7. EDI Application in the Danish Public Sector
In the previous sections we have reviewed both the context and the status
of informatization in Denmark through 1996/1997. We will therefore proceed
to present some of the prime examples of EDI use in the Danish public sector
in order to illustrate how the public sector is the main driver in EDI
diffusion.
7.1 The Danish National Board of Industrial Injuries
The Danish National Board of Industrial Injuries is a financially autonomous
agency under the Ministry of Social Affairs handling individual work related
injuries. The work process involves retrieval of data, checking of legal
data/ reference materials, and cooperation with other colleagues in the
office. Most of the external contact is done through traditional mail (incoming
mail is scanned) and phone. Within the organization communication is either
face-to-face meetings, phone meetings, memos, and exchange of electronic
documents. In 1995, the Board received 327,000 letters, while they sent
off 375,000 letters. They received 46,000 notifications of injuries and
made 90,000 decisions.
In 1997, the insurance companies and the Board started using EDI. The
insurance companies are required by law to use the board in cases of worker
compensation related to injuries. The Board needs to check insurance numbers,
the insurance companies need to check social security numbers. By using
EDI, the two partners have bypassed a legal barrier, which prohibits insurance
companies from obtaining direct access to centrally stored personal data.
7.2 Public Procurement
The most demanding challenge for the near future is to implement EDI based
electronic trade into public procurement. While the need to obtain cost
reductions in administrative processes is evident, the barriers of technique,
tradition and attitude are still pervasive.
National Procurement has assumed a major role in preparing the public
sector in Denmark for the electronic procurement of goods and services.
In 1997, National Procurement Ltd. introduced an EDIFACT based database
which encompassed all goods and services in the current paper based Procurement
System. In addition, an electronic public procurement system has been designed
in cooperation with the central and local public network operators.
These two systems are completed with EAN location numbers for all subscribers
as well as a set of EDI documents and standards which will form the backbone
of a thorough public trade environment. This will be combined with an open
interface to other 3rd party goods and
services databases and administrative systems used in the public sector
In the course of 1998 all public authorities will be able to commence
transacting via EDI. Together with National Procurement, Ltd., the Agency
for Financial Management and Administrative Affairs is developing a basic
procurement system for public financial management systems. The procurement
system became operative for local and central government users as of February
15 1998.
7.3 Taxation
The Danish Central Customs and Tax Administration (Customs*Tax) also aims
to receive all documents electronically. Their EDI strategy consists of
two major elements: 1) A strategy for the handling of all incoming data
from companies electronically through an alliance with the Statistics Denmark
and the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency, Ministry of Business and
Industry; 2) enabling citizens to deliver their advance tax assessments
and income tax statements via the Internet and voice-response.
Table 9. Central Customs and Tax Administration: Documents
handled manually and electronically, 1997 (1,000)
Via
Internet
| Document: |
Manual data entry |
Electronic
data transfer |
| EDI |
Phone |
| Employers' income statement |
1,000
|
10,000
|
0
|
| Interest (financial institutions) |
150
|
31,000
|
0
|
| Trade union dues |
100
|
5,300
|
0
|
| Income tax statement |
780
|
30 |
600
|
| VAT |
1,600
|
0
|
0
|
| Intrastat |
900
|
4,000
|
0
|
| Import and export, total |
2,800
|
1,100
|
0
|
The requirements for EDI applications used by Customs*Tax customers
are:
-
Right amount on time.
-
Better servicing of companies, including a reduced effort on their behalf.
-
Effective use of resources.
-
Accurate and lawful administration.
-
Development oriented>
Right amount on time.
-
Better servicing of companies, including a reduced effort on their behalf.
-
Effective use of resources.
-
Accurate and lawful administration.
-
Development oriented.
-
Political satisfaction.
The new EDI interface developed by Statistics Denmark, Danish Commerce
and Companies Agency, the Ministry of Business and Industry, and the Central
Customs and Tax Administration enables companies to deliver their declaration
regarding VAT and excise duty electronically. In 1997, more than 20% of
all Danes made use of the service to enter and transmit information for
the advance tax assessment and the income tax return by telephone. Less
than 1% used the Internet for this task in 1997.
7.4 Health Sector
The Danish health care sector is considered to be one of the most automated
in Europe. Currently, 15% of discharge letters, 7% of laboratory results,
and 10% of pharmacy prescriptions are handled by EDI on average. In the
Copenhagen city, EDI is also used in the communication with dentists and
opticians.
Within Fuen county, the general practitioner (GP) sends a referral to
the hospital department, and the hospital sends discharge letters to the
GP and the municipal social administration and the health insurance using
EDI (Andersen, 1998a; Fuen
County, 1995). Also, when the pharmacy, hospital and GP order medicine,
EDI is replacing paper based order and invoice forms. Currently, the FuenCom
project is being expanded to cover the entire country (MedCom).
After establishing a computerized health data network within the organization,
the county estimated that substantial revenue had been achieved (Fuen
County, 1996). There is, however, major variance in how much of the
communication is wired. In Figure 4, we compare
the communication in Fuen and the average communication in Denmark based
on the number of letters of discharge, prescriptions, pharmacies, laboratory
test results, and doctor’s practices.
Twenty-seven percent of the letters of discharge are computerized and
are part of a network in Fuen County. Yet, at the national level, only
10 percent of the letters of discharge are part of a network. Most remarkable,
however, is that almost 80 percent of the laboratories send and receive
their messages through electronic communication in Fuen County, whereas
only 20 percent of the communication in the labs are processed electronically
at the national level. Furthermore, more than 4 out of 5 pharmacies are
wired. This is true for Fuen County as well as the national average.
Figure 4. Network Distributed Messages in Fuen and
in Denmark on Average
Note.
Data provided by the Danish Center for Health Informatics.
@ Juul, Andersen & Bjørn-Andersen: Electronic Commerce
in Denmark, Proceedings of the 3rd USENIX Workshop on
Electronic Commerce, Boston, September 1998.