Impact
With about 1.5 million applications for compensation for sickness every year, the CSD has an important impact and there is a large focus on efficiency enhancement of the working operations. The CSD is time-consuming for the municipalities and the companies and demands a lot of resources. The advantages of simplifying the procedures seem obvious and as a result the CSD is one of the most successful voluntary Danish e-Government solutions.
The rising number of users of the digital solution illustrates the importance and impact of the project of CSD on the companies today. Since the nationwide solution of CSD was launched in March 2006, the number of monthly transactions has climbed to 12.681 in August 2006 and 23.230 in May 2007. Today’s figures show that more than 6.000 digital forms of sickness benefits a week are being sent to the 98 Danish municipalities. Three quarters of these reports are entered directly into the municipalities’ electronic back-end systems. The number of transactions is thus steadily rising towards a goal of 50,000 transactions a month by the end of the year. (See appendix 1). The reason for the growing success can to a large extent be credited to the changes in working procedures:
- The system is fully integrated with original data from central Danish databases, e.g. the Central Business Register (CVR) and the Central Office of Civil Registration (CPR), which enables the new system to pre-fill data. A large number of data validations help users fill out the form. The users will immediately be notified if data is missing or incorrect and users are automatically presented with only the necessary questions as they move through the reporting process. This results in notable reductions of errors in the forms received by the municipalities. Approximately 100% of the reports submitted are now correct, compared with less than 50% with the conventional paper form system. As a consequence the companies often receive the reimbursement faster and several studies have shown that the companies reduce the time used to filling in the reports by 30-40 per cent.
- By using the digital solution the companies also avoid the burden of contacting the employee in question – a process that is demanded when using the paper form due to the need for the employee’s physical signature on the application. The digital system automatically generates a letter to the employee containing the information given by the employer. The employee is obliged to notify the municipality in case of errors in the data, but no further action is necessary if everything is all right. Thus, rules and control mechanisms have been adjusted in order to take full advantage of the electronic possibilities.
The CSD also has great impact on both local and governmental authorities. A more efficient and effective administration result in large savings, and there is no doubt that the digital solution of sickness benefits has a very good business case. The Return of investment is expected within a short timeframe for both the governmental and local authorities. It has been estimated that the new system results in savings of € 13 million for the authorities alone.
Finally the CSD has an impact of the Danish economy at large and the estimated savings of the societal level reach € 22 million today. According to the Danish government's goal for the year 2012 - stating that all relevant written communication between the companies and public sector must be digital both ways – the CSD becomes mandatory no later than 2012 and the potentials savings are then estimated to reach € 39 million.
Innovation: The CSP is a unique solution based on advanced ICT- technology. The key to technological success of the e-form is a Business Process Management system based on service-oriented architecture. It lets private companies integrate their ERP systems directly with the Danish national system for sickness pay reimbursement, which entails a far more efficient administration.
Furthermore, the digital solution was created with user participation and the e-form was created by the Danish company Resultmaker A/S, based on its BPM product the Online Consultant. The CSD is very easy to submit. The electronic sickness pay reimbursement system automates the entire reporting process. It assists users by guiding them through a few easy to follow steps that replace the nine potentially confusing and redundant paper forms they previously had to deal with. It is called the “Online Consultant†to stress the fact that it assists the user online as personal consultant throughout the regulatory “jungleâ€Â.
Finally the CSP is offering a unique level of security by using digital certificates and by offering digital rights management, whereas the latter permits the companies to keep control of who will be acting on behalf of the company. The electronic signature is a legally binding and secure feature used to sign e-forms that protect the information sent and received by coding and decoding it. When the users sign the data supplied to electronic form, the signed data is submitted together with an XML instance and a PDF version of the form. Authorities can now retrieve the data using a common webservice.
In sum, the use of technology providing back end integration, the use of customized workflows and XML schemas and the use of a secure electronic signature permitting the transfer of sensitive personal data makes the CSD a unique solution.
Award finalist 2007 
