We recently unveiled a new report that demonstrates the impact of this work in Quebec. The report from Ernst and Young LLP (EY) found that the Microsoft ecosystem contributes more than $6.4 billion in GDP in Quebec annually and supports 57,600 full-time jobs across the province. This report also highlights Microsoft’s contributions to the province’s economy and society through its partner network, cloud ecosystem, and innovation across all sectors and initiatives that support the broader community.  

Supporting Inclusive Economic Opportunity  

The Microsoft partner ecosystem, composed of local businesses ranging from small to large, rural to urban, has been, and continues to be, at the centre of how Microsoft delivers technology, and services that enable business and public sector transformation across Québec. The more than 3,200 Microsoft partners in Quebec have generated over $5 billion in revenue annually, and fueled a level of customer impact beyond what Microsoft could achieve on our own. 

To continue to grow this impact in Quebec, Microsoft recently announced a $500 million (USD) digital infrastructure investment that will increase its computing capacity by approximately 240 percent over the next 3 years.  

Skills for Jobs  

The report also details how supporting inclusive economic opportunity is about working to close the digital divide to ensure Quebec has a robust skilled workforce in place to fully realize the positive potential of digital transformation and advancements in AI. To bridge the digital skills gap, Microsoft has been laser focused on establishing local partnerships and programs in province.  

For example, we recently announced that we are expanding our alliance with NPower Canada, to empower job-seekers with digital training and career development opportunities aligned to the in-demand tech skills Québec’s economy needs. Specifically, we supported the establishment of NPower Canada’s first bilingual site in Quebec, allowing their Canadian Tech Talent Accelerator (CTTA) program to be accessible to job-seekers in the province. And we’ve just announced new French programming focused on data analysis and AI. This is in addition to the newly announced co-investment of $2 million from Digital, Microsoft and CIBC Foundation, to launch over 6,000 job-seekers across Canada, including Québec, into meaningful careers in the ever-growing tech sector.  

A central focus of our efforts to promote inclusive opportunities is equipping students with vital digital skills that contribute to Quebec’s growing economy. Simultaneously, we are committed to building strong digital environments that are accessible to both learners and teachers alike. Working with Teameo, a Microsoft partner in Longueuil, Quebec, we’re helping educators lead the next generation with ease by creating unique digital environments that meet the needs of Quebec schools, from simplifying how technology is used for teaching to improving how educational content is delivered. 

Earning Trust and Advancing Cybersecurity  

The cybersecurity landscape has long been recognized for its complexity, but the rapid pace of AI has introduced unparalleled opportunities for defenders and attackers. Security teams are tasked with harnessing AI as a force multiplier for positive outcomes, while also bearing the responsibility and expertise to protect their systems and data against advancing AI-driven cyber threats. According to a 2020 ISC Cybersecurity Workforce Study, Canada has a cybersecurity talent shortfall of more than 16,000 people, and that gap has grown since the onset of the pandemic.  

Cybersecurity is a key priority for Canadian organizations’ undergoing rapid digital transformation, so providing access to the right cybersecurity skills must be at the forefront of helping governments and businesses shore up their cyber defence. To further expand on this commitment and help futureproof Quebec businesses in the face of accelerated AI innovation and growing cybersecurity threats, we recently joined forced with KPMG to announce the Operational Risk Skills Development Centre. The Centre, representing an investment of $1.7M over three years will offer free hands-on training to help businesses and governments build cybersecurity protections, navigate the opportunities and challenges of GenAI, and implement it responsibly. 

Further, Microsoft is working closely with partners like Qohash, to help businesses of all sizes meet the highest security and protection requirements by going deep into the very fabric of their organization and providing actionable insights from their data. With comprehensive and detailed insights into their data and its users from Qohash, organizations can better identify risks, pinpoint insider threats and safeguard their most valuable assets.  

Three decades in, Microsoft is proud to be a part of Quebec’s robust innovation economy. Our new investments show our continued commitment to Quebec and its people and businesses, and we look forward to what’s next. 

More details on Microsoft’s impact across Quebec including in relation to sustainability and hybrid work can be found in the EY report. 

