The Danish National IT & Telecom Agency (NITA) under the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation has launched a national open e-business framework ‘NemHandel’ based on a new national service-oriented intrastructure and utilizing state-of-the-art open standards to facilitate the exchange via the internet of e-business documents (e.g. electronic invoices) business-to-government as well as business-to-business.

View 'The Story of NemHandel'

Advanced e-business via PC and the internet
The purpose of NemHandel is to replace less cost-effective solutions, such as the scanning-based digitisation of paper invoices, as well as to pave the way for more comprehensive digitisation of a range of business processes to reduce the administrative burdens  and exploit the powers of ICT in businesses, particularly SMEs.

NemHandel allows business to send standardised electronic invoices directly from their PC via the internet in a secure and reliable fashion, and the technology incorporates a document receipt functionality, which provides the sender of a document with a receipt, when the document has reached the intended receiver. As NemHandel is based on open standards, any IT vendor or IT service provider may freely incorporate the technology into their commercial products and connect to the open infrastructure, which ensures dissemmination and uptake and rapidly builds critical mass.

Range of NemHandel solutions
NemHandel solutions fall into three main categories:

• Fully integrated NemHandel-enabled ERP solutions (software or web-based)
• ERP solutions in combination with a NemHandel message handler client
• NemHandel-enabled web-based invoicing portals (web forms)

The Danish National IT & Telecom Agency has developed and made freely available a basic open source NemHandel message handler client (available for free download from 'The Software Exchange') and a basic NemHandel-enabled web-based invoicing portal catering to the needs of very small businesses as well as demonstrating actual use of the technology.

All other existing solutions are provided by private sector IT vendors and service providers who have integrated the NemHandel technology into their existing and new products.

Information for end-users
A targeted website (Danish only) provides user-centric information to end-users and highlights user experiences through video user statements.

Available for sharing
NemHandel is designed with a view to encourage sharing! The infrastructure is based on open standards and open source and all components are freely available through the Danish public software exchange ‘Softwarebørsen’. Thus interested parties, e.g. other nations, may essentially download their very own NemHandel infrastructure and put it into operation. The National IT & Telecom Agency  actively promotes and encourages reuse of the components and participate in various knowledge sharing activities.