Organizing IT-projects in Danish Local Governments

For several decades Danish local governments have organized the process of digitalization by means of IT-projects. Hence, IT-project have served as a driver for innovation in the back office administration, as well as in the... [ view full abstract ]

For several decades Danish local governments have organized the process of digitalization by means of IT-projects. Hence, IT-project have served as a driver for innovation in the back office administration, as well as in the communication with the users of public services, and in this way created a transformation of the local governments. However, increasing competition on the global marked for local government IT-systems, and a law, demanding local governments to tender their IT-systems frequently, has complicated the conditions for handling IT-projects, and in this way created a need for finding a new way to organize the process of digitalization. Given this need, Danish local governments now start to establish regional associations with the purpose to handle the further process of digitalization in common. This form of organizing the IT-projects is completely new in a Danish context, and we have none empirical studies of the impacts of organizing this very important part of the public sector in this new way. Hence, the establishment of the so-called association of digitalization raises questions of how the association will influences the development of digitalization in the single local government, and which impact the association will have on the innovative potential of IT-projects.

Based on an empirical case study of a middle sized Danish local government, this paper will analyze the background for the establishment of a regional association of digitalization and answer the above mentioned questions. The case study is carried out by means of qualitative methods in the form of seven personal interviews with the CIO and other top managers of the local government. Beside the interviews, a document analysis of public strategies in the field of digitalization is carried out as a source of knowledge.

The analysis of the formation of the regional association of digitalization draws in general on theories of public sector reforms and innovation, and more specific on theories of projectification of the public sector. In this way, the paper fits very well to the theme of the panel, and contributes to the discussion of projectification of the public sector by presenting new knowledge of how this new way of organizing IT-projects may impact the further development of a digital local government.