OECD Peer Review of E-Government in Denmark - ePractice.eu

• A quantitative study conducted for the Digital Task Force that asked 2,200 citizens about
their knowledge and use of e-government services, and their attitudes towards them.
• A qualitative study undertaken by the MVTU that looked at citizens’ digital communication
with the public sector.
• A survey of how Danish businesses perceive and use e-government, conducted jointly by the
Danish Commerce and Companies Agency and the Confederation of Danish Industries.
Quantitative study of citizen demand for e-government
The Digital Task Force study again highlights Danes’ relatively high level of use of the Internet
to deal with government, with 82% of respondents stating that they had used a public sector Web site,
and only 13% saying that they had never communicated digitally with the public sector. It also showed
that the Internet has not yet become the primary channel for contact with government; at 34% it was
second to the telephone, which was the preferred means of contacting government for 43% of Danes.
The study also showed that, for many e-government services, the majority of Danes did not know
about the service and/or did not find it relevant to their own circumstances. This was particularly the
case for services that have a relatively narrow user base, such as online access to waiting lists for day
care institutions or applications for various allowances. The most widely known e-government
services were: 1) the generic “self-service/filling in forms” type of service; 2) online access to the
health sector via the www.sundhed.dk health portal; 3) access to municipal e-government services via
the www.netborger.dk municipality portal; and 4) searching for employment via www.jobnet.dk.
There was also good awareness of e-government services related to dealing with property, and moving
and changing address. In terms of actual service usage, the most heavily used were online job
searching, and access to information and services through the health and municipality portals.
The survey revealed that Danes’ attitudes towards digital communication with government were
significantly positive, with 53% of respondents saying that they were completely convinced that
e-government made it easier to deal with government, 51% saying that it saved them time, and 37%
saying that they fully believed that e-government would make the public sector more efficient. Nearly
half (47%) of respondents expected to use more e-government services in the future, and 40% were
fully convinced of the benefits of acquiring a digital signature. Overall, almost 80% of the respondents
felt that e-government made everyday life easier.
The most significant outcome of this study so far is that it has provided the basis for the Digital
Task Force to proceed with a major national marketing campaign for e-government. The three-month
campaign was launched in August 2005. Considerable resources are being put into this project, which
so far involves almost 100 of Denmark’s 382 government organisations. Some key features of the
campaign are:
• There will be more than 800 TV commercials advertising eight different digital services for
citizens. These services will also be marketed through newspaper advertisements, Internet
banners and radio spots.
• The project has developed marketing templates that all public organisations can freely use
and adjust to their needs. These templates make it possible to develop local marketing
campaigns (e.g. for a municipality to advertise the digital services it provides for its
citizens). There are templates for newspaper advertisements, Internet banners, radio spots,
bus advertisements, posters, brochures, post cards, e-mail attachments, etc.
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