Reasons behind the privatization of Datacentralen

Abstract

In 1959 Datacentralen was created by the State and local governments to provide IT services to the government and to regional authorities. Similar centralized IT service centers were created in other parts of society, where Danish Agriculture created LEC, Landbrugets Edb-Central. The municipal governments created one big IT center, Kommunedata, by merging many small local IT centers. For several years Datacentralen was the only supplier of IT to central government and administration. But through the 1980s the development of minicomputers and powerful PCs led to new kinds of decentralized IT systems and IT services. Economic conditions also forced the government to reconsider the role of Datacentralen and of the whole use of IT in Denmark. Gradually this led to the privatization of Datacentralen and other IT services. Quite similar developments took place in other Nordic countries.