Certified mail: Be sure your e-mail arrives

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.