The global leader in information technology innovation, IBM®, and a leading global provider of digital signature (standard electronic signature) solutions, ARX Inc. (Algorithmic Research), announced today that the CoSign® digital signature system has been qualified for use with IBM Lotus® Forms V3.0. eForms' efficiencies and the security and standards of digital signatures to users of forms-driven applications are delivered by the combined capability.

Lotus Forms, based on the XForms standard developed by the W3C, deliver a flexible, easy-to-use front-end for business process automation that makes the benefits of eForms available via the web. The open architecture of Lotus Forms allows quick and easy integration with the CoSign digital signature solution and will also enable customers to deploy flexible electronic-forms applications that fit naturally into any Enterprise, B2B, and B2C environment.

Director of Business Development for IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences, Grace Tseng, stated: "Many of our customers understand the benefits of becoming paperless but have concerns about the lack of information integrity in web-based processes that could interrupt the flow of their business, or fail to meet audit and regulatory requirements".

CoSign digital signatures, by sealing the web transactions in a manner that also provides proof of the signer's intentions, give Lotus Forms users additional confidence needed to deploy web-based processes that may cross their corporate boundaries. CoSign also ensures all process steps remain electronic, since eForms are signed digitally,  there is no need to print before signing. CoSign signatures, in addition, can be verified anywhere, and anytime in the future, guaranteeing the signed eForm will meet records-retention and audit requirements.

CoSign's integration within Lotus Forms also enables customers to comply with diverse regulations worldwide, including the U.S. FDA 21 CFR Part 11, SOX, HIPPA, the US E-Sign and UETA acts, and the EU Directive for Electronic Signatures. Once a document is signed, the signer cannot deny his/her digital signature, and the document has legal effect.

VP Business Development at ARX, John Marchioni, stated: "We are seeing a growing global demand for standards in electronic forms solutions". "The standards delivered by Lotus Forms and CoSign enable businesses processes to be effectively and securely extended outside traditional corporate boundaries, further increasing the enterprise's collaborative output and competitive advantage."