European Telework Development

Status Report For Sweden 2.11.1996


Telecooperation Status


1. Human connectivity - Background

Approximately 3.1 million of the just under 5.2 million people in Sweden aged between 16 and 64 use or have used computers at work or in their homes. This means that approximately 60% of the population of Sweden aged between 16 and 64 do so. Approximately 2.1 million, or just over 50%, of all employed individuals aged between 16 and 64 use computers in their work, while just under 1.4 million people in this age group use computers in their homes. Just over 30% of all men aged between 16 and 64 use computers in the home, whilst the corresponding percentage for women is approximately 22%.

1. Individuals

Computers are widely used in the home. Just under 1.4 million home users use their computers every day. Of this group, approximately two thirds of the users are men, one third women.

Concerning connectivity, 17% are connected. This is what they do when they connect from home:

Communicate with others, i.e. e-mail: 8.4%

Send fax 		8.5%

To work from home		 7.1%

To collect information, WWW, databases a.s.o. 		8.9%

Banking 		1.3%

To play games on-line 		6.8%

Other reasons 		5.4%

Commentary: A common definition of a teleworker is urgently needed!


2. Enterprises

Approximately 2.1 million, or just over 50%, of all employed individuals aged between 16 and 64 use computers in their work.

Concerning connectivity, 32% of all employed individuals use electronic mail. If you take a closer look, you will find that 15% of them, are communicating with e-mail outside their
organisation; whilst 16% are connected elsewhere (Internet?).

Commentary: Note that I refer to individuals at work. It is not possible to get statistics on the usage in enterprises and organisations - no public surveys have been made. However, the Swedish IT Commission and others, have urged the Government to set up a programme for ITstatistics.

3. Government

There is a practical problem here. The Swedish Public Sector is divided into government on central level, county councils (lansstyrelse), county health care (landstinget) and local authorities. Along with this you will find public businesses, government institutions, a.s.o.

This is the sector in Sweden that has the biggest number of users. 83% of government employees are working with computers. Note, that there are a higher percentage (87%) women users than
men (80%). In government institutions, 85% are connected to a network.

Concerning electronic mail in the public sector, a survey was made in 1995 by the Swedish Agency for Administrative Development and the Public Top Management Forum. The survey was performed in 166 of 232 central and county public authorities. Of those 166 authorities, 56% had access to external e-mail.

In another survey, made by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities in 1995,42% of the local authorities that took part in the survey, says they are using external e-mail.

2. Communities

Concerning the communities; I have no clue. As far as I know, no surveys has been undertaken. There are some regional networks, where local communities may be involved.

3. Public initiatives under way/planned

Following projects are under way or planned:

Project Infobahn-Station Arctica

Strategies for Optimal Strength - SOS.
A strategic alliance between six municipalities in the Northern region of Sweden.

Swedish Television
Telemedicine - a regional Development project.

AC-Net

RIV - A Regional Information Network - this is a project that will connect local authorities, university and public sector in the Southwest of Sweden. It aims at building local centres that will serve people on local level with different services such as distance learning, information,competence a.s.o.

Infobahn-Station Arctica and AC-Net are two county projects, where the local authorities have built their own network between each other, in order to be more effective, cut costs a.s.o. These nets will also be accessible for SMEs in the region.

4. Significant private initiatives

Sparbanken Sverige - A project on Teleworking 1996.

An Internet-based co-operation between SMEs in Smaland-"Hot Smaland"; initiated
by Offensiv Data Strategi AB.

Bull - "we live as we learn". They have developed a virtual enterprise within Teleworking. The number of enterprises that is joining the virtual enterprise is growing. For example Telia (Swedish Telecom), Lanyfax (videoconference systems), Attachmate (software) and Consultus (Management Consultants).

Swedish Telecottage Association. A co-operation between members - both Internet-based and First Class. The co-operation is also between Telecottages and clients.

5. Provision of mechanisms for mutual visibility of initiatives

As of now, all public initiatives mentioned above, are on the WWW. They can all be found by visiting http://www.Distansforum.se for a start.

Concerning private initiatives, the projects are mostly of professional and internal character - therefore information is not easily available.

Teletrade Status


1. Consumers

1. Range/attractiveness on commercial on-line services delivery and product selection/acquisition

In Sweden, the common word for Teletrade is Electronic Commerce - Elektronisk handel. A great number of enterprises can offer their services on-line. Also, the public sector is going into electronic
commerce.

