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

• The lack of information and the quality of e-government solutions are key usage factors.
Provided that quality improves, 61% of businesses will accept that contact with public
authorities should only occur through digital channels.
The survey gave some clear indications of what user-focused e-government means for Danish
businesses. The most important factor is that their enquiries be answered as quickly as possible, and
that the treatment they receive be consistent and predictable. In terms of incentives to use
e-government, saving time is strongest, followed closely by the ability to deal with government at one
time and in one place, and then faster handling of dealings with government. In terms of barriers to
uptake of e-government, the biggest challenge is a lack of knowledge. This barrier is most acute for
those businesses that have not yet used e-government.
All three studies are very useful for helping Danish government organisations to understand the
demand for e-government and how they can individually and collectively meet that demand in a more
user-focused way. The Digital Task Force study has already led to development of the e-government
marketing campaign. It is yet to be seen what will result from the research done for the MVTU. The
study of business attitudes towards e-government has been used to both reinforce the relationship
between e-government and other aspects of improving government, and to inform the further
development of the www.virk.dk business portal.
Each of these studies was undertaken independently of the others, and none occurred within the
context of a strategic initiative to build knowledge across government about e-government user needs
or demands. While the studies have been useful, it is not clear that maximum value has been extracted
from them; the Government has neither communicated their results widely, nor acted as
comprehensively as possible on their findings. Additionally, it is not clear that there are plans in place
to repeat these studies so that government-wide progress on developing user-focused e-government
can be monitored and evaluated over time.
Besides these and other studies at the all-of-government level, there appear to be no published
studies that have been produced by individual State government organisations. There also appears to
have been no equivalent research undertaken at the local government level to date.
Key point 7.1
Danish State government organisations have recently undertaken significant research into citizen and business
demand for, and attitudes towards, e-government. This research is already being used to improve the user-focus
of Danish e-government initiatives by, for example, informing the development of a major e-government marketing
campaign and the ongoing development of the www.virk.dk portal.
More use can, however, be made of the results of this research – especially the recommendations made in the
report prepared for the MVTU on a qualitative analysis of citizens’ experiences and opinions of digital
communication with the public sector. Benefits can be derived at both the all-of-government and individual
organisational levels. It is not clear that all government organisations are aware of the research or its implications
for making their own e-government efforts more user-focused. There is no comparable research at the county or
municipal level, and Denmark has not considered formalising this type of user-focused research as an ongoing
element of its e-government programme.
Source and type of e-government demand – OECD survey results
The OECD survey results show that, despite the readiness of Danish businesses to use
e-government, the largest overall demand for e-government comes from citizens. This applies to both
online access to information and services, where citizens generate 37% of the demand in each case,
and opportunities to participate in e-government – an apparent contradiction of the views of
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