Digital Mandate: digitalisation for companies
Phones, utility bills, satellite TV: authorizing a company to withdraw an amount from your bank account is becoming increasingly common. Direct debits from your bank account are nothing new: they have been around for a long time. However, today there is an upgrade to this solution: the digital mandate. It is a digital tool which allows the dematerialization of documents and procedures. Yet it allows you to print – in pdf format – the contract you have signed. The digital mandate is also valid from a legal point of view because it uses the Advanced Electronic Signature and because it guarantees the preservation of the document for 20 years. Fabrick is about to release an innovative solution, not only in terms of content, but above all because it is the first totally global solution available. This solution is aimed primarily at all those companies that have a “traditional” document base but are looking to implement their digitization without a sudden acceleration.
Let’s learn more about the digital mandate
The digital mandate applies to the SDD payment method, which stands for Sepa Direct Debit. We are therefore in the “realm” of direct debits in bank accounts. It is the first global solution because it can be used by anyone who wants to cash in the Sepa area. This virtual document – which, as we shall see, can be printed or transformed into various formats, such as pdfs – authorizes the company, to which the end customer (or debtor) owes an amount of money, to withdraw it from the person’s bank account. At the same time, it authorizes the company itself to collect from the bank via direct debit.
This is not a conceptual innovation, because everyone at one time or another has had to deal with a document which allowed debit, perhaps with telephone companies or utilities. The digital mandate, however, is the logical step allowing you to continue performing this function even now that technological progress is proceeding apace.
Be careful though, because digital mandate and e-mandate are not the same thing. The latter, in fact, is a type of fully electronic document, a string of code which can be shared. The digital mandate, on the other hand, allows you to carry out the entire procedure online but generates a printable document which can be saved as a pdf. Another fundamental advantage is that the digital mandate, using the Advanced Electronic Signature, which is legally recognized, is to all intents and purposes a document with legal value which protects against – unpleasant but possible – disputes with the debtor. In addition, it guarantees the preservation of the document for 20 years as required by law.
Digital mandate, dedicated to those who have ties with the past… but look to the future
Digital Mandate is a solution designed specifically for the digitization of companies which may still have a solid “physical” tradition that cannot be erased with a stroke of a pen. It is therefore a bridging solution allowing anyone to be digitally advanced, and moreover without any particular hardware or software requirements. All you have to do is ask for the creation of a “path”, a route, and you can use the digital mandate in zero time, without any further aggravation or complications for the company. It is good to state this clearly: innovating is not always good, it is not a magic wand allowing you to suddenly develop the digitalization of the company overnight. Digital Mandate can be a valuable trait d’union between the different souls of the company: the more conservative one – linked to legacy and traditional systems – and the one more inclined to change.
