Organizations have traditionally communicated with their customers by mailing documents through the postal service. Mailing documents has proved reliable and relatively convenient for organizations. A credit card company, for example, can send a bill through the mail and trust that it will be delivered securely to its customer. The customer can, in turn, mail a check back to the credit card company to pay the bill. However, advances in technology have rendered the postal service relatively expensive and inefficient. Now, many organizations electronically make important documents available to individuals via the Internet, instantly and at a fraction of the cost of traditional mail. Most organizations that make documents available electronically for individuals host the documents on a website that the individual accesses. Some websites allow an individual to register with the website to receive personal information and documents from an organization. For example, a bank's customer can view a statement or transfer money by logging into the bank's website.
Although it is convenient and inexpensive for an organization to electronically send documents to an individual, existing electronic systems lack many of the advantages that the postal service offers its customers. For example, using the postal service, an individual receives correspondence from multiple organizations at one central address associated with the individual. However, if multiple organizations send documents to an individual through their websites, it becomes cumbersome for the individual to receive each document because each organization typically has a separate website that the individual must access. Additionally, while an email address acts as a central destination for multiple organizations to send documents to, an individual cannot securely transfer money over email in response to a document or manage an account with an organization from within an email program.