CHALLENGE In the 1990s Danish companies should often wait two months to receive a certificate when applying for a registration or change of registration. At the same time, the DCCA spend a lot of money on case handling. SOLUTION From 2000 to 2005 the situation has changed significantly. An online registration system called Webreg, has gradually evolved to cover thousands of business registrations. Webreg means that it is possible to found a company or to change one of Denmark's 520.000 businesses in a few minutes by help of a digital signature. IMPACT Applicants use Webreg. For instance: In 2004 61 percent of new companies were registered at Webreg. Applicants are familiar with Webreg. A survey shows that 85 percent find it "very easy" or "easy" to use Webreg. Webreg causes significant reduction in internal administration. Without Webreg the DCCA would 14 more employees for case handling.

Main results, benefits and impacts

BACKGROUND Danish private and public companies must submit substantial information to the DCCA. Since last year, also sole traders must register with the DCCA. Today, around 150.000 companies and 275.000 sole traders are registered with the DCCA. RETHINKING PROCESSES In 1990s the DCCA realised that it could take advantage of the WWW to deliver a much better company service and to reduce internal spending on case handling. SOLUTION The solution has been to develop, implement and promote a self-service websystem called Webreg. The POTENTIAL IMPACT of Webreg can be described as - increasing service level by instant registration and delivery of certificate - no internal costs on case handling by automatic validation at Webreg - instant disclosure of business information to the market by instant publishing at www.cvr.dk ACTUAL IMPACT can be described through the following examples: REGISTRATIONS PR. YEAR In year 2000 7.000 company registrations (founding and change) took place at Webreg. In 2004 the number was 46.500. REGISTRATIONS - SHARE In year 2000 Webreg's share of company registrations (founding and change) was 8 percent. In 2004 the number was 52 percent. SAVINGS ON PERSONEL I 2004 registrations at Webreg substituted 14 persons handling cases. REDUCED WAITING TIME In 2004 the market saved around 16.800.000 hours at waiting for paper based registration. Compare illustration 3. USABILITY Survey based on a representative sample shows that 85 percents of all users find it 'very easy' or 'easy' to navigate at Webreg. INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY From 2000 to 2004 average productivity pr. hour concerning company registration has increased 341 percent. USER PENETRATION Around 80 percent of all professionals, who submit company information on the behalf of the company, use Webreg. Webreg delivers business information to www.cvr.dk, which receives 13.000.000 requests per year from all types of users. DIGITAL SIGNATURE/PENETRATION The DCCA estimates that 95 percent of all accountants' offices have at least one OCES digital signature, and 80 percent of lawyer's offices have at least one OCES digital signature. COST-BENEFIT Webreg is a first-mover when it comes to digital signature, change of company capital and other functionalities. In spite of this situation, it has been possible to make a positive return on investment, when we compare expenses 1999-2005 on development, maintaining, promoting, and salaries with savings on case handler saleries and a tremendous increase in time saved for businesses. CUTTING RED TAPE In the end of the 1990s the DCCA became a strategic unit for government efforts relieve burdens on businesses. From then on, the agency has coordinated government work with simplifying business related law, and has coordinated integration of IT-solutions, which shall simplify information flows from businesses to local and central authorities and vice versa.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Lessons learnt

WEBREG AS BEST PRACTICE Webreg has been used as a best practice to other authorities, when the DCCA unit to relieve administrative burdens communicates a way of doing best practice within e-government. Webreg delivers impact (better service and lower costs) and makes extended use of new technology like the OCES digital signature and OIO XML for sharing information with external systems. Moreover, Webreg is based on coordination between authorities, e.g. the DCCA, local/central tax authorities, and Statistics Denmark. REGISTRATION NOT ONLY SUBMITTING Webreg is not only submitting of information, it is also registration of information. This is a big difference. Web systems, which only provide submitting of information, seldom provide significant benefits. Webreg shows that you don't necessarily have to compromise when working with business registration. It IS possible to build a full-automatic registration system to applicants. It IS possible to gain real benefits. ESTIMATE CHANGING CONDITIONS There is a tendency to generalize on the basis of existing technology, political agendas, and organizational trends. Relying on existing conditions makes it easier to make decisions and project tasks. When the task is limited this approach works well. When a task reaches several years into the future, like the Webreg system, you have to reflect on this approach, seriously. Especially when it comes to technology. Standards which are recognized as 'top notch' one year, are 'old hat' the year after. This means, that you have to analyze flexibility and accessibility of chosen technology components. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE HUMAN FACTOR To operate in an electronic administration is very different from operating in a paper based administration. To legal counsellors and case handling personnel this can be difficult to understand. Many of them cling to a conviction that paper based administration is easier and more secure. To put it bluntly, this conviction is usually based on feelings, not facts. Surveys prove that Webreg produces fewer faults than paper based case handling. Hence, building an e-government system like Webreg demands communicative efforts to explain and to prove the advantages of digitalization. TAKING USERS SERIOUSLY In our experience, the basic move is to take users seriously. It is not enough to hypothesize user needs and behaviour. It is not enough to hypothesize user friendly web flows. It is not enough to hypothesize that your system by itself will change habits. In spite of political agendas and quarrels, you must build the system to the mind of the users through market analysis, usability test and surveys.