Taking off With Copilot for Microsoft 365

Authors:

Sudeep Ghatak

Sudeep is a talented Microsoft solution architect and a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award winner. He solves our customers’ most complex issues and questions, especially in the Microsoft 365 and Power Platform world.  

Roland de Graan

Roland has a Master’s in Organisational Science and is a certified Microsoft trainer. He’s also a PowerShell expert and uses Microsoft Graph, Power Automate, Power Apps and Azure functions to build powerful automation solutions.

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What is Microsoft 365 Copilot?

Microsoft 365 Copilot is a robust AI tool that integrates seamlessly with trusted Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more. It uses sophisticated language models and your company’s data with Microsoft Graph to enhance productivity and stimulate creativity. Just imagine being able to ask Copilot to do the following tasks for you:

• Word: Draft a two-page project proposal based on the data from a document and a spreadsheet.
• Excel: Provide a breakdown of sales by type and channel and insert a table.
• PowerPoint: Create a five-slide presentation using a Word document and include relevant stock photos.
• Outlook: Draft a response thanking someone, asking for more details about their second and third points, and then shorten this draft and make the tone professional.
• Teams: Summarise what you missed in a meeting, list the points made so far, identify areas of disagreement, and generate a list of pros and cons.

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However, with great power comes great responsibility

Without establishing appropriate permissions, you risk Copilot sharing information about sensitive information across your organisation. An example would be enabling access to employment contracts. These need proper privacy and sensitivity labels to prevent Copilot from finding and sharing them with everyone.  

Having suitable access controls and data protection measures is crucial before enabling Copilot in your environment. You must ensure you thoroughly understand Copilot's features and customise its deployment to align with your organisation's requirements. This proactive approach will mitigate unexpected challenges and maximise the benefits of this powerful tool.

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How can we help?

We'd recommend undergoing a Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Assessment to ensure you’re well-prepared before activating Copilot for Microsoft 365.

The assessment covers various areas, including:

• Reviewing access to sensitive data: We help you make your tenant safer with Conditional Access and Identity Management, ensuring that only authorised individuals can access sensitive data. This includes reviewing SharePoint sites, Microsoft Teams, documents, and tenant data.
• Reviewing data governance with Microsoft Purview: We assist you in implementing Data Loss Prevention (DLP), sensitivity labels, and information protection to ensure your data is well-governed. These measures will help  enhance the overall security, compliance, and confidentiality of your sensitive information.
• Securing access to company data with Intune: We help secure your company devices through Intune Mobile Device Management (MDM) and protect data within applications through Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM).
• Licensing optimisation: We devise your licensing strategy to maximise the benefits of Microsoft 365 Copilot while minimising unnecessary costs.

A Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Assessment ensures that your organisation is fully prepared to leverage the power of AI with Microsoft 365 Copilot while maintaining the highest data security and governance standards.

We'd be happy to discuss the next steps with you and provide the guidance you need.