Visual information (logo, signatures…), were however reproduced in poor quality realized by the transformation of colors to black and white dots.
The introduction of fax servers then emails facilitated greatly the exchange of copies of paper documents between parties, while maintaining the initial principles of the fax machine. Copies of a paper documents were now transferred as electronic files containing images of paper documents. Therefore, it was no longer necessary to print the electronic document in order to view and use it.
Despite the ease of transferring copies of documents by email or other, most of the original versions of these documents must be maintained. As per the law of March 13, 2000 (1), specifying that the use of a reliable identification process guaranteeing a link with the document to which is attached, it is necessary to prove the reliability of the electronic signature on the electronic document to accept it as legal proof.
Electronic documents: paperless process
In recent years, legislation evolved allowing businesses to automate from the beginning the production of some documents, and process them electronically. With this approach, the use of the paper document was not required anymore. For instance, the electronic invoice can be managed using 3 approaches:
- Basic automation: The invoice is scanned for internal use (accounting, sales, marketing, etc…). Although invoice information is available in electronic format, paper invoices remain the legal and eligible proof for the tax authorities.
- Fiscal automation through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange): The paper invoice is replaced with an electronic invoice in the form of a well-structured data format exchanged between systems thru EDI. However, the EDI implementation remains expensive for the small and medium size organizations.
- Fiscal automation through a secured electronic invoice: The article 289-V of CGI4 (2) provides that electronic invoices could be exchanged. “Subject to acceptance by the recipient, invoices may be sent by electronic mean as long as the authenticity of their origin and integrity of their contents are guaranteed by means of an electronic signature. These electronic invoices thus forwarded shall serve as original copies of invoices for the implementation of Article 286 and this Article”. Implementations of this article could be applied to unstructured electronic files (invoice in PDF format,..) or structured electronic files (XML, ebXML, etc.).
Electronic document archive: Birth of the archiving system
The use of the paper document is decreasing permanently and very fast because of the many benefits of electronic documents. The original electronic document becomes a set of bytes that should be archived using procedures similar to the physical storage of paper documents. The obligations and risks related to the non conservation of electronic documents were the same as those related to the non conservation of physical paper documents.
Similarly to the original paper document, only a single original electronic document has to exist, having the same probative value as the original paper document. The other documents are considered copies. A printout of an electronic document does not have the same legal value as the original, though it would be possible to give it a probative value by acquiring the proof related to the paper document.
The implementation of an archiving system would therefore allow organizations to manage paper documents with legal value, stored in archive boxes on shelves. Organizations can implement their archiving solutions internally or outsource it with third parties. Scanned documents, considered as copies, are imported into the archiving system. To ensure the conservation of electronic documents, the physical archiving system should be replaced or complemented with an electronic archiving system.
