Impact

Since it’s foundation in 2000, Oresunddirekt has had a profound positive impact on information-sharing and cross-border mobility in the Oresund Region.

Oresunddirekt provides a digital information infrastructure that is not otherwise available to cross-border businesses and commuters. The web portal creates added value by taking information from one country and specifically adapting it to the residents of another. The information is not only translated, but completely restructured to suit the needs, language, previous knowledge and perspective of the cross-border user.

That is what makes Oresunddirekt unique, and it is what has made it such a successful tool in binding together the two national systems contained within the Oresund Region.

In the Oresund Region, cross-border mobility for businesses and commuters is a precondition for regional market growth. A surplus of labour force on the Swedish side, combined with a shortage of labour on the Danish, has long created an economical win-win situation in the Region, which has only been marginally slowed down by the current recession. Barriers to mobility, therefore, are also barriers to growth.

Even though regional and local authorities are doing their best to minimise barriers to commuters in the administrative systems, practical barriers often occur, most often caused by lack of information. That is why Oresunddirekt’s web portal and additional services are an invaluable tool for cross-border trouble shooting. The articles, guides, downloads and links on oresunddirekt.com are specifically designed to prevent the most common pitfalls and misunderstandings.

The positive impact of Oresunddirekt on cross-border mobility and market growth is hard to measure in numbers, as the effect of barriers having been removed are harder to measure than the effects of still existing barriers.

However, the quantitative and qualitative results of Oresunddirekt give a good indication of its importance.

Quantitative results:

The practical use of oresunddirekt.com in solving the everyday barriers of businesses and commuters is reflected in its user popularity. In fact, the growth and integration in the Oresund Region is nicely mirrored in the statistics that show the number of users that have needed Oresunddirekt’s help and e-services. The number of daily work-commuters has grown steadily from c. 3.000 in 2000 to c. 17.600 in 2008, and over that same period, oresunddirekt.com’s users have increased tenfold! The web portal has gone from c. 6.400 monthly user sessions in the first year to over 65.900 (monthly user session average for 2007 and 2008, also see statistics attached). Like the Region’s development, the progress of Oresunddirekt appears steady and sustainable.

Qualitative results:

Repeated qualitative evaluations have shown high user satisfaction for oresunddirekt.com. The latest web survey, performed in 2007, showed a user satisfaction rate of 91 %! (43% were “satisfied” with Oresunddirekt’s services, while 48% were “very satisfied”, see attached document.) An in depth user analysis was carried out in 2005, with similar results: overall user satisfaction was 86%; 79% thought that oresunddirekt.com was easy to use; and 78% of users stated that they “found the answers they were looking for about living or working in the Oresund Region” (see attached document).

Track record of sharing

Throughout its existence, Oresunddirekt has engaged in exchanges with other actors as an important part of its strategy. Some of these exchanges have been on a local scale, such as the continuous exchange of information and methodology with our many partner organisations and networks. But there have also been exchanges on a larger scale with other European administrations.

Information-sharing with local partner organisations is part of the way Oresunddirekt works (as described in heading 24). A mutually beneficial system for information validation is necessary for Oresunddirekt to function, and the organisation is able to give a lot back to the local public actors in the form of shared good practise. For example, Oresunddirekt shares its strategy and know-how on web-based communication with its sister office in Malmoe through regular courses and seminars.

In 2005, Oresunddirekt was chosen as best practise organisation and group chairman for the PPP (Provide eGovernment Good Practise Portability) working group on cross-border portals. This meant that Oresunddirekt hosted and conducted a series of seminars designed to share its good practise with other European cross-border eGovernment services. The seminars contained presentations explaining Oresunddirekts methods and strategy, but were also characterised by a high level of audience participation through mini-workshops and group discussions. Rapporteur for the seminars was Professor Mike Martin, Newcastle University, UK. (Professor Martin’s report, and a selection of other PPP documents, are attached.)

Furthermore, since January 2008 the manager of Oresunddirekt, Mr. Lars Victor Whitt, has been involved in a best practise project dealing with the Danish-German cross-border Region that is expected to evolve around the Femern Baelt (where a bridge is due to be built in 2018). Mr. Whitt was initially invited as a sparring partner, based on the desire to learn from Oresunddirekt’s experience of cross-border e-services and communication. An executive committee with the aim of creating a coherent communications strategy for the Femern Baelt Region was established in January 2009, with Mr. Whitt as one of the board members (see attached documents).

Lessons learnt

The three main lessons learnt from 9 years of implementing and developing Oresunddirekt, are:

1. The value of adapting e-services specifically to a given target group cannot be overestimated!

Oresunddirekt.com has evolved through four different versions in order to accommodate the needs of the target group, and throughout this process, the statistical analysis of user traffic, as well as user tests, has revealed time and again that the best way of simplifying complex information is by personalising it, i.e. making it speak directly to a user in a given situation.

Oresunddirekt works with personalised information in several ways. On the main web portal, situation-specific e-guides lead the user directly to the relevant public information links and downloads. Moreover, in some cases where a target group is easily singled out as having specific needs, Oresunddirekt has opted for a separate sub-site with customised information.

2. Strategic cooperation with partner organisations is an effective tool of information-sharing, and also creates positive side effects.

The staff and management of Oresunddirekt have noticed that as their networks with local public actors grew stronger, reliable channels for information validation began to be established. This freed up time and resources for improvement and innovation for Oresunddirekt as a whole.

The positive side effects of this type of cooperation include an increased awareness among the partner organisations of the cross-border aspects of public administration. This benefits the public actors themselves, as well as the people they serve. Oresunddirekt strives to give back as much as possible to its partner organisations, not only through its e-services, but by sharing its networks, methodology and know-how where relevant.

3. Non-electronic services can increase and complement the efficiency of an eGovernment initiative.

For the past decade, the growing eGovernment trend has gathered momentum, and non-electronic information services have come to be regarded as old-fashioned. In Oresunddirekts experience, however, e-services can become even more efficient when complemented with physical events such as information meetings, and contactability via telephone and email.

Electronic services on their own run the risk of alienating part of the target group, and even internet proficient users often find physical instructions helpful. To some extent physical events and contact serve as an introduction to the e-services, as well as the other way around. Moreover, the regular contact that Oresunddirekt’s staff has with its target group is an invaluable tool in the ongoing target group analysis that is necessary to keep the e-services relevant and up to date.