User Guide Introduction

Welcome to the User Guide for the Safe4 secure information delivery and storage service. Safe4 offers the capability for any organisation to deliver documents and data securely to any internal or external party, instantly over the internet, and allow permanent access to such information without using email and without compromising the organisation’s mission critical systems and databases.  It enhances communication, reduces cost and improves security, as well as radically reducing carbon emissions.

This chapter of the guide is broken down into a number of sections. Please click on the links below to move directly to the page you wish to view:

How the Safe4 System works

When an organisation needs to deliver important information to a client, employee, contractor or any other party, it can be uploaded over a secure internet connection to a secure vault that only the providing organisation and its designated recipients can access. The Safe4 vault automatically notifies the recipient when information has been delivered and is available for them to download or view. Information can be stored in Safe4 vaults as documents, or in structured format in columns and rows, similar to spreadsheets or simple databases.

The information is stored securely within a folder structure that the provider can define, similar to Windows Explorer, and which is fully backed up and always accessible over encrypted internet connections for authorised users only.

The recipient can access the information directly through the Safe4 secure online portal. Authentication based on Username, Password and 2-Factor Authentication applies, and all actions are logged for audit and reporting purposes. Importantly, the recipient does not need to have access to the provider’s business applications. Safe4 also offers a comprehensive Application Programming Interface, so that other business applications can make use of the system’s highly secure information storage and delivery facilities.

Providers, Client Vaults and Users

The three main elements of the Safe4 approach are:-

  • A Provider who supplies the Safe4 service to its clients. A Provider may be a professional practitioner – an accountant, a lawyer, an IFA, a medical practitioner – or a business that regularly provides important information to a client, supplier, agent or employee. Typically the Provider sets up a vault for each participating client, and then delivers and stores all important documents in the vault for the client to access securely online.
  • A Client Vault, which is made available by the Provider to a client or other recipient party, may have a standardised folder structure so that documents can be stored and accessed consistently. Safe4 stores the documents in electronic form on-line in “the Cloud” in ISO-27001 accredited data centres within the United Kingdom. Folders can be restricted so that access is given only to authorised Users. In this document the terms Client and Vault are used interchangeably. A client vault can be time-limited, so that it will be unavailable for client user access after a designated period of time but still available to provider users.
  • A User, who can be an end client or recipient of information from the Provider, or one of the Provider’s own internal staff. Different users can have different rights and permissions to access the vault and perform actions within the vault.

The management and control of the Safe4 system is carried out using functions which are described in the Safe4 Administration Guide. These functions are not dealt with in this section of the User Guide.