Certified mail: Be sure your e-mail arrives

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): E-mail has arrived. In just a few years, it has become the preferred means of business communication. But despite the near ubiquity of E-mail, most people do not entrust sensitive business documents to it. The preferred means of transport for such documents is usually certified or overnight mail. Too much can go awry with E-mail, such as messages being lost, missent or, most ominously, being intercepted.

Have you ever sent an important E-mail to someone and wondered if they received it or even read it? We have all been in that position. With speedy postal service or express courier, you get a certified or registered return receipt, so you can be sure that at least the party received the letter you sent.

While many E-mail systems have a message return receipt function by which senders are notified when their E-mail has arrived, this generally will work only if both E-mail parties are on the same system or use the same software. The problem is there is no standard to ensure E-mail delivery.

United Parcel Service (UPS) of America pioneered a new concept about a year ago with its UPS document exchange service. The concept is very simple; instead of sending someone a document via E-mail or hard copy by expensive overnight delivery service, a user simply sends an empty E-mail message that contains a link to a secure Web site. The sender is notified as soon as the recipient accesses the message.

Now you can have the same service and peace of mind with E- mail. CertifiedMail.com keeps messages on its server and lets you know when the recipient picks up your message, like a delivery service that uses a tracking number.

Unlike the UPS document exchange service, CertifiedMail provides this basic service for free. Think of this as the digital equivalent of the postal service's certified mail.

Confirmed delivery

It is not necessary for an E-mail recipient to be a CertifiedMail member. If the recipient is not a member, they will be given a receive-only account; meaning they can receive messages but cannot send certified E-mail. Sending a message via CertifiedMail takes a few more steps than a normal E-mail.

First, you must create a free personal account on the CertifiedMail site in order to have an allotted 2MB of space to store and track your sent messages. In your Web browser window, you compose a message and add any attachments. Then click the Send button.

After you send the message, it resides on CertifiedMail's server for 30 days before the recipient must pick it up. The server will send an E-mail notification message including the subject of the E-mail, a Web link address, an ID for the recipient and a password with directions for picking up the message at CertifiedMail's site.

Suppose after several days the recipient still has not picked up the message, you have the option to send another reminder notice to them. By the way, you can also send a copy of the message straight to your current E-mail address, just to retain a digital copy in your personal computer.

The notification message to the intended recipient will bear your original E-mail address, because CertifiedMail is for you to send E-mail to other people's E-mail address. It is not a standard E-mail system where you get yourname@certifiedmail.com like HotMail or Yahoo, thus you must register with your existing E-mail address to get the benefits of this service.

By clicking on the Web address link, the recipient can log in and access their private mailbox containing waiting messages. Once a specific E-mail is opened, CertifiedMail's server automatically generates a return receipt for the sender, confirming that the message has already been opened.

The return receipt E-mail will be delivered directly to the sender's original E-mail address with the subject of your opened E-mail, date and time it was created by the sender, date and time it was opened by the recipient, IP address of the sender and the recipient.

After opening the message, the recipient can delete the message or forward the message directly to his or her original E- mail address.

The bottom line is CertifiedMail serves as a third-party intermediary or virtual post office; it tracks and manages E- mail, certifying the delivery and receipt of E-mail messages and file attachments.

Robust message tracking is provided with times synchronized with an atomic clock, so the times will not be wrong. The IP addresses of the sender of the message and the recipient will be recorded for mutual verification. It will absolutely not record the wrong parties, because each IP address is unique and can be tracked and followed to the base ISP server of each party.

Lots of Potential

Printed trade confirmations represent a huge potential market. A few months ago, I read many complaints in the letters section of a number of newspapers.

The letter writers claimed that their credit card payment invoices or mobile phone billing invoices had not been received and the service company unilaterally and without prior notice canceled their services.

I see this technology replacing overnight deliveries or registered mail. There is no longer an excuse for obsolete or incorrect street addresses.

The service is designed to appeal to all business users, but especially to businesses that regularly send contracts, sales brochures and purchase confirmations. Additional uses include confirming appointments, sending party invitations and for any occasion where you need to know that your message was received.

Finally, you have a way of knowing if and when people are paying attention to you. Well, at least with digital E-mail confirmation we can save our rain forests.