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Canada’s public service is no exception. As one of the most vital industries bracing our economy, the public sector faces a multitude of obstacles requiring innovation. As a result, Microsoft continues to make significant investments in communities and across all levels of governments to help address many of these challenges. That includes:   

• Export Development Canada (EDC), which is managing its own ESG goals and helping Canadian companies adopt sustainable business practices and to compete globally, using Microsoft Azure.  
• The City of Kitchener, which is using Microsoft Power Platform to help by-law officers manage snow removal notices in as little as 20 minutes, something that previously took several hours.  
• Ontario Public Service (OPS), which hosts the annual OPS Microsoft Hackathon to tackle challenges with technology and help employees improve their technical skills. In 2022, more than 800 people attended the three-day hackathon.   

Our latest Economic and Social Impact Report with Ernst & Young LLP (EY) demonstrates the impact of our work in Ontario – the province that’s home to our Canadian headquarters and where we opened our doors in 1985. For nearly four decades, Microsoft has been dedicated to driving innovation across every industry in Ontario and creating a more inclusive, equitable, sustainable and trusted future for everyone.   

This report highlights how we are strengthening Ontario’s future. Through the Microsoft Partner Network, our cloud ecosystem and ongoing work with the public sector to bring digital skills training to more Canadians, build resilient businesses with digital infrastructure and by enriching communities with accessible technology, equal opportunities and more.   

Supporting inclusive economic growth  

In 38 years of operation, we have helped fuel the prosperity of Ontario’s digital economy. Our 1,800+ full-time Ontario-based Microsoft and LinkedIn employees and more than 7,000 partners have helped generate or sustain $15.8 billion in GDP annually and support over 121,000 jobs. And through our collaborations with partners across academic, non-profit and government, we’re introducing new economic drivers, enabling social inclusion, advancing education, creating a more sustainable future, skilling Canadians, securing our data and more.  

Canadian organizations of all types have been investing heavily in technology to overcome challenges in response to the pandemic with no signs of slowing down. This transition was perhaps most acutely felt in the public sector, which was sometimes slow to adopt new technology because of complex security and compliance needs. AI, machine learning and cloud have become essential tools to ensure success for government agencies. Whether it’s enabling employees to work remotely, migrating paper-based processes to the cloud, or scaling citizen services, technology adoption has resulted in greater efficiency and cost-savings for every level of government.  

This rapid adoption of digital solutions has created unprecedented amounts of data – data that’s provides the key to future growth and innovation. To better help Ontario organizations harness the power of data and cloud and accelerate their digital transformation, we established the Data Innovation Centre of Excellence (DICE) in Toronto and Microsoft Government Innovation Centre in Ottawa.  

We continue to use our resources and capabilities to bolster an inclusive talent pipeline and help equip Ontarians with the right skills to build livelihoods in the digital economy. Through our skilling initiatives and collaborations with organizations like Actua and NPower Canada, we have helped more than 10,000 Ontarians gain technical skills training and helped put hundreds of equity-deserving individuals on the path to meaningful employment. We have also reached and trained over 7100 Indigenous youth in the province in 2021 and this work continues.  

Protecting fundamental rights  

We are dedicated to fostering partnerships and solutions that will have lasting impact in solving societies’ greatest challenges like empowering social good and protecting democracy. Last year, Microsoft employees volunteered more than 4,000 hours and supported nearly 1,300 charitable organizations. We also launched the Democracy Forward program in partnership with Elections Ontario, to promote election integrity and safeguard Ontario’s democracy against cyber attacks.  

Creating a sustainable future  

We recognize climate change as one of the most pressing issues of our time which requires swift, collective action. This is why we’re collaborating with organizations across Ontario on sustainability initiatives. In September 2022, we announced a historic partnership with Ontario Power Generation on multiple sustainability project which include Microsoft leveraging OPG’s carbon-free energy supply to power our Ontario datacentres with carbon-free energy around the clock – a first for Microsoft globally.  

Earning trust  

Remote working, an explosion of online activity post-pandemic and evolving threats, including nation state threats, is driving a sea change for the security industry. Organizations across every industry and sector must adopt a holistic security approach that includes a zero-trust mindset, cloud-first posture and the investment in people and skills.  

After recent ransomware attacks on multiple healthcare organizations across the province and the country, The Ottawa Hospital worked with Microsoft to help improve its security posture. The organization credits Microsoft Defender technology for endpoint and cloud for the quick containment of attacks and ability to share threat intelligence with partner institutions.  