Today, there are two main commercial on-line services. They will be found on:

http://www.passagen.se

http://www.torget.se

This is a site where private persons can buy different things.

Also, there is another site, http://www.swebizz.se, where an association for promoting trade on Internet have their homepage.

2. Acceptance - prevalence of on-line buying as a routine behaviour

There are no statistics available. However, by looking at the different sites, you can picture young people being the largest group. I have followed Scandinavia On Line in Norway, http://www.sol.no, a Swedish site is under construction.


2. Business-to-business

1. Range/attractiveness of on-line offers of services or products

There are no statistics available. Now, that the banking systems are coming up with a secure solution for Internet trade, 1997 might be very intense in this field.

2. Propensity of business users to prefer suppliers offering on-line support

There are no statistics available. For the past ten years, different branches in Sweden are frequent users of online support and services. These services can be called, EDA - Electronic Data Access, Databases with different products, Electronic mail, EDI - Electronic Data Interchange. A common word for it is Electronic Business Communication. They have an association - EDIS - and the following branch organisations are members:

EAN Sverige

EDI-Bygg building sector

EDIPAP paper industry

EDIFACT transportation sector

EDI Center Odette mechanical industry

SWEDIFACT Finans bank and finance sector

Elektronisk Handel electronic commerce in public sector

EDIWhite industrial systems

EDIS-Vard health care sector

Electronic Business Communications has been used in Sweden since 1960s. Despite the great potential, the Development has been quite slow, with the exception of transport systems - EDIfact. Now, there is a set of standards for Electronic Commerce, and we are facing a rapid growth of users.


3. Public services

1. Range/attractiveness of public services offered to citizens on-line

There are no statistics available.

2. Range/attractiveness of public services offered to enterprises on-line

There are databases with different types of information available on-line. For example SPAR and BASUN. The public sector is on the front line concerning electronic commerce with their
suppliers. A national project has been initiated by the Public Top Management Forum, and the aim for this project is that 95% of general goods and services to be procured and ordered electronically. - 50% of other general goods and services to be procured and ordered electronically - before the end of year 2000.

The strategy for this project is:
3. On-line promotion of national capabilities

There are several www sites on this subject. For example:

http://toppled.nutek.se
http://www.itkommissionen.se
http://www.svekom.se
http://www.edis.se

From these sites, you can wander off to different activities on electronic commerce in the public sector.

4. Existing/planned significant initiatives

The facility is being used successfully already on a small scale in the city of Gothenburg. The operational stage begins in the autumn of 1996 and it is planned to end in autumn 1999.

Around 30 local authorities, together with their suppliers, have started up different sub-projects for electronic commerce. There are more than 50 SME suppliers connected to these projects. They
work as Pilots for other local authorities and suppliers.

In July, 1996, the three main suppliers of national IT-services for Electronic Commerce where officially pointed out. They are:

Elektronisk handel PEBS AB.
This is a new company, jointly owned by Sweden Post and Enator AB.
Their main capacity is the PostNet and different IT-companies within the Enator AB.

WM-data SSDS. This is a co-operation between WM-data and General Electric Information Services. Their www site is: http://www.elektroniskhandel.com

Telia AB. Swedish Telecom and their suppliers Cap Programator, EDS AB and Frontec AB.

These three national suppliers have signed a four year contract, valid until Summer 2000. This contract gives the different actors within the public sector the right to call for different services and products on electronic commerce, and they are free to decide which of the three they pick as a
supplier.

The contract also points out that the national suppliers also will enable SMEs to join in the system, by offering ready made packages for electronic commerce. Today, there are around 90 000 suppliers for the public sector, and this will change their way of doing business in the most radical way. The
project points out the importance for the SMEs to quickly go into this process.

Telework Status


1. Numbers of teleworkers by categories:

First of all, there is a definition problem here. Who is a teleworker? How do we identify a teleworker? There are no available statistics on categories that are reliable.

I will refer to Lennart Forseback, and his analyses of this problem:

It is not possible to make any real comparisons with the rest of Europe concerning the actual number of teleworkers in Sweden. This is due to the differences in the way theTELDET project and the TEMO/Telia survey are organised. In the latter survey it was found that close to 25 per cent or about 500 000 Swedish white-collar workers are Teleworking either from their homes or from some "office" other than the main workplace. Of this number, only half, or 250 000, telework more than eight hours per week. If we also venture to roughly correct the proportion of work that is made up of overtime work, the number dwindles to just over 150 000 who telework more than eight hours per week. This corresponds to around seven per cent of white-collar workers and four per cent of the total labour force. Regrettably, the study does not make clear to what extent telecommunications are required for the home-based work. Direct comparisons with the rest of Europe are thus not possible.

