5 Easy Steps to Integrate Microsoft Copilot into Your Company

Microsoft Copilot is revolutionising the way companies operate, offering powerful AI assistance to boost productivity and streamline workflows. As businesses seek to stay competitive in the digital age, integrating this innovative tool can have a significant impact on efficiency and innovation. Many companies are eager to explore how Microsoft Copilot can affect their business and reap its benefits.

This guide outlines five straightforward steps to integrate Microsoft Copilot into your company. We’ll cover assessing your organisation’s readiness, preparing your IT infrastructure, training employees, and implementing a phased rollout. By following these steps, you’ll be well-equipped to harness the potential of Microsoft Copilot and transform your business operations.

Assess Your Company’s Readiness

Before integrating Microsoft Copilot into your company, it’s crucial to evaluate your organisation’s current state and readiness. This assessment will help you identify potential challenges and opportunities, ensuring a smooth implementation process.

Evaluate current Microsoft 365 usage

To begin, take a close look at how your company currently uses Microsoft 365. The Microsoft 365 Usage dashboard is an invaluable tool for this purpose. It provides an activity overview across various productivity apps in your organisation. This dashboard allows you to drill down into individual product-level reports, giving you detailed insights into app usage.

Pay special attention to the Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report, which is continuously being enhanced. This report offers a summary of user adoption, retention, and engagement with Microsoft 365 Copilot. It also shows the activity of every Copilot user in your organisation over different time periods, such as the last 7, 30, 90, or 180 days.

Key metrics to consider include:

• Enabled Users: The total number of unique users with Microsoft 365 Copilot licences
• Active Users: The number of enabled users who have tried a user-initiated Microsoft 365 Copilot feature
• Active users rate: The percentage of active users compared to enabled users

Review data security and compliance measures

As you prepare to integrate Microsoft Copilot, it’s essential to review your current data security and compliance measures. Microsoft 365 Copilot has a significant impact on how your company’s data is accessed and used, so ensuring robust protection is crucial.

Start by examining your existing processes for governing information stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. Do you have controls in place to manage how this data is shared inside and outside the organisation? Additionally, assess your tools and processes for classifying sensitive information and identifying it when used by people or automated processes.

Consider implementing or reviewing:

• Data residency requirements
• Processes to control business-critical data hosted in Microsoft 365
• Tools to limit the sharing of sensitive information
• Classification tools to identify and restrict access based on document location
• Procedures to identify and manage stale or inactive document repositories

Identify potential use cases across departments

To maximise the benefits of Microsoft Copilot, it’s important to identify potential use cases across different departments in your company. This step will help you understand how Copilot can affect your business and where it can have the most significant impact.

Consider how Copilot can assist with tasks such as:

• Automating routine tasks
• Generating content
• Providing insights from data analysis
• Improving collaboration and productivity

For example, in healthcare, Copilot can assist with patient record management and medical report generation. In finance, it can help analyse vast amounts of financial data, identify patterns, and predict trends, aiding in risk management and decision-making processes.

By thoroughly assessing your company’s readiness, reviewing security measures, and identifying potential use cases, you’ll be well-prepared to integrate Microsoft Copilot and harness its benefits across your organisation.

Prepare Your IT Infrastructure

To integrate Microsoft Copilot into your company successfully, it’s crucial to ensure your IT infrastructure is ready. This preparation involves several key steps to guarantee compatibility, security, and optimal performance.

Ensure compatibility with existing systems

Before implementing Microsoft Copilot, it’s essential to verify that your current systems are compatible. Start by reviewing the prerequisites for using Microsoft 365 Copilot. These requirements are nearly identical to those for using Microsoft 365 Apps. Ensure that your company has deployed Microsoft 365 Apps and that users have Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) accounts.

It’s important to note that Copilot isn’t available when using device-based licencing for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. Additionally, some features in Microsoft Copilot, such as file restore and OneDrive management, require users to have a OneDrive account. Use the OneDrive setup guide in the Microsoft 365 admin centre to enable OneDrive for your users if necessary.

Set up necessary permissions and access controls

Implementing proper permissions and access controls is crucial to maintain security when integrating Microsoft Copilot into your company. Copilot respects your organisation’s existing access controls and user permissions set for your customer relationship management (CRM) system. However, it’s essential to review and update these permissions as needed.

Ensure that your administrators have the necessary permissions to customise the CRM, and that users have appropriate permissions to view, update, and create records in the CRM from Copilot. If you change a user’s permissions or security roles in your CRM, they must sign out of Copilot and sign in again for the changes to take effect.

For Salesforce administrators, assign a user profile with Modify All Data or Manage Data Integrations permission. Salesforce users must have Lightning Knowledge enabled and Read permission to the knowledge object. For Dynamics 365 administrators, assign the Copilot for Service Administrator security role and Read privileges on the User table.

Configure Microsoft 365 settings for Copilot integration

To prepare for Copilot integration, configure your Microsoft 365 settings appropriately. Start by reviewing your privacy settings for Microsoft 365 Apps, as these settings might affect the availability of Microsoft Copilot features.

Enable Loop for your tenant if you plan to use Microsoft Copilot with Microsoft Loop. This can be done in the Microsoft 365 admin centre or the Microsoft 365 Apps admin centre under Customisation | Policy Management. Similarly, ensure that Whiteboard is enabled for your tenant if you intend to use Microsoft Copilot with Microsoft Whiteboard.

For Copilot to work effectively in Teams meetings, enable transcription or meeting recording. This allows Copilot to reference meeting content after the meeting has ended. Configure these settings in the Microsoft Teams admin centre.

