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8. Conclusion

The Danish government has launched a very ambitious plan in 1996 to expand electronic commerce in general and the procurement function in particular by introducing the technical capability by 1998 to realize electronic commerce at all levels of government by the year 2000. Our data shows that the central government is on the right track and likely to succeed within procurement. In other areas, such as the health sector and taxation, the strategy is successful as well. Not only is the diffusion rate very high, the public sector has also been innovative in co-developing the EDIFACT standards within the taxation, health, and insurance areas.
One of the issues that fascinates us is the Danish public sector's role as a major market player in buying goods and services, which makes electronic purchasing and procurement vital in fulfilling the goals of efficient cost-management. Second, we found that while the government has been using EDI instruments at the top-levels of government, the initiatives often comes from the lower levels of government.

The government has, by following a multi-dimensional strategy combining direct and indirect actions, stimulated the use of EDI, not only in their own organization, but also at other levels of government. In addition, they are applying normative, pedagogical and economic actions to enhance EDI in the communication with their business partners.

Although the governmental initiatives have been successful within the areas vital to the public services and instruments, they are lagging in support of the private sector's need for EDI as well as the public sector's own management. Examples are numerous: on-line systems within an organization, information systems for joint use horizontally and vertically within the public sector, EDI/ data network with the suppliers of taxes, goods, etc. and the citizens, international network in the criminal justice area, etc. These information systems present challenges for the system manager, but also, from our perspective, for the core functions within the public administration and its network.

Moreover, in the intermediate future, we see problems emerging for governments if they continue to focus upon control and power, rather than favorable relationships with trading partners. For example, building national and supranational data networks where EDI is the major vehicle will confront political challenges such as privacy issues. With the open exchange of legal and health data, total privacy can never be completely assured using EDI and IOS. However, networks must not be constructed to maintain or reinforce governmental power-balances, rather, the goal must be to demonstrate efficiencies (human labor savings, savings in time and transportation, better utilization of capital in scheduling, etc.), for the large investments in EDI.
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@ Juul, Andersen & Bjørn-Andersen: Electronic Commerce in Denmark, Proceedings of the 3rd USENIX Workshop on Electronic Commerce, Boston, September 1998. }͉-ߎ̳ ߙܤ*.=Ո֌]Z۔,:%sǜ1mw٫ S8:Cnխv