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Denmark: Digital mailboxes in all public institutions and companies

<p>
Lars Frelle-Petersen, Head of the <a href="http://www.digst.dk/">Danish Agency for Digitisation </a>and the Digital Champion of Denmark, is enthusiastically pursuing the development of a digitalized postal system both for public institutions and private companies.</p>

Lars Frelle Petersen

Danish Digital Agency for Digitalisation

"From 1 November 2013, it is mandatory for all Danish companies to be able to receive digital letters in a secure digital letter box", he says.

"The last estimates we made show that almost all of the 500,000 active businesses in Denmark have at this point requested the digital signature. Nearly 70% of them are already able to send and receive digital mails. These numbers are continuously increasing and we are confident that 100% of the businesses will have the complete functionality of the tool by the end of the year. However getting public authorities and the companies to use their digital letter boxes will take some elbow grease and marketing efforts".

What is the main reason for adopting this digital system?

Firstly, we estimate an overall saving of around 270 million euro every year once the system will be up and running. Secondly, the digital mailbox system will surely make all the communication processes between public institutions and businesses faster and more efficient. Thirdly it will improve the security. All in all, we will have a more effective system at a much lower price.

How is the Danish Agency for Digitalization supporting this transformation?

We are the institution that is solely responsible for providing the technology behind the digital signature and the digital mailbox system.

Furthermore and in co-operation with the Danish Business Authority we also offer support and coordination. The campaign to inform companies about the transition is up and running, we are doing everything in our power to support this work in the form of providing guides, check lists, information meetings and workshops.

Municipalities, regional and central government authorities are also making a great effort to ensure that public authorities are ready to send and receive digital letters.

What is the next step in the development of the Digital Mailbox system?

Our next objective is to enable all Danish citizens to use the digital mailbox system by the end of 2014 and by 2015 our key goal is to have 80%of all written communication between public authorities and citizens and businesses digital.