In brief Vitalware provides:
- An online interface for the general public to search, browse and order copies of historic registration records.
- Fully customisable query restrictions that prevent embargoed, restricted, closed or other sensitive records from ever being retrieved. For example, most Registries provide access only to historic records (e.g. more than 100 years old), the publication of which does not violate any privacy rights of any individuals.
- Audit information for all searches through integrated transaction logging; this logs such details as the query that executed, registration numbers of records retrieved, and search time.
- Integration with online shopping cart. A user may add retrieved records to their shopping cart and then select one or more products applicable to each record for purchase.
- Secure online payment using the Vitalware Payment Broker interface.
- User friendly search results (sorting by results column, pagination, and printer friendly pages).
- Restricted access to life event records: life event search application searches require user knowledge of a shared secret and only exact matches to a unique record return a result.
Simple search screens are provided to search for birth, death or marriage events. Results matching the search criteria are shown in tabular format:
Results screen from an Online Historical Index Searching with Product Ordering application.
Users may then select records for which they would like to place an order for one of the Registry's services. In the majority of cases this will be for a printed certificate but could also be for an image of the actual historic registration. Moving between the Index Searching and Online Ordering sections of the application is seamless. A shopping cart maintains all of the orders for a user. The cart allows further orders to be added; existing orders to be deleted; contents to be saved for recall or to be checked out.
The check out process connects to a government approved payment gateway for the processing of payment for the order. Payment details may be collected within the application and sent to a government approved payment gateway web service, or the user may be redirected to an approved payment gateway website to enter and process payment details. Once the payment is approved, the orders are transferred to the Registry Point-Of-Service (POS) system for processing.
Certificate Validation Service
Vitalware includes a secure online Certificate Validation Service (CVS) for third party agencies, including government departments (passports, social services, etc.) and banks, for verification of the authenticity of a life event. The Registry can choose to provide this as a free service or can apply a transaction-based fee as appropriate. CVS is a secure system with authenticated access only (subscribing organisations must be provided with an account before the system can be accessed).
CVS is both interactive and machine-to-machine and allows subscribing organisations to verify in real-time the details of a person of interest using details provided by the person directly or details on an event certificate produced as proof of identity. The CVS system indicates the validity of the data entered but never discloses any further information about a person, ensuring the person's privacy while still allowing the requesting organisation to determine if the provided information is accurate.
Optional exception processing is available. Searches that may require further investigation by the Registry are stored as a CVS Exception record. A Registry user can investigate and then update the CVS Exception record with a Verified/Not Verified status, and the external agency can poll the service for the processed CVS Exception records.
Vitalware logs all requests through the CVS service and is able to produce invoices for services provided to all organisations which have a transaction-fee subscription.
