Banner image with Microsoft 365 application icons, and the larger Microsoft 365 Copilot icon

Preparing for Copilot for Microsoft 365 for SMBs

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by

joshfoye.co.uk
in

Please Note: this article was initially published in January 2024

In the few hours between starting this post last night, and preparing to publish this morning, Microsoft has expanded the availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365 for small and medium business (SMB) customers. The full announcement is available here, but a summary of the key points:

  • Copilot Pro is available as a subscription for individuals, bringing Copilot to Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint for personal users of Microsoft 365
  • Removal of the 300-seat purchase minimum for Copilot for Microsoft 365 commercial plans
  • Support for the Office 365 E3/E5 licenses (removing the Microsoft 365 prerequisite)
  • Availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365 for SMBs, including support for Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Business Premium

So, now that Copilot is available to the SMB market, what should businesses be doing to prepare for Copilot? And how can they make the most from a pilot or early-access group?

This article aims to provide a three-phased approach for preparing an SMB for launching a pilot or internal trial of Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Increase adoption of Microsoft 365 services

Copilot works by connecting your organisation’s data with large language models (LLMs), allowing the data to be understood and summarised, and used to generate new content. To get the most out of Copilot for Microsoft 365, it’s important to ensure that Microsoft 365 is well-used across the organisation.

Microsoft provide numerous resources for encouraging adoption of Microsoft 365. For larger SMBs, the Microsoft 365 Champions program empowers passionate individuals to help improve and drive the culture of adopting new tools and adapting to technology change.

The Microsoft 365 Adoption Score provides insights into the People Experiences, Technology Experiences and Group-Level Aggregates, giving businesses visibility into how they are adopting Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 Adoption Score Dashboard

Group Level Aggregates should be used to compare adoption by different groups of users across the organisation — groups with strong adoption of Microsoft 365 services, and who are following best practices make strong candidates for a pilot of Copilot for Microsoft 365, and are likely to see more success from a pilot program.

Secure your data across Microsoft 365

Microsoft Copilot for 365 only uses data that each individual can already access, honouring the permissions model used across the Microsoft 365 tenant. Copilot won’t return data to a user if the user does not already have access to that data.

Data hygiene in SMBs is a challenge — 34% of data breaches in SMBs involve internal actors, where users can access data that they shouldn’t be able to (ID Agent).

Businesses must prioritise data hygiene. By doing so, SMBs can significantly reduce the risk of internal data breaches, and ensure that tools like Microsoft Copilot operate within a secure, well-managed data environment.

Microsoft 365 includes tools and settings to help to manage data in SMBs:

  • Sensitivity Labels — applying sensitivity labels to files stored in Microsoft 365 can help to restrict user’s access to data, even if files have been shared or copied. Labels are also displayed when Copilot cites documents in Microsoft 365 Chat, ensuring users are aware of the sensitivity of the referenced documents or files (Microsoft Docs 1 | Microsoft Docs 2)
  • Sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive — by default, SharePoint and OneDrive allow sharing links to be generated for “Anyone with the link”, allowing anyone in or outside of the organisation to access a file with the link. This can be better secured by removing the option for “Anyone”, or changing the default option to “Specific People”, forcing users to consider how they are sharing a file or folder (Microsoft Docs)
  • Retention Policies — retaining stale data in the Microsoft 365 tenant increases the risk of inaccurate or out-of-date results being generated. Policies can be configured to force users to review files after a certain period of time. This feature is often used to ensure that published policies and processes remain up-to-date (Microsoft Docs 1 | Microsoft Docs 2)

Identify users and measure Copilot’s impact

Microsoft Copilot aims to improve productivity, efficiency, and business outcomes — these are the key aims stated in Microsoft’s tagline for Copilot for Microsoft 365.

Microsoft Copilot for Work

To understand the success of a Copilot trial, and to help identify user’s who will benefit the most from being supported by Copilot for Microsoft 365, it’s imperative to understand their current work experience.

Microsoft Viva is Microsoft’s employee experience platform, built within Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. Viva is comprised of several apps and experiences, all focused on understanding and improving the employee experience. Using Viva Glint and Viva Insights together can provide a holistic view of employee experience, combining sentiment and behavioural data to gain a deep understanding of employee experience.

Viva Insights and Glint can help to:

  • Identify teams that need support — team insights can help to identify teams who are regularly working outside of business hours, or through their focus time, and who therefore may be at risk of burnout or being overworked
  • Copilot Dashboard — the dashboard, still in preview, helps to identify users and teams who are ready to adopt Copilot and other AI tools, and offers suggestions for preparing the organisation for adopting Copilot for Microsoft 365
  • Employee feedback — surveys in Viva Glint can give leaders insights from across the organisation, and can be used to help identify people who are open to using new technologies, and who believe it will improve their experience at work

A successful pilot for Copilot for Microsoft 365 relies on the right users being involved, who are able to get the most out of Copilot, where adoption of Microsoft 365 is strong. This three-phased approach to preparing for a Copilot pilot ensures that users are:

  • Selected based on having the maximum potential benefit from using Copilot for Microsoft 365
  • Not increasing the risk of using the wrong data, in the wrong scenarios
  • Able to get the most of out Copilot, by having the most useful data in Microsoft 365