Microsoft 365 reached 5,000 Dutch tax staff. Then the government stopped the move.
The Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration, with 47,500 people across tax, customs and benefits, has dropped its move to Microsoft's cloud suite, The Register reported on 7 October.
It chose Microsoft 365 in 2025 and planned to finish by the end of 2026.
In a letter to parliament, State Secretary for Finance Eelco Eerenberg wrote: "In 2027, the provision for mail and calendar will be realized on-premises." European open source tools for storage and collaboration follow in 2027 and 2028.
The move was paused after the Dutch Advisory Council on ICT Assessment raised concerns in June, among them confidential documents passing through American servers, no Double Key Encryption, no exit strategy and exposure to the US CLOUD Act. Microsoft declined to comment.
About one employee in ten was already on the new system. Mail and calendar move on-premises in 2027, and The Register's report gives no cost for the move in or the move back.
If a regulator asked for your Microsoft 365 exit plan tomorrow, how many pages would it run to?
Sources
Our file on Microsoft
- 7 Oct
Games Workshop hoped for new finance software in 2020. Its old systems still run.
- 6 Oct
Microsoft planned $1 billion for employees using Claude. Then it cut over a third.
- 4 Oct
Microsoft started blocking a mailbox link apps used since 2007. No exceptions from April.
- 29 Sept
NVIDIA launched a safety net for AI agents. Microsoft and JPMorgan already use it.
- 28 Sept
Microsoft's Gates said AI could help bad actors kill a billion people.
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which design decisions in your programme would be expensive to reverse, and when each was last reviewed.
- 2Ask which expected benefits change if the implementation approach changes.
- 3Ask who owns a decision to change course, and where it would be recorded.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
