The abundance of data held by the public sector has reached a crucial stage.
And just at the right time.
Because only now is the technology available to fully realise its potential.
So, with the data and tech converging, creating at a moment of critical mass, what exactly should the public sector do?
Recognising the public sector data problem
Along with the mass of data, there exists myriad technologies that do things with it.
The problem, then, is no longer “can it be done” but instead “what should be done?”.
And what should be done is leveraging the arrival of this new tech and growing data to improve citizen experiences and create the unprecedented efficiencies now made possible.
Saving money, digitising experiences, removing unnecessary admin for citizens, joining up services, improving data resilience and security… it’s all there for the taking.
In this article, we look at the options to achieve it currently provided by Microsoft.
It has been a permanent pillar of the public sector’s tech toolbox since the introduction of Office in the early 1990s.
But the game has changed since then.
So, how did we get here?
History of Microsoft in the public sector
The public sector launched pilots of Microsoft Office shortly after its introduction back in 1988 when Bill Gates bundled Word, Powerpoint, and Excel together to much fanfare.
Almost 40 years later, the public sector has just published the results of a new pilot, this time featuring Microsoft’s AI CoPilot.
The Cross-Government Findings Report, published in June 2025, found potential for “significant time savings”.
It found users reporting an average of 26 minutes saved per day.
But individual user experiences with CoPilot are just the frothing edge in the tidal wave of technologies that promise transformational change.
Table taken from Microsoft 365 CoPilot Experiment: Cross-Government Findings Report. Respondents to a survey of those involved in the pilot give their views on the benefits of CoPilot.
In professions with the highest satisfaction scores (project delivery and operational delivery roles) around 75% of users agreed CoPilot led to improved productivity and a reduction in time spent on mundane tasks.
TL:DRIn short, SharePoint was the original data game-changer, introducing portals and document libraries that allowed cross-departmental working. Dynamics 365 has added CRM and ERP modules, providing real-time insights into department and agency case-loads and resource allocation. The arrival of the Power Platform is empowering non-technical staff to build apps, workflows, and data visualisations with minimal code. |
From Office admin to gov data management
Microsoft Office was just the beginning, helping the public sector transition from the days of the typing pools.
Today’s challenge is the vast repository of public information now held digitally, a repository that is growing exponentially each day.
With an increasing number of public services now accessible through online portals and apps, databases are swelling with details, from the date of your next dental appointment to the chassis number of your car.
Yet much of this data is siloed, held on separate servers, in formats only compatible with the specific service for which they are held.
Projects such as GOV.UK One Login have made impressive leaps to bridge these silos but formidable chasms remain.
So is uniting this data achievable? How can it be done? And will it be worth it?
Timeline of adoption of Microsoft in the public sector:
| Year | Product | Public Sector Impact |
| 1988 | Office 1.0 | Standardised document creation |
| 1995 | Windows NT | Secure, managed desktop environments |
| 2001 | SharePoint 2001 | Centralised intranets and collaboration |
| 2013 | Dynamics CRM | Data-driven case and service management |
| 2020 | Power Platform | Rapid, citizen-focused app development |
What’s happening now with public sector tech?
Before we understand what can be done about the data, we have to understand what the iteration of Microsoft technologies has enabled organisations to do.
SharePoint is, astonishingly, entering its 25th year. The web-based collaboration platform is well known and used throughout the public sector. It has facilitated cross-departmental work and productivity, giving organisations centralised data storage and collaboration capabilities.
Dynamics 365 is considerably younger and has been the next step for many UK local and national government bodies whose requirements outstrip the capabilities of Office 365.
The cloud-based suite of business applications represents a bridge between disparate data.
And it’s been the key tool for uniting that disparate data into one, powerful resource.
it’s often the framework for organisations to build applications and solutions inhouse using simple point and click.
Combining Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) capabilities, Dynamics 365 gives departments deeper data integration capabilities and access to process automation.
But what does that mean in practice?
It means that specific services can be connected to the unified data you hold, whether that’s registration details, programmes and engagements, or complaints and issues.
At its core, Microsoft Dynamics is a customer relationship management solution; however, it’s often also the framework organisations use to build applications and solutions inhouse using simple point and click.
And it provides powerful dashboards, where performance can be monitored centrally, and where potential issues can be spotted before their impact is felt.
What’s coming next for public sector tech?
In the Microsoft multiverse, Azure, Power Platform, and Fabric form the vanguard of the latest enterprise scale tech.
It is these systems which are powering the next wave of digital innovation.
Azure is a comprehensive cloud computing platform offering a wide range of services, including computing, analytics, storage, and networking.
Users can use it to build, deploy, and manage ever more sophisticated applications.
And it provides tools and frameworks for machine learning and AI services.
The enterprise-grade Power Platform, meanwhile, is used to create powerful services and automations, bridging the gap between your data and the fast, automated interactions the public expects from you.
Finally, Microsoft Fabric is an analytics platform that unifies data movement, processing, ingestion, transformation, and report building.
It’s an all-in-one analytics solution offering Data Engineering, Data Factory, Data Science, Real-Time Intelligence, Data Warehouse, and Databases.
Its potential for understanding your data, whether its held on unified spreadsheets or within unstructured documents like PDFs and reports, then forecasting short and medium term outcomes, is formidable.
Quick guide to Microsoft’s Multiverse
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The future of public sector technology is agentic
As for the future, well, it’s almost certainly agent powered. Microsoft recently announced Model Context Protocol in Windows and the launch of the Windows ‘AI Foundry’.
What this means is that AI agents will be central to how we work in the future.
Agents can be trained to carry out complete actions, from autonomously reformatting spreadsheets to organising and rescheduling appointments at scale.
They are, of course, available now for those with CoPilot licences, and can be programmed with natural language inputs.
In theory, designing an agent to perform complex tasks can be performed by anyone who can put together a decent prompt.
And, when combined with large datasets and powered by innovative apps from Dynamics, sophisticated workflows from Power Platform, and deep analytics from Fabric, there is transformational potential at a scale many are only starting to discover.
So what should public sector tech leaders you do now?
The next steps for public sector tech decision-makers is, thankfully, a simple one.
Firstly, you need to know where you are now, and that means an audit or a Discovery.
While an audit will create a picture of your current capability, the advantage of a Discovery is that it will also point the way forward.
Conducting a Discovery with a software partner, such as Cranmore, will involve an examination of your current capability, processes, and requirements.
From there it’s possible to build a vision of the capabilities you need to futureproof your tech resource.
This will include considering how to take full advantage of the data you’re accumulating and the most efficient way to turn it into modern services for an increasingly digital nation.
It might be a Microsoft system that helps you do that, but it might not. Only a Discovery will help you find the way.
Microsoft has been a powerful partner for public service providers since the 1990s. But having reached this critical mass of data, what matters is its potential is realised.
The complexity of modern societies is outstripping our capacity to cope with the data it’s producing. But through a confluence of tech and data capture, backed by the expertise and experience of public servants and tech sector expertise, the solutions are now within reach.
Image courtesy of CoPilot. Copy written by Cranmore.
Next steps
Cranmore is an official Microsoft Solutions Partner for Digital & App Innovation (Azure).
We carry out Discoveries for public sector organisations throughout the UK, providing them with the insights and knowledge to plan for the future.
Contact us now and we’ll arrange a zero commitment call to assess your needs. Or, request a free demo to discover whether the latest Microsoft technologies are right for your organisation.