Altogether, the investments we’ve made to date have driven real impact in Ontario and beyond. We look forward to continuing to co-innovate with organizations of all shapes and sizes and accelerating Ontario’s success for decades to come.  

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As we embrace the opportunities and challenges of the future in the world of work and beyond, it’s technology that will continue to be one of the leading economic drivers of our time. At Microsoft, we recognize our unique responsibility in helping to drive innovation in Canada and we’re working with communities, changemakers and partners across the country to move this forward. This includes equitable access to technology and skills training to ensure inclusive opportunities for all Canadians, affordable technology for non-profits and start-ups, and a strong technology ecosystem to enable business transformation across all sectors and an innovative public sector.

Together with Ernst & Young LLP (EY), we’re pleased to share our first ever Microsoft Canada Economic and Social Impact Report. This report confirms what we’ve long known – that the investments we’ve made in Canada since opening our first office here in 1985 are helping to grow Canada’s innovation economy and are driving impact through building inclusive economic opportunity, supporting fundamental rights and addressing climate change for a sustainable future.  

Our 15,000+ partners and the investment we’ve made in cloud infrastructure have created almost 300,000 jobs and contributed $37 billion to Canada’s economy. And that’s on top of nearly 5,000 fulltime employees. This is all done while keeping trust top of mind, spanning privacy, security, digital safety, responsible AI, and transparency. Without it, progress is not possible.

A key to Canada’s strength is its talent and we have continued to invest to train the Canadian workforce for the changing digital economy. Since 2020, Microsoft Canada has provided in-demand technology skilling to more than 1 million Canadians through Microsoft’s Global Skills Initiative and, in 2021, donated more than $125 million in cash, software, and technology services to non-profits. And through our collaboration with the Digital Technology Supercluster, Microsoft Canada has supported 30 projects that are currently valued at $190million, boosting innovation and industry growth from coast to coast.   

Satya Nadella introduced our mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more when he took the helm as CEO of Microsoft and it’s no secret that we’ve been doing that in Canada for almost 40 years – helping Canada’s public sector and all Canadian organizations lead now and into the future.

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Our work with the Ontario Public Service (OPS) is a great example of this in the public sector. OPS has embraced a digital-first culture to continually innovate and modernize the delivery of essential services across healthcare, transportation, social services, education and more. But to enable digital transformation and continually innovate, you first need to empower your employees with the skills they need build and manage digital solutions. This is particularly important in the public sector, which has unique privacy, data residency and compliance needs. 

The OPS Microsoft Hackathon was created to confront these challenges head on. This annual initiative brings together employees across both organizations to collaborate, share digital skills and solve for real-world challenges that will make a difference in the lives of Ontarians. In previous OPS Microsoft hackathons, we’ve seen OPS employees create innovations such as the development of a single repository where Ontarians can create personal profiles to easily apply for government services, and a smart license plate solution. 

The 2022 OPS Microsoft Cloud Hackathon challenge was “Faster, Simpler, Better”. This aligns to the need for government ministries and departments to urgently identify the opportunities for automation, as well as the technology solutions to deliver. Immediate opportunities exist across the spectrum of common processes and procedures that government organizations must provide across the front and back office, such as Freedom of Information requests, contract management, employee, stakeholder and citizen engagement, grants management and corporate policy, to name a few.   

The annual 3-day hackathon hosted more than 800 attendees and resulted in 18 submissions from hackathon teams. Keynote addresses, ideation sessions and training workshops with the Microsoft Technology Centre around innovation with Power Platform, Security, Microsoft Teams helped participants showcase creative ideas around security, accessibility, and collaboration.

Microsoft is dedicated to ensuring that Canada stays ahead of the curve by empowering all government employees with the skills they need to face today’s challenges. Canada (along with the rest of the world) is experiencing a talent shortage, and through our skilling initiatives and programs, we’re helping governments narrow this gap by providing job-candidates and employees with the knowledge and skills they need to build and execute digital strategies.  

Our Microsoft Canada Skills Program is now available at 22 post-secondary institutions across Canada, including 9 in Ontario. This program allows students to acquire in-demand cloud, data and AI skills and Microsoft certifications alongside their institutions’ credentials, enhancing their employability as they enter the job market in the public sector and beyond.  

