Copilot as a suite of solutions from Microsoft continues to roll out for almost every solution that Microsoft currently publishes. The current suite of products for Copilot include:

• Windows Copilot
• Copilot (free version of ChatGPT that is levereaged through a browser, Edge, and does not offer any protection for business data)
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 (which is the main focus for this document and will henceforth be referenced as Copilot)
• Copilot Pro
• Copilot for Dynamics 365
• Copilot for Services
• Copilot for Sales
• Copilot for Fabric
• GitHub Copilot
• Security Copilot

Copilot functionality is starting to work across all of the platforms of Microsoft to help users become more efficient and productive across the Microsoft Cloud services. In the previous blog on Copilot, we laid out how to best tackle the data governance and identity challenges to make sure an environment is ready to leverage the Copilot capability while minimizing negative impact on overall security and compliance. For this particular blog, we will be focused on how we now shift the focus on being successful with the adoption of Copilot for our licensed users.

In asking Copilot itself, it answered the question of what to do to be successful for its own deployment as the following:

“After ensuring that the security and compliance measures mentioned in the blog are in place, the logical next steps to ensure successful user adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot would be:

1. Training and education: Provide training and educational resources to users to help them understand the capabilities and benefits of using M365 Copilot. This could include webinars, tutorials, and user guides.

2. Pilot program: Implement a pilot program with a small group of users to gather feedback and identify any issues or areas for improvement.

3. Communication: Communicate regularly with users to keep them informed about new features and updates, and to gather feedback and suggestions for improvement.

4. Support: Provide ongoing support to users to help them troubleshoot any issues and to ensure they are able to effectively use M365 Copilot.”

5. Monitor usage: Monitor usage and adoption metrics to identify areas where additional training or support may be needed.”

This is actually great advice and showcases almost all of the steps that need to be taken to make Copilot successful for users. The one piece that is missing is the customization and extension of Copilot into the environment. That and the above steps are outlined below in more detail.

Training and Education

The most crucial part of a successful adoption strategy is to make sure that everyone who is going to use Copilot understands how to take advantage of the features. The education around Copilot should start before the users are even licensed and include quick references, wikis, and other resources that the users can leverage once it is deployed to them.  What should be included is:

• Timetable of when Copilot will be available

• Live training sessions that users who will be licensed to demo how to use Copilot in:

  • Word

  • Teams

  • PowerPoint

  • Excel

  • Chat

• Develop specific use cases that users will relate to and offer additional sessions targeted to those users

• Offer examples of how to best prompt to get the maximum benefit out of each of the Microsoft 365 applications

• Making sure that all of the above is available on demand for users

• Preparing the service desk to deal with calls from users who have questions

Pilot Program

Once the training is prepared, a Pilot program should be planned. This should include people who are a good cross section of the company. User groups that have roles that will match up with the use cases identified in the training work will maximize the opportunities for people to see benefits from Copilot. After a period of use, feedback should be collected and then changes to training should be made as necessary based on that feedback. Once that is completed, add more users, and pick groups who will help to advocate for Copilot. This process can help to stimulate interest and excitement with Copilot.

Communication

As the pilot phase proceeds, make sure that users have constant communication happening so that they are aware of timelines and functionality that they should be leveraging. This also helps to build excitement for the rollout. Communication should occur prior to the licensing and afterwards.

Support

Making sure that helpdesk and service desks are prepared to take calls from people who are part of the deployment will be critical to resolve issues quickly. Part of this would include having the service desk or helpdesk be part of the pilot so that they are used to using it.

Monitor Usage

As Copilot is rolled out through out the organization, you should monitor the usage using built in reporting on usage. This allows you to make sure that as you bring on more and more users that people are actually using it. This can also be used to help identify which groups are getting the most out of Copilot and which are struggling to find use cases. For the users in that second group, additional feedback can then be captured to help identify how to bring up that usage.

Extending and Customization

Part of evolving the solution, is coming up with additional use cases for Copilot. This can include building out additional built-in options as well as looking at actually extending the Copilot features to other applications. Copilot gives you the opportunity to extend its capabilities through:

• Plugins

• Connections

• Custom Connections

This means that no matter what you are looking to either integrate with Copilot or extend the capabilities to, there is a method to leverage. What is possible is really only limited to the use cases that can be developed. Once those are outlined, the right method can be leveraged to customize the experience and bring an even more powerful employee experience to Copilot!

If your company is looking to start the rollout of Copilot, do not hesitate to reach out to Spyglass to help lead and organize a strategy to securely and successfully deploy Copilot.