The Danish portal for the Commerce sector

Acronym of the case:

VIRK

Web address of the case:

http://www.virk.dk

Country of the case:

Denmark

Posting Date:

15 February 2006

Last Edited Date:

22 December 2009

Author:

Anne Pedersen (Erhvervs- og Selskabsstyrelsen)

eadministration | efilling | burden

Type of initiative

Strategic initiative

Case Abstract

The stated objective of Virk.dk is to relieve Danish companies from administrative burdens. Virk.dk is an internet portal delivering a number of fully digital solutions for the benefit of the companies as well as the public administration. The portal provides a number of notable features and is unique within eGovernment. Virk.dk is putting business in the centre offering a number of transverse workflows, that are customized in a way so that the flow comprehends all the information given and automatically finds the relevant forms bases on each individual user. A case in point is the company start up workflow: The user is automatically presented with forms and question concerning his business interest and he will avoid irrelevant forms and questions. The success of Virk.dk is illustrated by the traffic on the portal, which is steadily rising.

Description of the case

Domain

eGovernment

Topic

Efficiency & Effectiveness, Benchmarking | eIdentity and eSecurity | Services for Businesses | Interoperability

Sector

Customs | Employment | Procurement | Social Security | Tax

Start date - End date

January 2003 (Ongoing)

Date operational

September 2003

Target Users

Administrative | Business (industry)

Target Users Description

The portal is affecting all users in the Danish corporate world. The report-solutions and the information on the portal are covering all professions in one way or the other and all companies can therefore achieve benefits when using the portal.

Scope

National

Status

Operation

Language(s)

Danish

Policy Context and Legal Framework

Project Size and Implementation

Type of initiative

Inclusive services of general interest

Overall Implementation approach

Partnerships between administration and/or private sector and/or non-profit sector

Technology choice

Not applicable/not available

Funding source

Public funding national

Project size

Implementation: Not applicable/not available

Implementation and Management Approach

Virk.dk is a public-private partnership between the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency and the company Virk A/S. They are working together to make better solutions for the companies using the authority's knowledge of the political procedures and administrative tasks and the private partner's business understanding.

Virk.dk is the result of a co-operation between authorities at all levels. All Danish authorities involved with business regulation are participating in the development of Virk.dk providing digital solutions to the portal on Virk.dk. 467 reports related to the corporate world are integrated on Virk.dk as intelligent e-forms, and the companies can report data and retrieve business relevant information from more than 50 authorities.

Technology solution

The digital solutions are based on advanced ICT-technology. When the companies are filling in reports the basic information is pre-filled because the portal is sharing data with the public registers. Further Virk.dk is able to validate all entered data on the portal so that the reports are filled in with a minimum of errors.

Virk.dk is offering a unique level of security by using digital certificates and by offering digital rights management. The company can decide who will act on behalf of the companies by assigning or removing the right to report on Virk.dk for any user with an electronic signature.

Impact, innovation and results

Impact

Since the stated objective of the portal is to relieve the companies from administrative burdens, the perception of the companies is of high value. Whenever small steps are taken in relation to the portal, the needs, benefits and desires of the companies are being considered. Also the companies' active participation in the development of the portal is of high priority, since involvement facilitates a user-friendly and relevant portal.

The involvement of the companies is assured by a number of different means. First of all the companies are represented by a number of non-governmental organisations that are involved in the process around Virk.dk ensuring that Virk.dk is developing with the companies in the centre, e.g. by serving on the board of Virk.dk. The business organisations are all the time gathering input about the companies' wishes and needs and forward these to the board.

Secondly a lot of the authorities have made an effort in making analysis and evaluations of the companies to be enriched by their experience and to try to make the digital solution even better.

Finally the companies have the possibility of calling the hot line of Virk.dk, whenever they have questions about the operation of Virk.dk. They will also be able to comment on solutions and information integrated to the portal. In most cases the companies are calling Virk.dk with simple questions about the portal, and the hot line is able to help the companies right a way. Virk.dk's support is also following up on questions, which they can not answer directly, and in that way the support accumulates knowledge - not only the e-forms - but also about the needs of the companies. This knowledge is very valuable for the incremental improvements of Virk.

Track record of sharing

Important experience has been gained through the process, and it will probably be useful for other administrations to keep this experience in mind before starting on a project with the same extend as Virk.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - Selling an Internet portal is not like selling soap or a new detergent. It is a lot more complicated, and therefore users must be nursed and helped through the processes involved.

Lesson 2 - When many authorities share the same infrastructure and components the costs for the individual authority are very low compared to a situation where each authority starts from scratch every time a new service has to be developed. This fact has already been proved several times on Virk.dk - e.g. has the Danish Ministry of Transport fully taken advantage of the experiences made with the portal, when developing their digital solutions.

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