ICT usage in municipalities and county authorities (discontinued), 2002

Besides Oslo, all municipalities in Østfold, Hedmark, Buskerud and Rogaland had their own website. Intranet is less widespread, and besides Oslo the counties Vestfold, Rogaland, Buskerud and Akershus had most municipalities with own intranet, 71, 70, 68 and 68 per cent respectively.

Few with own e-mail address and PC

In 7 per cent of the municipalities less than 20 per cent of the staff had access to own e-mail address and PC. And in 44 per cent of the municipalities, 20-50 per cent of the staff had this access. Except from Oslo, the share of municipalities where more than 80 per cent of the staff had access to PC/e-mail was greatest in Buskerud, Akershus and Rogaland, with 26, 23 and 22 per cent respectively.

Limited range of services on the website

In 2002, no municipality had prepared the website for payment of services offered. The most common service available was the possibility of downloading and printing forms. 44 per cent of the municipalities in the inquiry had this service on the website in 2002. Sending information to the municipality through the website was possible in only 7 per cent of the municipalities.

Many municipalities use electronic filing systems

Electronic filing systems are in use in 95 per cent of the municipalities. Use of geographic information systems (GIS) and electronic document handling systems are also widespread with 85 and 72 per cent of the municipalities respectively. Only 2 of the 418 municipalities that answered the inquiry used digital signatures in communication with citizens or enterprises.

Few documents are dispatched electronic

The municipalities were asked about the share of electronic documents received from authorities, enterprises and citizens. Most municipalities receive less than 25 per cent of the documents electronically. 83 per cent of the municipalities stated that less than 25 per cent of all documents from citizens were received electronically.

Little outsourcing of ICT tasks

Most municipalities use their own staff to handle the major part of the ICT tasks. Only "programming/design of internet-solutions" and "other system development" were mainly solved by external suppliers. 51 and 69 per cent respectively of the municipalities answered that these tasks were mainly solved by external suppliers.

Barriers against use of ICT

The inquiry asked about barriers of importance for use of ICT in general. Lack of integration between applications were stated to have "some" or "large" significance among 88 per cent of the municipalities, while lack of ICT qualified staff were stated to have "some" or "large" significance among 81 per cent of the municipalities. The municipalities were also asked about the importance of different barriers for serving citizens by the Internett. Difficulties in finding resources for development were stated to have "some" or "large" significance among 87 per cent of the municipalities, while 82 per cent of the municipalities stated that difficulties to readjust the work routines had "some" or "large" importance.

Many municipalities have lower transmission capacity than they would like

The municipalities were asked to state the reasons for differences between actual and wanted transmission capacity. 43 per cent of the municipalities answered that wanted transmission capacity was not developed in the area, and 28 per cent answered that wanted transmission capacity was too expensive. In Hordaland and Nordland 72 and 59 per cent respectively stated that wanted transmission capacity was not developed in the area.

Almost half of the municipalities have worked out an ICT strategy

45 per cent of the municipalities stated that they had worked out an ICT strategy. This was least common in Finnmark, Møre og Romsdal and Vest-Agder, were 21, 22 and 27 per cent respectively had worked out an ICT strategy. Among municipalities that stated that they had an ICT strategy, 62 per cent answered that "ICT infrastructure" was part of the plan. 58 and 42 per cent of the municipalities stated that "ICT security policy" and "citizens services via the internet" were part of the strategy.

Regional differences in cooperation between municipalities

There are big differences between counties regarding the range of cooperation with other municipalities in the areas "joint website/portal", "purchasing of ICT infrastructure", "operating, maintenance and usage of ICT", "purchasing via internet" and "development/acquisition of applications". In Finnmark there was little cooperation between the municipalities. In Sogn og Fjordane, Nord-Trøndelag, Telemark, Buskerud and Hedmark there were extensive cooperation between the municipalities. 83 per cent of the municipalities in Sogn og Fjordane stated that they cooperated with other municipalities in "development or acquisition of applications".

The inquiry "Use of ICT in municipality" is part of KOSTRA (Municipality-State-Reporting). In June 2003, 418 of 434 municipalities had answered the inquiry. This corresponds to a response rate of 98.6 per cent.

All municipalities in Denmark have a web site

Denmark has carried out corresponding inquiries for both 2001 and 2002. At the end of 2001 all Danish municipalities had their own web sites (the question is not part of the inquiry for 2002). In 2002 it was possible to download and print forms from 93 per cent of the municipalities web sites, and submitting personal data via the web site was possible in 48 per cent of the municipalities. An own intranet was available in 59 per cent of the Danish municipalities in 2002. The response in the Danish inquiry was 76 per cent in 2002.

More figures from the Danish inquiry are available at http://www.dst.dk/3770 .

Tables:

• Table 1 Share of the municipalities with own website and/or Intranet, by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 2 The share of municipalities with different types of information available on the website, by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 3 Share of municipalities with different types of services available on the website, by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 4 Share of municipalities which use various ICT systems, by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 5 Access to own e-mail adress an PC among employed in municipalities, municipalities distributed by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 6 Share of municipalities which receive electronic documents from authorities/enterprises/citizens. 2002. Per cent
• Table 7 Share of municipalities which use external or own staff at various types of ICT tasks. 2002. Per cent
• Table 8 Share of municipalities which understand various barriers impact on the usage of ICT in general. 2002. Per cent
• Table 9 Share of municipalities which understand various barriers impact on the service to the citizens via Internet. 2002. Per cent
• Table 10 Reason to difference between actual and wanted bandwidth, municipalities distributed by cause and county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 11 Share of municipalities with ICT strategy, by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 12 Share of municipalities where various areas are covered of an ICT strategy, by county. 2002. Per cent
• Table 13 Share of municipalities which cooperate with other municipalities on various ICT tasks, by county. 2002. Per cent