Consolidating departmental case handling for a public body

Client context

A regional public body handles citizen requests across several departments. Each department developed its own process over time: one uses a legacy database, one a shared mailbox, and two rely on spreadsheets. Reporting to leadership is assembled manually each month, and citizens have no way to check progress without telephoning.

The challenge

The departments genuinely differ in what they assess and who approves it, so a single rigid process would be rejected. At the same time, the organisation has statutory obligations for response times, record retention and disclosure that the current arrangement cannot evidence. Budget constraints rule out extensive custom development, and any solution must be maintainable by a small internal team.

Objectives

• One case record and one status vocabulary across participating departments
• Department-specific assessment steps without separate systems
• Citizen visibility of request status without a telephone call
• Retention and disclosure handling that can be evidenced on request
• A solution the internal team can maintain and extend without external development

The solution

A shared case model is defined in Dataverse: one case entity, one status vocabulary, and department-specific assessment captured through configured business process flows rather than separate systems. Routing uses department, category and workload. A Power Pages portal gives citizens submission and status visibility with authenticated access. Retention labels and disclosure handling are applied through Microsoft Purview against case documentation. Reporting is built on a shared semantic model so departmental and organisational views use the same definitions.

Architecture

• Dataverse as the case system of record, with a shared case table and department-specific process flows
• Dynamics 365 Customer Service for internal case handling, queues, routing and service-level tracking
• Power Pages portal for authenticated citizen submission and status tracking
• Power Automate for routing, reminders, escalation and notification
• Microsoft Purview retention labels applied to case documentation
• Power BI semantic model shared by departmental and organisational reporting
• Microsoft Entra ID for staff identity, with portal identity federated to the citizen identity provider