Electronic waste documentation procedure
NSUITE.comfort
eANV software for electronic
waste documentation procedure
NSUITE.comfort
NSUITE as Middleware
If you would like to expand your existing waste management software to include electronic waste documentation procedures, NSUITE.comfort is exactly the right choice. In addition to the full range of NSUITE functions, we offer you various middleware components that provide a programmable interface to NSUITE. This gives you access to electronic records management documents, allows you to process them in compliance with the BMU (in accordance with legal requirements) and finalise them by means of a signature process triggered from your system for transfer to external parties. Regardless of whether your system is web-based or a stand-alone desktop system, our middleware can be controlled via web service, socket or file transfer. We have a tried-and-tested solution for every technical scenario.
Starting is easier than you think: When using NSUITE. comfort, you work as before in your own waste management software. You can integrate electronic records management functions and work steps that you want to integrate into your existing workflows step by step via the interface. Decide for yourself how much electronic records management you want to bring into your system immediately, and which workflows you need only occasionally, if at all. The NSUITE web application is a complete eANV solution and is included in the scope of delivery of NSUITE.comfort. It can also be used in parallel to the connection via the interface. This allows you to determine the degree to which legacy systems and NSUITE can be integrated.
As a partner solution, NSUITE takes care of what makes electronic records management seem so complicated: The XML specifications of the BMU interface, which have been concretised over many years, legally compliant register management, including register requirements for the responsible authorities, communication with the German ZKS-Abfall, via VPS registration and OSCI protocol - NSUITE takes care of all this and more without you having to familiarise yourself with these topics. The interface offers you a stable XML format for exchanging technical data with NSUITE in an up-to-date net view and triggering clearly defined functions. NSUITE checks the documents against the applicable regulatory requirements and automatically handles all the necessary communication steps with the outside world.
Benefits
NSUITE.comfort provides the following benefits:
- Legally compliant implementation of the Verification Ordinance
- Qualified electronic signature from a single source (no dependence on third-party providers)
- User-friendly operation, as well as register and signature view
- Quality and data security
- Your data on your in-house servers
- Option to use your own ZKS mailbox or the provider mailbox
- Lean and easy integration of the components
- Choice between web service interface, file interface, socket interface
- Interface to SAP EH&S
Audience
NSUITE.comfort is aimed especially at companies,
- Who operate their own waste management system,
- Who want to expand their existing software to include the electronic waste records procedure,
- Who want to work and sign offline (or on the intranet),
- Who need an interface for the register.
Functionality
Functionality of NSUITE.comfort
Functions:
- User administration
- Client/business premises management
- Communication with the ZKS via OSCI
- Realisation of the interfaces defined by the BMU
NSUITE interface
- Qualified electronic signing of forms and verification of signatures
- Signature viewer with visualisation of the different views (layers) of the document
- Automatic document dispatch to all parties involved in waste transport
- Semantic and syntactic checks when receiving documents
- Assignment and delivery of designated documents from one or more mailboxes
- Print views in the classic layout of the forms
NSUITE web application
- Automatic register management in accordance with the specifications of the BMU
- Register entries for waste that does not require verification
- Recovery register according to § 24 para. 8 NachwV
- Register view with additional definable filters
- Automatic creation of register extracts
- Additional dispatch of documents to selected recipients
Requirements
Requirements for use
At the work station you need:
- A PC with access to your company's internal NSUITE web application
- A signature card (for each user who is to generate signatures)
- A card reader authorised for qualified electronic signatures
The following software must be installed on the PC:
- Card reader driver
- optional: Java 8 - with the "NSUITE Webconnect" signature mode, there is no need to install Java at the workstation
NSUITE.comfort includes signature software for qualified electronic signatures. This means that no additional signature software needs to be installed at the workstation.
The following programmes must be installed on the server:
- OpenJDK Java 11 or Oracle Java 8
- Apache Tomcat 9.0.x
- Database (one of the following):
- Firebird Super-Server 2.5.x
- MS SQL Server as of 2008
The licences for the databases are not part of NSUITE.comfort. The database and application themselves can also be installed on different servers.
Interfaces
Interfaces
In order to exchange data with an NSUITE system and call certain functions in the sense of an API, an XML schema was designed to record commands and user data structures. This NSUITESIG XML schema is versioned and developed to be as downward compatible as possible. This means that older versions of the interface connection also remain functional with newer NSUITE interface components. (The command calls name the schema version in which they are formulated and are analysed individually accordingly). On the other hand, the current NSUITESIG schema can be used promptly, as the mapped range of functions is only supplemented and the known functions remain congruent.
NSUITE.comfort offers various ways of exchanging these command data structures with your respective NSUITE installation for the integration of the eANV components into your existing waste management system. Choose a suitable interface variant depending on your IT structure. And should your scenario ever change? No problem, simply change your plans! The interface format does not change - only the technical transfer path.
- Web service interface: In order to provide a web-based interface for the NSUITESIG interface format, a simple SOAP wrapper was defined with just a single action: The transfer of the interface XML and the delivery of the response. For scenarios where access security is required, the NSUITE user administration can be integrated into the SOAP header as authentication (WSSecurity). You can use code generators to create a SOAP client for your software environment. However, the necessary SOAP XML is so simple that you can implement a functioning connection via HTTP using string templates alone.