By thoroughly preparing your IT infrastructure, setting up proper permissions, and configuring the necessary Microsoft 365 settings, your company will be well-positioned to integrate Microsoft Copilot successfully and reap its benefits in enhancing productivity and streamlining workflows.

Train Your Employees

Integrating Microsoft Copilot into your company requires a well-structured approach to employee training. This ensures that your team can make the most of this powerful AI tool and reap its benefits. Here’s how you can effectively train your employees to use Microsoft Copilot:

Develop a comprehensive training programme

Start by creating a robust training programme that covers all aspects of Microsoft Copilot. This programme should be tailored to your company’s specific needs and use cases. Consider establishing a Microsoft 365 Copilot Centre of Excellence to oversee the training process and serve as a central hub for knowledge and resources.

Your training programme should include:

1. An overview of Microsoft Copilot and its capabilities
2. How Copilot can affect your business and improve workflows
3. Practical examples of how Copilot can be used in different departments
4. Guidelines for responsible AI use within your company

To make your training more effective, follow the approach suggested by Kai Cheng, one of Microsoft’s first employees to train colleagues on Copilot. She recommends starting with three key considerations:

1. How would you complete a task without Copilot?
2. How can Copilot improve the process?
3. Compare the two approaches to identify and communicate the specific benefits Copilot offers

This method helps your employees grasp the value of Copilot more clearly, making your training sessions more impactful.

Conduct hands-on workshops

Hands-on experience is crucial for employees to become comfortable with Microsoft Copilot. Organise interactive workshops where employees can experiment with the tool in a live, virtual environment. These workshops should cover various business scenarios and allow participants to test drive Copilot’s features.

Consider including the following elements in your workshops:

1. Live demonstrations of Copilot in action
2. Guided exercises for handling emails in Outlook
3. Practise sessions for creating presentations with Copilot in PowerPoint
4. Tutorials on processing tabular data in Excel
5. Exploration of Copilot’s capabilities in Teams chats and meetings

Encourage leaders from different business areas to participate in these workshops. This helps them experience first-hand how Copilot can benefit their specific departments and drive adoption across the company.

Create user guides and resources

To support ongoing learning and adoption, develop comprehensive user guides and resources. These materials should be easily accessible to all employees and cover various aspects of using Microsoft Copilot effectively.

Your user guides and resources should include:

1. Step-by-step instructions for common tasks
2. Best practises for prompt engineering
3. Tips for maximising Copilot’s efficiency in different Microsoft 365 applications
4. FAQs and troubleshooting guides

Make use of the official Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption hub, which offers valuable resources including a user onboarding kit. Additionally, create a group of early adopters who can act as product champions. These champions can share their experiences, provide tips, and help other employees adopt and use Copilot effectively across your organisation.

By implementing a comprehensive training programme, conducting hands-on workshops, and creating user-friendly resources, you’ll equip your employees with the knowledge and skills needed to integrate Microsoft Copilot successfully into your company’s workflows.

Implement a Phased Rollout

Implementing Microsoft Copilot in your company requires a well-planned approach. A phased rollout allows for a smooth integration, ensuring that your organisation can effectively harness the benefits of this powerful AI tool.

Start with a pilot group

To begin the integration process, it’s crucial to start with a pilot group. This approach allows you to test Copilot’s capabilities and identify any potential challenges before a full-scale implementation. Select a diverse group of early adopters from various departments who are already comfortable with Microsoft 365 features. These users can provide valuable insights into how Copilot affects different aspects of your business.

Assign Microsoft 365 Copilot licences to this pilot group and use the resources available in the Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption hub to onboard them effectively. This initial phase helps you understand how users interact with Copilot and where it provides the most value in your company’s workflows.

Gather feedback and make adjustments

As your pilot group becomes more familiar with Copilot, encourage them to provide feedback on their experiences. This feedback is crucial for improving the integration process and maximising the benefits of Copilot for your company.

Implement a robust feedback mechanism that allows users to rate their interactions with Copilot. For example, you can use a thumbs-up or thumbs-down system at the end of each response. When users provide feedback, prompt them for more detailed information about what they liked or what went wrong.

Use the Copilot Dashboard from Viva Insights to measure the impact of Copilot on your organisation. This tool provides valuable insights into readiness, adoption, impact, and user sentiment. By analysing this data, you can make informed decisions about adjustments needed before expanding the rollout.

Gradually expand to other departments

Once you’ve gathered sufficient feedback and made necessary adjustments, it’s time to expand Copilot’s integration to other departments. This gradual expansion allows you to manage the process effectively and ensure that each department receives proper support during the transition.

Consider the following steps for a successful expansion:

1. Identify departments that can benefit most from Copilot’s capabilities.
2. Create a tailored training programme for each department, focusing on specific use cases relevant to their work.
3. Leverage your pilot group as product champions to help new users adopt and use Copilot effectively.
4. Continue to monitor usage and gather feedback as you expand, making adjustments as needed.

Remember, a phased rollout is key to successful integration. It allows your company to adapt to this new technology gradually, ensuring that employees have the time and support they need to incorporate Copilot into their daily workflows effectively.

Conclusion

The integration of Microsoft Copilot into your company is a journey that has the potential to transform your business operations. By following these five steps, you’re setting the stage for a successful implementation that can boost productivity and streamline workflows across your organisation. The key is to take a thoughtful, phased approach that considers your company’s unique needs and challenges.

As you move forward with this integration, keep in mind that the process is ongoing. Stay open to feedback, be ready to make adjustments, and continue to explore new ways Copilot can benefit your business. With the right approach, Microsoft Copilot can become a powerful ally in your company’s quest for innovation and efficiency in the digital age.