Stephen Gadd
March 11th, 2019

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Maybe some thinking outside the box is needed when it comes to drawing up tenders

Most Danes have a digital post box called e-Boks to receive mail from the municipality, their wage slips, messages from the bank etc.

Whether they check it regularly or not is another matter – a survey in 2017 found that one in ten people missed important communications, and the problem is most pressing amongst 18 to 24-year-olds.

Doubling up
Soon things could get worse because as part of the government’s digital strategy plans, a competing firm, Netcompany, is bidding to take over the public contract. If they are successful, all post from the state and public sector could end up in a Netcompany digital post box and the rest in the old e-Boks, reports DR Nyheder.

The digital authority Digitaliseringsstyrelsen is responsible for tendering for all public IT contracts, and its deputy director, Adam Lebeck, hopes that the chosen firm will be able to handle both types of e-post. However, he claims it is not possible to guarantee this, given the current rules governing tendering for contracts.

“We can’t guarantee it because private firms decide themselves whether it is relevant for their business,” he said.

Hardly boxing clever
The elderly organisation Ældre Sagen is worried that particularly older users will find two systems too much to cope with and, consequently, will miss important messages.

Both Dansk Folkeparti and Socialdemokratiet have also condemned the move.

“It’s completely grotesque in a country that wants to promote digital development. It’s come as a complete surprise to me that the tendering process underway at the moment has been drawn up in such a stupid way,” said Socialdemokratiet’s finance spokesperson, Benny Engelbrecht.

Whichever system is chosen, the new e-post system is expected to be ready by March 2021.