- File interface: Powerful enterprise applications are often in production for many years, if not decades. If circumstances do not allow the integration of a web-based interface, the interface format can also be exchanged via files. On the workstation or in a network share, monitored input/output directories are configured and operated by a running instance of the desktop component "NSUITE Client Signature", which is connected to an NSUITE database. This can really be controlled in any technology, but as a rule each workstation requires its own instance. In large companies, server-based handover variants are therefore favoured, which reduce the maintenance effort.
- Socket interface: The transfer via socket and IP communication is historically located halfway between the file interface and web service. Socket access can be set up for each workstation or - which is the real advantage - made available on a central server for all workstations. Command and response are directly linked to each other. Before you consider this option, please check the web service interface! The scenario and implementation effort are very similar and there are a number of useful standard software tools for web services and HTTPS that will make your life easier.
You are welcome to request the respective interface descriptions from us.
Integration
Integration made simple for software houses
With its middleware components, NSUITE.comfort offers all the necessary functionalities to map the electronic waste records procedure and connect it to an existing waste management system in the company. In particular, the interfaces for displaying documents in BMU format with its layer technology and the attached qualified electronic signatures can be used immediately via the signature application component belonging to each NSUITE application scenario.
Two examples of this:
- Signing and sending a document: As a rule, all verification and accompanying documents and their data are generated or further processed in standard waste management software. In the past, this data was printed out. Now you - as the developer implementing the interface to NSUITE - transfer this data within an XML document to the NSUITE components, paired with a command to sign the document and forward it to the NSUITE register. This could work via a 'Sign' button, for example. The data you provide is used to create a document according to the BMU-XML schema or to add another layer to an existing document. NSUITE takes into account document statuses that have already been received or sent. The document now available in BMU-XML format is opened in a window and displayed to the user for checking before signing. After a successful signature, the newly created processing status is automatically "posted" in the NSUITE register and the necessary copies are sent to the parties involved in the process in an outbox. The inboxes are periodically synchronised against the eANV communication infrastructures in the background. So your software doesn't have to worry about any of this.
- Receiving documents: In order to further develop the content of the verification and accompanying documents that have been processed by external parties, you must retrieve the current document statuses from NSUITE and incorporate them into your data storage. Various commands have been defined for the NSUITE.comfort interface for this purpose - for example, by register setting period, by technical number and document type or by means of a retrieval marker. The details are documented in more detail in the interface description. The following always applies: NSUITE supplies the document statuses from the point of view of the client that you access via command. In the simplest case, there is exactly one client. However, more complex scenarios can be mapped. In addition to the known data of a verification and accompanying document, the returned data also includes information about signatures that have been executed. As a rule, the signature and layer progress is the decisive information for a clerk as to who has to take action in the procedure by processing and signing the documents in order to continue the overall process.
SAP EH & S
SAP EH & S Connectivity
A special variant of NSUITE.comfort was developed to connect NSUITE to existing SAP EH & S systems.
As of SAP ERP 6.0 (ECC6.0), SAP EH & S provides interfaces that are used by NSUITE to extend SAP EH & S with the functionalities required for the electronic waste records procedure.
The NSUITE components specialising in SAP EH & S meet the requirements for connection to your SAP software and have been tested together with the SAP EH & S manufacturer.
Components
NSUITE.comfort with SAP EH & S interface consists of several web applications that run in a servlet container, as well as a service that is responsible for switching messages between the ZKS, other NSUITE customers and your SAP system.
The following applications are embedded in the servlet container:
- A web service provider to which the SAP system transfers accompanying and transfer notes, master data and requests to view notes,
- a component for transmitting the signature application component and
- an NSUITE web application that is used, among other things, to manage waste disposal certificates, the connected SAP systems and to view the register.
The task of the standalone service is, for example, to send signed documents to communication partners via the ZKS and the NSUITE communication server and to regularly query both instances for new messages. These messages are then transferred to SAP EH & S via a web service.
eANV extension of SAP EH & S
The eANV extension of the SAP EH & S system visible to you consists, for example, of the "Send eANV" and "Display eANV" buttons, which are used to transfer documents to NSUITE for signing or displaying and which are followed by the SAP system-controlled start of the signature application component NSUITE Signature for a signature or display process.
By constantly transferring information to SAP EH & S, you are always informed about the current status of a document.
NSUITE web application customised to SAP EH & S
In addition to the regular functions of the NSUITE web application, such as the management of disposal documents, the management of master data and the view of the register, the version customised for SAP EH & S customers contains the following additional functions:
- Management of connected SAP systems: Theoretically, any number of SAP systems can be connected to an NSUITE application
- Monitoring of messages and documents to be sent to the SAP system
- E-mail notification if information could not be transferred to the SAP system after a defined period of time
Our professional in-house support team is available for you Mon-Fri from 8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. on +49 30 6576 3800
Emergency on-call technical service is available every day from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.