Denmark - Computer Software and Information Technologies Denmark - Computer Software
Overview
• Denmark is a highly computerized society with a large and steady demand for state-of-the-art software and IT products. Throughout the last couple of years, Denmark has been continuously ranked in the top fifteen in the World Economic Forum’s “Networked Readiness” Index.
• The Danish ICT sector is a USD 35 billion industry with a dominating focus on software development and services and little in-country manufacturing. U.S. hardware and software products are generally perceived as first-rate.
• New-To-Market companies will face serious competition from local, international and, often, long-established U.S. companies. In a market dominated by a few very large importers and distributors, such companies should be prepared to establish a wholly owned subsidiary or sales office in-country (or within the Nordic region).
Best Prospects
• Looking at IT spending by sectors reveals that the public sector is the largest consumer of IT services and accounts for 25-30% of total spending. The financial sector accounts for 15%, manufacturing 15%, retail & wholesale 10%, and other sectors the remaining 30-35%.
• According to industry analysts, mobility is the main focal point, while other top priorities of decision makers when investing in IT are currently: cyber security, business IT-alignment, unified communication, IT architecture, business intelligence, and outsourcing. Although Green IT is still an interesting and growing market, a proven money-saving aspect of such an investment is instrumental.
Opportunities
• Industry experts foresee considerable IT investments in the coming years within the financial sector, after a period of spending cutbacks. There is an ongoing trend in the public sector to coordinate government IT usage and create a national IT infrastructure, which among other things will raise internal IT efficiency as well as meet a growing demand for e-government and electronic services to businesses and the public. In particular, the healthcare sector is set to digitalize hospitals. Virtually all primary care physicians and nearly half of the hospitals already use electronic records, and officials are trying to encourage more “telemedicine” projects. Several studies, including one published by the Commonwealth Fund, concluded that the Danish Medical information system is the most efficient in the world, saving doctors on average of 50 minutes a day in administrative work. With ongoing building of 16 new hospitals by 2020, estimates are that health IT (EMRs and telemedicine solutions) will make up almost USD 3 billion out of a USD 7 billion total budget.
• Another growing area is the consolidation and outsourcing of datacenters. The increasing demand for greening requires efficient datacenter suppliers with knowhow and economies of scale. Total outsourced solutions are especially in demand within the public and private sector in Denmark. The small and medium-sized business segment is considered particularly lucrative as the ‘lean’ aspect of green IT is highly applicable in terms of consolidation, standardization and improving overall energy efficiency of the IT infrastructure and datacenter operations. Some firms within the Danish green IT sector, such as CSC, already employ a holistic view in their approach to green IT operations with datacenter operations combined with, for example, the reuse of excess heating.
• In part caused by the recent economic slowdown, outsourcing will continue to grow as a cost-saving instrument. Outsourcing has played a large role in recent cost-cutting efforts by the government and large enterprises, and is now becoming more common among small and medium-sized companies. A number of international outsourcing companies have successfully established themselves in Denmark recently.
• Due to the growth of cybercrime, the demand of cyber security solution has risen both within the public and private sector in Denmark. The Danish Center for Cyber Security is witnessing how the IT integrity of Danish governmental institutions and private companies are challenged, and that sensitive economic and personal data are being stolen. 64 % of Danish firms have been subjected to some form of cybercrime within the last year (2017) and 72 % are more concerned about cybercrime today than they were 1 year ago. Danish firms are expected to increase their cyber security budgets by 25 % within the coming 18 months, while the Danish government has allocated 226 USD millions for investments in cyber security towards 2023.
Resources
- Danish Business Authority (responsible for IT and telecom infrastructure) -
- Danish Agency for Digitalization
- The Danish IT Industry Association (industry association)
- The Danish Agency for Digitization – Danish Government digital solutions and guidelines
- Danish Computer Security Incident Response Team (DKCERT) - Danish Research Network
- For further information, please contact Aleksander Moos, Commercial Specialist