To learn more about Microsoft’s skilling initiatives and programs, visit Microsoft Training Days 

To learn more about how Microsoft empowers Canadian governments to find smarter, more efficient, and more cost-effective ways to work and serve citizens and residents, visit  Empowering Canadian Government to do more.  

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A survey of 658 business decision-makers from Canadian organizations – including public sector, private sector and non-profits – shows the majority of decision-makers in government and public sector (67 per cent) understand the importance of data and agree that it’s integral to an organization’s success. But while understanding among those in the public sector ranks higher than the overall survey respondents (61 per cent), less than a third (31 per cent) of these decision-makers say their organization has a comprehensive data strategy and even fewer (22 per cent) feel their organization is data-led.

Over the past two years, government agencies of all types and sizes have invested in technology such as the cloud and AI to manage disruption in response to the pandemic. For many public sector organizations, this represented a dramatic acceleration of their digital strategies. Whether it was enabling employees to work remotely, migrating paper-based processes to the cloud or scaling citizen services, adopting new solutions has not only resulted in greater efficiency and cost-savings, but has also yielded unprecedented amounts of data. However, our findings show that only a quarter of decision-makers (25 per cent) say their organization has rethought its data strategy since the start of the pandemic. Now, as we transition to the post-pandemic economy, it is crucial that government leaders take the next step in their digital journeys – to optimize their investments in technology and take advantage of their most valuable asset: their data.

DRIVING DATA STRATEGY IN GOVERNMENT

Almost half (44 per cent) of respondents in government and public sector say their organization aims to become more data-savvy in in the foreseeable future. To unleash the full potential of data within the public sector, we’ve established the Microsoft Government Innovation Centre located in Ottawa. Operating under the umbrella of our Data Innovation Centre of Excellence (DICE) in Toronto, the Microsoft Government Innovation Centre will bridge government customers and partners with Microsoft expertise to address the technical, architectural and service delivery challenges that are unique to public sector leaders.

Our goal is to empower government organizations at all levels with the tools to derive actionable insights and make more informed data-driven decisions to help sustain Canada’s momentum as we continue to recover from the pandemic. At Microsoft, we understand that those in the public sector must often navigate additional layers of complexity to drive innovation, especially when it comes to security, compliance and implementation. Yet, many government organizations who have already prioritized their data strategy are seeing powerful outcomes.

Transport Canada and NRCan (Natural Resources Canada) are two examples of effective public and private technology sector collaboration. NRCan leverages Microsoft technology to apply digital solutions to support their sustainable development and client action research. Using cloud, data and artificial intelligence (AI) they are developing a platform for national and global science cooperation.

Transport Canada uses Microsoft technology including Power Apps and Dynamics 365 to better improve their central mandate which is to safeguard Canadas’ transportation corridors. This technology is increasing the productivity of the agency’s operations including their inspections process, without sacrificing data security or employee safety.

Collaborating with organizations like Transport Canada and NRCan truly illustrates what we can achieve when the public and private sectors work together to power a more innovative, resilient and ultimately stronger government for all citizens.

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In Atlantic Canada, we’re seeing this come to life across the public sector – organizations are collaborating and involving industry partners in the design of processes by actively soliciting ideas, gathering feedback and co-creating solutions.

In June, I had the opportunity to host a panel discussion with three incredible women who are driving this change in Atlantic Canada’s public sector as part of TECHNATION’s national series on digital transformation. I was joined by Natasha Clarke, CDO and ADM, Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services, Susan Hunt, CTO, Ocean Supercluster, and Jennifer Sheils, CIO, Horizon Health Network.

As Nova Scotia’s first Chief Digital Officer, Natasha Clarke is a local change agent empowering and enabling departments to think differently about their approach in delivering programs and services. When the Department of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services merged in 2019, Natasha was responsible for spearheading the Nova Scotia Digital Service (NSDS) – a new team with the mandate to apply internet-era ways of working to service delivery in the province.

For Natasha, the most important deliverable is trust. Anchored in this belief, her focus is always on the needs of the user – whether that’s citizens, businesses, or other public servants. Once those needs have been met, the next focus is on policy requirements and then operations. From there, her team collaborates to determine the best technology to meet these diverse needs in the most effective way. Through strong partnerships, Natasha is able to shift the ways of work and thinking in her organization to take advantage of digital culture, processes, business methodologies and technology.

