The Cabinet Office’s Government Digital Service unit has triumphed in its long running battle to force Microsoft into supporting Open Document Formats. The Seattle giant conceded in a blog post that its next Office 365 update will include support the ODF format, ensuring that their popular office software will remain usable across government departments.

The software giant threw a hissy fit last year when GDS chose the ODF format as the standard for editable office documents to be used across government, launching a a formidable campaign to strong-arm the government into adopting a their own XML format. By holding their nerve, GDS appear to poker-faced Microsoft into backing down. Are we starting to see big software companies lose their grip on the public sector teat?