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

Figure 7.8 Use of electronic delivery channels
100
90
80
70
60
%
50
40
30
20
10
0
Websites Portals Voice services SMS WAP MMS
Yes
Source: OECD E-Government Survey: Denmark.
The large difference in the level of service delivery through organisation-level Web sites versus
portals indicates a significant opportunity for Denmark to increase the level of user-focus it is already
achieving. The number of Web sites in the Danish public sector is large and growing, with more than
2,000 now in service, none of which are subject to any formal or mandatory design guidelines
(something recommended in the MVTU study of study of citizens’ e-government experiences). In
their absence, there is potential to present users with a bewildering and inconsistent array of options
for accessing e-government, and also to fail to achieve the most efficient and effective use of the
Internet as a delivery channel.
Portals are potentially a much more user-focused way of delivering online information and
services than individual Web sites. Currently, most OECD government portals can be described as
first-generation sites that aggregate the Web-based information and services of individual
organisations into a more coherent and conveniently accessed bundle of e-government offerings.
Future generations of portal development are expected to increasingly enable integration and
customisation/personalisation of services into even more user-focused offerings.
Danish organisations make significant use of a wide range of portals for delivering e-government
(see Figure 7.8). As noted in Chapter 6, activity related to portals is a significant aspect of
e-government collaboration, with 51% of OECD survey respondents reporting that they were actively
working together to establish portals.
In looking more closely at how portals are being used, the survey treated delivery of information
and delivery of services separately. In terms of information delivery, the most widely used portal is the
all-of-government www.danmark.dk, which is designed to provide a convenient way of guiding users
towards the Web sites of government organisations. Given its function, it is interesting to note that not
all organisations surveyed provided information through this portal. Sector portals are the second most
widely used portals for information delivery, followed by specific user-group portals, and finally the
business portal www.virk.dk.
134