Electronic business postal system

1. An electronic postal business postal system comprising:

a network of secure system nodes having at least one processor and configured to communicate messages between the nodes;

a collection subsystem consisting of a plurality of access portals, each access portal being associated with one or more of the system nodes and providing, to authenticated users that set up postal system accounts with user postal system electronic delivery addresses, access points to the system to send and receive over the secure system of nodes electronic business mailings that include one or more of user postal system electronic delivery addresses and physical delivery addresses;

a plurality of message servers associated with the access portals, the message servers configured to process the electronic business mailings provided by the access portals to produce messages that include one or more of the user postal system electronic delivery address and the physical delivery addresses, and assigning to the respective messages identifiers that are unique over the system;

a delivery subsystem associated with the access portals and configured to include one or more address registries that associate the respective user postal system electronic delivery addresses and the physical delivery addresses with the system nodes, the delivery subsystem further configured to enter the address registries using delivery address information in the messages, identify a destination node utilizing a locality of the physical delivery address when the physical delivery address cannot be associated with a corresponding user postal system electronic delivery address, provide routing information to the messages as system information, and route the messages over the secure system of nodes to the destination node as specified by the address registries; and

a clearance subsystem configured to perform integrity checks using the identifiers assigned to the messages and allow further delivery of the messages that pass the integrity checks to the access portals.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein

the system nodes are assigned to groups according to one or more global regions, local regions and associations of individuals, and

the delivery subsystem is configured to associate the delivery addresses with the respective nodes within the groups, direct the messages between groups to nodes within the respective groups, and direct the messages within a given group to the system nodes associated with respective recipients.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the access portals are associated with data managers that are configured to store and manage the electronic business mailings or contents thereof.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the data managers are further configured to manage data for groups of associated users.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the data managers are further configured to manage the electronic business mailings or contents thereof based on one or more of a sender of the business mailing, the content of the business mailing, a type of document, and a date of the business mailing.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the access portals are configured to provide to the authenticated users respective data entry fields for electronic business mailing content and delivery address information.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the message servers are further configured to encode the business mailing for the integrity checks.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the message servers are further configured to encrypt the contents of the business mailing.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the message servers that receive electronic business mailing are configured to decrypt the messages.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the clearance subsystem is further configured to use the identifiers to ensure that a given message is delivered only once.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein

the message servers further configured to identify the messages sequentially, and

the clearance subsystem further configured to use the sequential message identifiers to ensure all messages are delivered.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the message servers provide delivery information for viewing by users.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the delivery information includes one or more of a physical address, franking information and a sender return address.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the delivery subsystem is further configured to identify a destination node associated with the corresponding user postal system electronic delivery address when the physical address can be associated with the corresponding user postal system electronic delivery address or when the electronic business mailings include the user postal system electronic delivery address, provide the routing information to the messages as the system information, and route the messages over the secure system of nodes to the destination node associated with the corresponding user postal system electronic delivery address.

15. A method of providing electronic business mailings comprising:

authenticating a user through an access portal associated with a network of secure system nodes configured to communicate a message between the nodes;

receiving a plurality of electronic business mailings for delivery over the secured system of nodes, each of the electronic business mailings having delivery address information, associated with a recipient, that includes at least one of a postal system electronic delivery address and a physical delivery address, at least one of the electronic business mailings including a postal electronic delivery address, and at least one of the electronic business mailings not including a postal electronic delivery address and including a physical address that cannot be found in one or more address registries; and

for each of the electronic business mailings, performing the following steps:

utilizing the delivery address information from the electronic business mailing to enter the one or more address registries;

in response to entering the address registries, determining, by a processor, if the delivery address information includes the postal system electronic delivery address or whether the postal system electronic delivery address can be found in the address registries based on the physical address;

in response to determining that the delivery address information includes the postal system electronic delivery address or that the postal system electronic delivery address can be found in the address registries based on the physical address, selecting a destination node based on the postal system electronic delivery address;

in response to determining that the delivery address information does not include the postal system electronic delivery address and that the postal system electronic delivery address cannot be found in the address registries based on the physical address, selecting a destination node utilizing a locality of the physical address; and

routing the message to the selected destination node.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising

encoding the message to produce a checksum and including the checksum in the message as system information.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising managing, by data managers, the electronic business mailings or contents thereof based on one or more of a sender of the business mailing, a content of the business mailing, a type of document, and a date of the business mailing.

18. The method of claim 15 further comprising providing a user, through access portals, respective data entry fields for the electronic business mailing content and address information associated with the recipient.

19. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

processing the electronic business mailings into messages by applying unique identifiers to the respective messages, and

encoding the mailing for integrity checking.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

encrypting contents of the electronic business mailing; and

decrypting content of the electronic business mailing, by an access portal that receives the electronic business mailing.

21. The method of claim 19 further comprising checking the integrity utilizing a unique identifier associated with the message to ensure that a given message is delivered only once.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising

checking the integrity of a plurality of messages utilizing sequential message identifier to ensure all messages are delivered.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein delivery information is provided for viewing by users.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the delivery information includes one or more of a physical address, franking information and a sender return address.

25. The method of claim 15 , further comprising assigning to the message an identifier that is unique over the network of secure system of nodes.

26. The method of claim 15 , further comprising charging franking to the user's account and including franking information in the message.