Government agencies that engage Treasury as an SSP will derive significant benefits,
such as:

• Leveraging Established Trust: Treasury has achieved a high degree of trust in the Federal community made possible through its emphasis of security and policy that was placed before the PKI began operation and continues today. Indeed, Treasury's cross-certification with the FBCA reflects the fact that other organizations are willing to trust Treasury-issued certificates. Therefore, agencies using Treasury as an SSP will immediately derive the benefits of a well-known and trusted "brand" in the Federal community.

• Meeting Federal Mandates: The HSPD-12 requirement is levied on every Government agency with a rapid timeline for implementation and adoption, yet meeting the requirement will be challenging for most. Successful PKI adoption is critical to this objective, yet most agencies lack the means to issue digital certificates to their user communities, especially in a trusted and secure manner. By turning to Treasury, these agencies will stand a better chance of meeting this mandate and will expend fewer resources to do so.

• Reducing Costs: Recognizing that the costs of establishing, operating and maintaining a PKI may be considerable, agencies can significantly reduce many of these expenses by employing Treasury's pre-established PKI. Further, agencies lacking the in-house expertise necessary to support PKI activities can rely on Treasury to provide first-class service.

• Maintaining Business Focus: By placing PKI reliance on Treasury, agencies may allocate resources more appropriately and concentrate efforts on accomplishing primary business objectives.

In addition to the above benefits, Treasury brings a different mix of service offerings that add value to the current SSP environment:

• Cost Model: While other solutions offer a cost model based on certificate license surcharges and transaction-based fees, Treasury will pass savings associated with increasingly higher volume certificate purchases and shared infrastructure components down to its SSP partners. This allows partners not only to save more money immediately, but to realize greater cost savings in the future as more partners join Treasury's solution.

• Customized Solution: Treasury will be more flexible in accommodating organizations with specific interests. For example, Treasury is able to offer an organization with a subscriber registration and "in-person proofing" model, or rely on an existing model if one exists to better suit their needs. In another example, Treasury will offer organizations with the ability to brand their certificates with their own organizational name, rather than use Treasury's name exclusively.

• Collaborative Partnership: Treasury believes in a collaborative environment with its SSP partners. For example, Treasury encourages its partners to become active participants in policy and other working group meetings that shape the future of Treasury's PKI program. Other SSP solutions do not offer this degree of communication openness.