Horizon Health Network

In her role as Chief Information Officer for Horizon Health Network, Jennifer Sheils is instrumental in driving healthcare innovation in Atlantic Canada. As the largest regional health authority in New Brunswick, Horizon is leading the Atlantic Innovation Hub, a network of Atlantic-based healthcare operators representing the Atlantic Canada Edge within the Coordinated Accessible National (CAN) Health Network. The purpose of this collaboration is to establish Canada’s leading position in the healthcare economy and champion local healthcare companies as global leaders in this space. For Sheils, the value of this effort has been building an integrated marketplace that’s ready for innovators to introduce new solutions into the healthcare system. With the network’s support, this marketplace can be scaled not just in Canada, but globally. Working together as a network, the Atlantic Canada Edge identifies a challenge in need of an innovative solution – with direct access to the network’s clinicians, resources and data, the group hosts an open call for innovation through an RFP process. Once successful, the CAN Health Network supports that program to scale across its integrated network of providers.

Canada’s Ocean Supercluster

Fostering partnerships and cultivating collaboration are two key components of Susan Hunt’s role with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster (OSC). As the Chief Technology Officer, Susan is responsible for the organization’s activities related to collaborative technology development and commercialization-focused projects – many of which include Microsoft technology and support. Through her work with the OSC, Susan is a driving force behind the growth of Canada’s ocean innovation ecosystem, while also ensuring that OSC has a strong representation of activities that support ocean health, as well as sustainability and diversity focused initiatives. When considering new projects to take on, her number one criteria is that they are industry-led collaborations between private and public sector organizations. For Susan, it’s essential to have a variety of different mechanisms and models, as well as diversity in the types of consortiums working together to tackle big challenges.

In less than two years, OSC has grown from an idea to a 400+ member organization that brings together startups, scaleups, as well as mature organizations from coast-to-coast-to-coast.

Harnessing technology to achieve more

When we collaborate with organizations and experts across a wide range of industries, we can turn ideas into real solutions and make them available broadly. For the public sector, this opens the door to reimagine a future in which all people have access to the benefits and opportunities of the digital economy.

In the next event in our TECHNATION series, I will be sitting down with industry leaders from the prairie provinces on Tuesday, September 28. For more information and to register visit https://technationcanada.ca/en/events/transforming-the-public-sector-prairie-provinces-powered-by-tech-savvy-women/.

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Healthcare has always been a top priority for Canadians – it is one of the few industries that impacts every person at every stage of their life – but COVID-19 has created greater focus on the systems and relationships that make up the circle of care. From doctor’s clinics and hospitals to retail pharmacy and long-term care, this past year has not only revealed how broad this circle is, but just how agile it can be with the right solutions in place. The crisis has spurred incredible examples of digital transformation and has ultimately challenged existing assumptions about how we operate and what is possible. More specifically, it has crystalized the need for improved data sharing across the many health stakeholders, from primary care to public health, and the value of AI and machine learning across data platforms.

While on a virtual visit to Canada last month, Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella sat down with leaders from across Canada’s healthcare industry and public sector to discuss global trends, common challenges to healthcare transformation and opportunities for the future.

Data Interoperability

Each of Canada’s provinces and territories operate under different healthcare systems and privacy protocols; this has led to data segmentation and created a barrier to population-level data. According to Satya, there are two elements that need to be implemented to unlock the potential of this data for clinical use. The first is differential privacy, which simultaneously enables researchers and analysts to extract useful insights from datasets containing personal information and offers stronger privacy protections. This is achieved by introducing “statistical noise”. The noise is significant enough to protect the privacy of any individual, but small enough that it will not impact the accuracy of the answers extracted by analysts and researchers.

The second element, which can be added on top of differential privacy, is a regime of machine learning called federated learning. With this framework, the learning is done centrally, as well as locally. If this were to be applied in Canada, every province and territory could have its own data and the complexities of the centrally shared model can be minimized. We believe the combination of federated learning and differential privacy can be a technology infrastructure that can support countries like Canada in benefitting from population-level data insights without sacrificing privacy.

We’re seeing how this type of data sharing is possible, even across borders. As part of the Cascadia Innovation Corridor, BC Cancer and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center are creating data sharing constructs, removing barriers to data discovery and data access which make breakthroughs in research difficult. The next step is determining how the data can be applied on the clinical side.