A recently made survey by Stelacon, is now available on the market.

Another problem concerning statistics, is that in Sweden the word Teleworking usually means "working from home". We do not have a great variety as you have in several countries in Europe. In order to produce something for this status report, I will refer to SCBs latest report.

1-2.Teleworking from home - formal or informal arrangements

Around 42% of almost 1,1 million employees uses a computer at home to do some of their work. Of those, only 19% are connected as well. (Approximately 210 000 employees.)

3. Self employed people working on a telework basis

There are no statistics available. However, there are several areas where you can find a partner on-line. The number is growing.


2. Take up by enterprises

1. Enterprises that have adopted telework and driving it as a significant strategy

No statistics available. These enterprises are known:

Siemens-Nixdorf AB
Bull AB
Telia AB
Skandia AB
Digital AB
Ericsson
Nynashamns kommun

Both Telia and the Insurance enterprises have produced guidelines for Teleworking. Also, some of the unions have shown a great interest in Teleworking. Unfortunately we have a legislation
situation in Sweden, that limits the possibilities for telework to a greater extent. The legislation is
not taking flexible workforms into consideration, and therefore a written agreement is necessary between the parties.

The Central Organisation of white-collar workers have produced a teleworkers handbook and "what to think about when you introduce telework in your organisation".

2. Enterprises allowing telework (passive strategy)

3. Enterprises experimenting with telework

There are no statistics available.

3. Infrastructure

1-3. Telework associations/networks/support services

The Swedish Telecottage Association is an association that organise both Telecottages and teleworkers in their organisation. Telecentres are quite rare, in Sweden they are usually the same
thing as a Telecottage.

All members have access to an on-line-service from the Association; built on a FirstClass-platform with Internet access. Different types of services are available for the members; i.e. technical support, multimedia services, economic services and distance learning courses.

The telecottage members also have connected some of their clients into this system, where they have private, confidential areas to work in.

There are also local on-line services for local businesses. This has been made possible because of the configuration of the Telecottage network. There are several local servers connected on national basis, and with Internet bridges as well. Finally, this system also allows other interesting FC-systems to be mirrored into the Telecottage network.

The number of Teleworking members are: 110
The number of Telecottages are: 23

Apart from this there are around 150 letters of interest, and the number is growing.

4. Government endorsement, promotion, sponsorship

The policy is quite clear. At the initial stage of Telecottages (1985-1988), there were very small contributions from the government. Today, different IT-project can be partly government funded, for example:

A Teleworking project between Borgholms, Kalmar and Morbylanga municipalities, in cooperation with the regional government of Kalmar.

A Teleworking project called "Distansarbete pa Osterlen" - The municipality of Simrishamn.

A Teleworking project in the municipality of Vellinge.

A Teleworking project in the municipality of Lindesberg.

5. Promotion by Supply industries (telework mentioned in advertising etc.)

Telia AB - Swedish Telecom
Canon AB
Ericsson

6. Relevant events, information points etc.

European Telework Week
Different national seminars
Distans Magazine
Distansforum www-site
Telestugor i Sverige www-site
IT-kommissionens www-site

7.Legal and Regulatory Status

1. Formal reports on barriers and requirements

The present legislation does not include flexible workforms. Therefore, a mutual agreement between the parties involved is necessary. As I mentioned earlier, the Swedish definition of Teleworking is usually an employee working part-time from home.

2. Status of Government and other responses

Sources of information

Distansforum

The Public Top Management Forum

TELDOK-report nr 101 - 20 seconds to Work - Lennart Forseback, 1995.

TELDOK-report nr 107 - The use of Electronic Businesscommunication for SMEs - Peter Fredholm, 1996.

Facts about Information Technology in Sweden 1996 - a statistical report from
SCB

The Swedish Telecottage Association

Swedish Association of Local Authorities

Swedish Agency for Administrative Development

WPC Index

EUROPEAN TELEWORK ONLINE | EUROPEAN TELEWORK DEVELOPMENT

Page address http://www.eto.org.uk/wpc/status/sr961102.htm
Created on 7 November 1996
Page owner Lilian Holloway lilian.holloway@ammarnas.telestugan.se