Most of us have hoped but not really dared to believe that yesterday’s news “Bringing the full power of Copilot to more people and businesses” would come already now, but yesterday’s news struck like a bolt from the blue. This announcement includes Microsoft “Expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes” and thus the previous “brake pedal” with the 300-seat purchase minimum is now gone.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 – I can’t help, Falling in love with you

Full speed ahead, nothing stops me now! Copilot for Microsoft 365 will, without a doubt, revolutionize the way of working for us office workers who produce and manage a lot of information. It’s easy to fall in love with Copilot for Microsoft 365.

• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can perform most of the boring and unmotivating tasks that I spend a lot of my time on today.​​
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help me reuse the information that already exists in my organization.
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can search for information much faster than I can.​
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can consolidate information much faster than I can.​
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can analyze information much faster than I can.​
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 can help me create drafts and quickly get started when I lack inspiration.

What a partner Copilot for Microsoft 365 is (or can be)! But how should I act so that this relationship does not crash already during the dating phase or shortly after the initial “new crush phase” has passed? What can I do to make the relationship work?

Many of us love to be on the cutting edge of technology and we happily adopt new technology that brings improvements and simplifications that make us even more productive. In my case, it’s actually my job to do it. Therefore, I will jump on this train as soon as possible. BUT before that, both you and I must stop and think and taste the message “As soon as possible”. What is “As soon as possible” for you and your organization?

Like a river flows Surely to the sea

Assess your readiness and ensure the rollout will flow without going aground. What are the consequences of already now pressing the button and use Copilot for Microsoft 365 without first making sure that you are actually ready to use it?

You can and should deploy Copilot for Microsoft 365 “as soon as possible” but not before you’ve made sure you and your organization are ready/optimized to do so. For the past six months, I, and many with me, have preached the importance of getting Copilot Ready in good time so that you do not neglect the prerequisites for a successful rollout of Copilot for Microsoft 365. Regardless of whether you do the work yourself or if you enlist the help of external resources, you need to look at the following areas before you press the “on button” and unleash “The most powerful productivity tool on the planet” in your organization.

An Assessment is the right place to start. Some organizations have internal resources with the necessary skills and available resources and time. Many (most) others need help in doing this screening of their information and platform.

Some things are meant to be

Here I have listed some things you should get hold of (before you rush in).

Prompting and training

The way we communicate is important in many contexts. You get answers based on the quality of your wording.

In Real Life​

The more clearly you formulate questions or instructions to your colleagues, the better they understand what you are asking and the better the quality of their answers (provided they have the answer which is the data in their heads)​

In Microsoft Search​

The more well-defined search strings you write, the better the search results

In Copilot for Microsoft 365

The more clearly you formulate questions/instructions to Copilot for Microsoft 365, the better the result that it delivers based on the data that you (and thus it) has access to in your organization.

Therefore, you should produce suitable training material for your users so that they learn to speak to Copilot for Microsoft 365 in the right way.

Security, Privacy and Compliance​

This is really only about basic principles within IT security and not something specific to Copilot for Microsoft 365.​ You’ve actually had the same challenge over the past few years with regards to search, but maybe it wasn’t as obvious.

M365 Search has access to what you have access to and similarly Copilot for Microsoft 365 have access to the same information you have access to. However, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is much faster/better at searching for-, processing, consolidating and analyzing the information. This means that it may actually find and use information that you obviously have access to but which you should not share with others. Here, Microsoft Purview Information Protection becomes important so that you have tagged all information correctly and with associated policies and that you only have access to the information that you are supposed to have access to. This minimizes the risk of inadvertently sharing information that you consolidate from various internal sources.

Good data quality

Copilot for Microsoft 365 needs to be trained and learn from the information that you (and thus also it) have access to. You yourself will not be better than the data you use and are trained on. Copilot for Microsoft 365 will not be better than the data it uses and are trained on. Therefore, good quality of your internal data is important to get good help and good answers from Copilot for Microsoft 365.
In other words: “Sh.t in – Sh.t out” (excuse me for my bluntness)​.

Things to consider in this context

• Is your stored information relevant and correct?
• Do you know what different types of information you have?
• Is your information stored where it should be stored?​
• Are you storing old clutter that should be deleted?​
• Are various types of information properly secured and thus only available to those who should have access to it and thus inaccessible to those who should NOT have access to it?

Microsoft 365 Platform- & Application Governance

This is a basic prerequisite for being a Copilot for Microsoft 365 Ready/Optimized.

The platform

I dare say that your Tenant is not optimally configured. You do not have a good enough Secure Score, your client machines are most likely not sufficiently secured and administered. The same applies to management/control/securing of Identities and Data. Microsoft 365 is not “Secure by default”. You need to do some work to make sure that all the buttons and checkboxes are filled in correctly. You cannot settle for the default settings everywhere.

You must ensure that you have configured all parts of your platform to support the security and functionality requirements you have and must meet. Now this is nothing new, but if you have been a bit neglectful (or just tired) until today, this is more current and relevant than ever before. Not only because you should be able to use Copilot for Microsoft 365 in a safe way internally in the organization, but also because of the current security situation in the world.

Do this job from the mindset of Zero Trust. The Zero Trust defense areas are: Identities, Endpoints (Using Microsoft Intune and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint), Apps (Cloud security and Threat protection), Data, Infrastructure and Network. Although it may be demanding to do it fully, it should be your ambition so that you are at least adequately secured based on your level of vulnerability.

The Applications and Services

When you have finished verifying that the platform itself is adequately configured and secured, you need to make the corresponding changes to the settings for the applications you use. Examples of this include sharing settings for SharePoint and OneDrive, Access rights to SharePoint sites and their document libraries and files. Different transparency settings for different types of Teams in Microsoft Teams. Which types of Teams should it be possible to invite guests to and which types of Teams are only intended for internal users? Classification with Microsoft Purview Information Protection for different types of Containers and document types to control sharing, access and transparency.

Summary

The list doesn’t stop here. What you just read through are just basic tips about things that you MUST have control over.

My advice to you is: In order to be able to use Copilot for Microsoft 365 “As soon as possible” Now is the time to act.

This is important and there is no valid reason to put it off until tomorrow. If you have the ability to carry out these preparations yourself, do it now. If you don’t have the time, knowledge or otherwise the opportunity to do it yourself, don’t hesitate to get help from someone who can help you with the matter. Later you can always make things even better and perform actions that make both applications and the platform even more secure and “right”.