Creating better outcomes

When asked how the public sector should approach sharing data with the private sector, Satya noted that private healthcare organizations, like pharmaceutical companies, need access to clinical data to innovate in areas like precision medicine. Population-level data is needed to drive individual, personalized medicine – that’s the paradox. It starts with the public sector establishing the boundaries of policy, which should prioritize the health outcomes for citizens, and from there determining how a private company can participate in that ecosystem, for example by lowering costs and/or creating more personalized care.

It’s been inspirational to see healthcare end-to-end, with leaders across the public and private sector taking hold of digital tools to accelerate their mission. Canada’s healthcare community demonstrated unmatched responsiveness as they innovated to deliver personalized care to all Canadians – and this is only the start. There will continue to be a structural change in healthcare that will deliver better health outcomes and will ultimately support global economic recovery.  For more information on healthcare innovation, please visit http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-ca/industry/health

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The accelerated adoption of technology due to the global pandemic has motivated organizations of all sizes, both private and public sector, to think critically about their digital strategy and make room for digital transformation opportunities that meet the needs of customers, employees and citizens.

The Ontario Government’s Ontario Public Service (OPS) is no different.

Comprised of more than 65,000 employees across the province, the OPS delivers essential government services to citizens across the province including healthcare, transportation, social services and education. Like many other organizations across Canada, the OPS has leveraged the capability and knowledge of employees to identify opportunities to modernize public service delivery through internal hackathons in collaboration with Microsoft Canada. These events align business problems with solutions mapped to an organization’s existing technology platforms.

Inspired by the Ontario Onwards Action Plan, the annual OPS Microsoft Cloud hackathon, now in its second year, is designed to enable OPS employees to provide and uncover new ideas that drive efficiency, effectiveness and data based decision-making in service delivery for the province’s citizens.

The event unites employees across IT departments and Ministry business areas to collaborate in a fast-paced environment, empowering employees to share big ideas, make a difference and drive meaningful change organization-wide. The inaugural hackathon held in 2020 was a huge success and led to the implementation of solutions that ultimately brought the OPS a step closer to modernizing public service delivery.

The 2021 OPS Microsoft Cloud hackathon sought to address big challenges that were brought to the forefront by the pandemic. More than 90 participants, divided among 20 teams, came together virtually to innovate and share their ideas, leveraging Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform and Microsoft Dynamics. Connecting over Microsoft Teams, each group was equipped with the technology to ideate and develop their concepts into prototypes, polish their pitches and present their innovative ideas to a panel of judges from Microsoft Canada and OPS leadership.

Notable proposed hackathon solutions include a ‘One Ontario’ service portal that could provide a singular repository for Ontarians to easily apply for government services reducing time spent by citizens completing forms while centralizing data securely in the Microsoft platform.  Another example is a ‘Smart Plate’, a license plate that illuminates different colours to signal when it is time for the owner to renew and notifies surrounding vehicles of Amber Alerts or missing vehicles. The idea was awarded the hackathon event’s ‘People’s Choice Award’ for its creativity and its focus on simplified citizen service delivery.

“Not only did we receive incredible feedback from participants sharing how much fun they had and how much they valued the opportunity to create, innovate and showcase their skills, we also witnessed firsthand the incredible potential technology brings to the public sector,” says Scott Bolton, CIO of Enterprise Technology Delivery division at Ontario Public Service.

Public sector hackathons are taking place across the country in places such as Langley, British Columbia – recently named one of the top 21 intelligent communities in the world by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). In January, the Township of Langley hosted Codathon: CodingMatters, a coding event that encouraged locals to harness their technology skills and creativity. Similar to the OPS, participants in Langley’s codathon developed prototypes that can help solve challenges facing the community including sustainability, culture, inclusion and community pride. Leveraging resources from Microsoft including Azure credits, the three winners developed prototypes that sought to improve citizen engagement, calculate a person’s carbon footprint and help connect farmers with consumers to reduce local food waste within the municipality.

If we want Canada to maintain its position as a tech leader on the global stage, it is important that we continue to challenge the status quo, think big and create more opportunities for people to express their creativity and ideas across industries. Hackathons are just one innovative way to do so – providing an enormous potential to grow our innovation economy, accelerate digital transformation and build better and more resilient organizations for the future. For more information on public sector digital innovation, please visit Cloud Computing for Government | Microsoft Industry

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