Clearly very aware of the recent successes of their open source competitors and the huge sums of money that continue to be spent on IT in the government sector (£14bn/year at the last count in the UK alone), Microsoft are plotting a high profile return to the egovernment arena according to CNET.

Responding to developments in the ’software as a service’ (SaaS) and social media fields, Microsoft returns to the egov agenda with a wider range of products and approaches largely based around their .Net architecture. At the forefront of this push is Microsoft’s on demand Office Live and Windows Live solutions, delivering plug and play solutions to all tiers of government big or small on a subscription basis.

What remains to be seen is the extent to which Microsoft can embrace and exploit the full range of collaboration technolgies from the workd of ‘web 2.0′. Huge potential exists for Microsoft to not only drive efficiencies in the way government does business but more importantly to enable governments to better connect with their citizens and provide higher quality customer service, above all given the strong market position MS hold in the government sector.

So here’s hoping for big things to come from Microsoft.