NISSAN UK CHOOSES DIGITAL CERTIFICATES IN SECURE E-BUSINESS MOVE

UK motor manufacturer Nissan has chosen ChamberSign, the secure e-commerce service from the British Chambers of Commerce, to support a move from manual to secure on-line processing of tax returns and export documents.

The move has cut document-processing times dramatically and helped to reduce transport costs. The decision follows the carmaker's involvement in a Customs and Excise pilot study last year involving the electronic filing of VAT returns.

ChamberSign was the first approved provider of digital certificates to any size or type of business interacting with central government departments via the Government Gateway.

Ian Rudd, Nissan UK's Tax Manager for Nissan in Sunderland, said:

"The study proved that we could dramatically improve our turn-around times by processing tax returns electronically, but we wanted to be certain that our electronic transactions were secure. ChamberSign offered Nissan the security and peace of mind of a trusted brand."

David Lennan, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said:

“ChamberSign continues to offer all businesses, large and small, peace of mind for e-commerce due to its rigorous authentication model. In the medium of the faceless Internet, there can be no short-cuts in establishing the trust which is required to conduct e-business and ChamberSign continues to set the benchmark for the levels required to establish that trust.”

Jacqueline Robson, from Nissan's vehicle shipment department said:

"With around 15 Certificates of Origin required every month for exports to over 50 countries, manual applications were proving extremely time-consuming. Not only was there two hours of paperwork, there was a round trip from Sunderland to Newcastle each time.

"I attended a ChamberSign seminar and decided to adopt ChamberSign digital security right there and then. Through e-Cert, our certificates are now securely applied for and granted on-line, and each application takes five minutes, representing a major time saving and productivity boost for the department."