Microsoft reorganizes government unit

Microsoft Corp. has revamped its government operations so that U.S. federal, state and local and foreign government sales, marketing and consulting are all under one roof in Washington.Pete Hayes, industry vice president, heads the group, which has about 1,000 people. U.S. staff in the group report directly to Hayes; those outside of the United States have a dotted line to him. The change became official July 1.The unit will have an active consulting staff comprising nearly half the people, Hayes said. Yet Microsoft Government will derive only a single-digit portion of its revenue from services.Microsoft will try to connect government customers with third-party developers ? including systems integrators ? who have built proven government applications that run on Microsoft software platforms.