What we know today as Viafirma has its origin in a business project born in 2000, under the name of Viavansi, Servicios Avanzados para las Instituciones S.L.. From the beginning, Viavansi had a clear technological vocation: to develop customized solutions to respond to the growing need of public institutions to modernize and streamline their processes through digital tools.
Since then, our products have been transformed and adapted to the needs demanded by the market. Today, we tell you about our history and the evolution of Viafirma to become what it is known today.
Viafirma Platform
A few years after Viavansi’s foundation, one of our developments led to the first software solution oriented to the promising sector of digital and electronic signature: Viafirma Platform.
This software incorporated an API that allowed the users of systems integrated with Platform to use digital certificates, both to sign documents and to authenticate themselves in websites or compatible programs.
The product evolved with new functionalities and new modules and components, such as Viafirma Manager, which provided a centralized signature service layer with support for signing with digital certificates issued and stored in cryptographic devices (HSM).
New user modules, such as desktop applications for Mac OS and Linux, pioneers in the market, were completing Viafirma Platform capabilities. In 2010, we launched the first apps for iOS and Android with digital certificate signature support, marking a milestone in the industry.
The biometric signature, with support for the most relevant signature pads in the market, such as Wacom, were also incorporated to the catalog of functionalities available in this product. We quickly reached important market shares, both in Spain and Latin America, being key in Viafirma’s evolution.
Viafirma Inbox
The evolution of the market led us to the development of solutions that did not depend only on third party systems integrated with Platform and that incorporated more functionalities. This led to the birth of Viafirma Inbox, a full-fledged electronic signature holder. We are no longer talking about just an API, but about a software with its own web interface that allowed (and allows), writing signature requests, attaching one or several documents, assigning one or several signers (with or without signature order between them), incorporating approvals, using digital certificates (through Platform), guarding signed documents, sending them to an external document repository, among many other functionalities.
Inbox was established as a very well equipped solution to meet the needs of private companies and public institutions in terms of managing signature processes in a controlled environment, i.e. with signatories who were employees, collaborators or known members of the institution.
Over time, Inbox incorporated new signature options. These included signatures based on “non-local” digital certificates – i.e., stored on a remote server – as well as other less robust signature mechanisms. These included, for example, One Time Password (OTP) signatures, which could be sent from Inbox by email, by SMS, or even through its own mobile app.
Thanks to this evolution, Inbox became a really decisive solution, able to efficiently cover the needs for which it was created.
Viafirma Documents
From this new orientation, Viafirma Documents was born, a solution designed for different scenarios than the ones covered by Inbox. In this case, for signature processes in uncontrolled environments, where external signers participate to the organization that sign in a punctual way, such as clients or suppliers.
Documents, like Inbox, also has its own web interface and a REST services layer to facilitate integration with third-party systems. It allows you to write signature requests, add users, attach documents, similar to Inbox. However, it puts the focus – especially in its early versions – on capturing signature evidence: recording elements that serve as proof that a particular person has signed a document, even without using a digital certificate. This makes it possible to reliably identify the signer.
The target market for this product was initially the management of signature processes with customers, specific suppliers, etc., who could sign at points of sale, via tablets, either in browsers or in the Documents app itself.
Viafirma Fortress, the evolution of Viafirma Platform and Manager
As a result of the new regulations in the European Union, such as the eIDAS Regulation, the need to protect and secure the use of digital certificates arose, improving at the same time its usability. It was then when we launched Viafirma Identity, which later evolved to Viafirma Fortress.
A solution oriented to the integral management of the whole life cycle of the digital certificate once it has been generated in a HSM (Hardware Security Module), adding different layers of protection and audit of use, with multiple protection factors. The product is completed with several modules for the end user, including mobile apps for iOS and Android, and desktop applications for Windows and Mac OS, offering a complete and secure experience.
Viafirma Fortress represents the evolution of Viafirma in its most secure and regulated facet, complying with the most demanding European and global regulations.
Avansi (Viafirma dominicana) and a very specific product: Viafirma RA
It is also worth mentioning the development of Viafirma RA, a software specialized in the management of the life cycle of digital certificates.
Our leadership in the sector worldwide, led us to venture into a world related to our vocation (signature process management software), but unexplored by us; we refer to the world of certification authorities, PKIs, registration authorities, issuance of digital certificates.
It was in the Dominican Republic where we had the opportunity to make history in the evolution of Viafirma and become a Certification Entity through our new subsidiary Avansi SRL, being the first to do so in the country, in 2000. Due to the inexistence of this figure during the first years of the 2000’s, we developed our own software to manage the life cycle of digital certificates, Viafirma RA (RA for Registration Authority, since it is usually registration authorities who use it, mainly).
Software with more than 18 years already, but fully alive, reinventing itself and adapting to regulatory, commercial and functional requirements with great agility. This step also represents an outstanding chapter in Viafirma’s history, expanding its scope towards digital certification and strengthening its position in the international market. This is how Viafirma has evolved: betting on innovation, security and global expansion.