94 percent
positive user experience in the pilot
SoftwareOne case study
Copilot in Practice: High Adoption, Valuable Time Savings
A global industrial company tested Microsoft 365 Copilot in a six-month Proof of Concept (PoC) with 350 employees. The test achieved 96% active usage, 94% positive user experience, and an average time saving of 96 minutes per user per day.
Expectations for AI were high, as was skepticism. While promises of greater productivity and better results are easily made, in the everyday work of a global industrial company, what matters is robust data and clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Against this backdrop, the company decided to actively evaluate Microsoft 365 Copilot. Working with SoftwareOne, the company structured a Proof of Concept (PoC) to measure Copilot’s impact and assess requirements for scale. The six-month program of enablement, adoption, change management, and continuous measurement was designed to create a solid basis for decision-making.
96 minutes
Time saved per user per day
Clear basis for scaling
Rollout criteria clearly demonstrated by the PoC
- Client
- Global industrial company
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Platform
- Microsoft Azure
- Services
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Proof of Concept (PoC), including tenant review, enablement/adoption/change management (workshops/drop-ins), measurement, and reporting
- Country
- Germany
High Expectations, Lacking Solid Evidence
The organization is highly diversified, spanning finance, IT, production, HR, legal, and compliance. Working methods, tool usage, and the level of AI maturity in daily work varied widely.
Before scaling, management wanted to answer three questions:
- Does Copilot increase productivity and quality?
- Will the tool be used regularly, or will it remain an experiment for a few enthusiasts?
- Can the economic benefit be quantified in a robust way?
Without clear answers, the company risked investing in licenses and rollout efforts without reliably quantifying benefits.
A Structured Proof of Concept as a Basis for Decision-Making
SoftwareOne helped the customer design and support a PoC for Microsoft 365 Copilot. The test went beyond technical activation and deliberately combined enablement, adoption, and change management with success measurement.
The POC rested on three pillars:
- Targeted user activation: The PoC involved 350 employees from eight business units. Onboarding sessions, hands-on workshops, and regular drop-in calls ensured that Copilot was not only explained but also became tangible in everyday work.
- Guided rollout: An internal community, regular surveys, and focus groups ensured that feedback was continuously collected and incorporated into additional development.
- Measurability and transparency: Usage, time savings, satisfaction, and business impact were continually analyzed through usage rates, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and economic impacts.
The result was not just an isolated IT solution, but a robust foundation for top management decision-making.
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High Adoption, Clear Time Savings, and Confidence to Scale
The PoC exceeded expectations. 96% of users actively used Copilot, and 94% rated their experience positively. Willingness to recommend the tool was also very high. These results provided not only a snapshot of sentiment but also a reliable future indicator of sustained use.
Important results were particularly relevant for management:
- Significant time savings: Employees saved an average of 96 minutes per working day, especially when creating documents and emails, summarizing meetings, and conducting research.
- High satisfaction: Many participants expressed the wish to continue using their licenses after the PoC and rated the training and enablement formats as practical and relevant.
- Measurable economic benefit: Even conservatively, the calculation showed substantial benefits per employee per year — especially for true information work roles, such as analysis and communication.
- New perspectives: While simple use cases dominated at the beginning, the focus increasingly shifted toward automation, specialized Copilot AI assistants, and agents integrated with existing systems and knowledge platforms.
Overall, the PoC delivered transparent, quantifiable business benefits and provided leadership with a foundation for scaling Copilot in a targeted way, with a clear basis for future decisions.
