Microsoft 365 Copilot: All-round benefits for SoftwareOne and its clients

Building an intelligent workplace. Sharing success with clients worldwide.

Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareOne is a global software and cloud solutions provider with operations in 60 countries and approximately 9,000 employees worldwide. The company delivers a comprehensive portfolio spanning more than 7,500 software brands to organisations of all sizes and industries.

SoftwareOne's relationship with Microsoft dates back to its founding years, making it the company's longest-standing vendor partnership. With over 1,360 highly trained Microsoft specialists and technical consultants supporting 12.5 million active Microsoft 365 users globally, SoftwareOne's expertise made it a natural partner for the global rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot in November 2023.

To better understand this AI assistant's potential and provide tailored solutions for clients, SoftwareOne embarked on an ambitious in-house initiative to integrate Microsoft 365 Copilot into its own daily operations.

Embracing AI—with passion and integrity 

This wasn't just a technical exercise—it was a values-driven, strategic decision. SoftwareOne is founded on principles including passion and integrity. To authentically guide clients through their own AI journeys, the company knew it needed to fully embrace these technologies for its own work.

While excitement around GenAI built across the organisation, implementing Microsoft 365 Copilot presented several practical challenges.

The first was financial: at $30 per user per month, Copilot licences represent a substantial investment, especially for larger organisations. For the business to justify this expenditure, the AI assistant needed to deliver clear, measurable value.

Building genuine engagement presented another hurdle. Adoption needed to be more than superficial: Swomies had to feel empowered, confident, and supported in making Copilot a natural part of their workflow.

Security and compliance requirements added another layer of complexity. As organisations increasingly adopt AI tools, the risk of "shadow AI"—where employees use unauthorised AI solutions outside corporate oversight—grows substantially. Managing this risk while enabling innovation required careful balancing.

These challenges are precisely what many SoftwareOne clients face when considering their own AI implementations. By addressing them directly through internal deployment, SoftwareOne knew it would position itself to provide guidance based on real experience rather than theoretical knowledge alone—living its values of passion for innovation and integrity in client relationships.

Onboarding Copilot as part of the team

With all these considerations in mind, SoftwareOne implemented a strategic, multi-phased adoption approach designed to maximise engagement while gathering actionable insights about Copilot's real-world impact.

The initiative began with a focused pilot phase, deploying 90 licences to senior consultants and sales leaders. This group, dubbed the "Tiger Team," methodically explored Copilot's capabilities across Microsoft 365 applications including Word, Outlook, and Teams. This controlled deployment allowed SoftwareOne to identify the most valuable use cases and then refine its approach before a broader rollout.

The Tiger Team's exploration wasn't left to chance. SoftwareOne applied robust adoption and change management (ACM) strategies based on the ADKAR model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) to ensure employees had the understanding, skills, and motivation needed to integrate Copilot effectively into their daily work.

After two months of gathering data and refining the approach, the initiative expanded to include approximately 15% of the workforce across diverse departments including HR, finance, and cybersecurity. This phase broadened the use case library while testing Copilot's effectiveness in various business contexts.

The final phase placed strong emphasis on sales enablement, equipping the sales team with training to demonstrate Copilot's capabilities in live client settings. Additionally, SoftwareOne introduced floating licences for Swomies who could put forward a strong business case, ensuring that the technology reached those who could derive maximum benefit.

Throughout the implementation, SoftwareOne fostered a vibrant community of users. Weekly drop-in sessions created space to share insights, solve problems collectively, and build a growing knowledge base of effective prompts and applications. Online communities further extended this collaborative approach, allowing colleagues across global locations to benefit from collective learning.

This human-centred implementation strategy treated Copilot not as a mere tool but as a collaborative partner to be welcomed and onboarded thoughtfully into teams across the company—a nuanced approach that would later inform SoftwareOne's client advisory services.

Once Copilot became embedded in daily workflows, its impact was quickly seen across every aspect of how Swomies work together. The AI assistant didn't just automate tasks—it fundamentally enhanced how teams co-ordinate their efforts, collaborate more effectively, and create better outcomes, establishing a new standard for comprehensive AI integration in the workplace.

Co-ordinate. Collaborate. Create. 

The change was measurable.

The company achieved a 97.7% adoption rate across its workforce—significantly outpacing the industry average of 70%. More importantly, this wasn't superficial usage. Swomies quickly embraced Copilot as part of their day-to-day, with 83% performing 11 or more Copilot actions every week.

Co-ordinate 

Copilot's impact on streamlining workflows, for example, was almost immediately apparent. By automatically summarising lengthy email threads and Teams meetings, it ensured everyone had access to the same information without extensive manual note-taking. This capability proved particularly valuable for global teams working across time zones, as meeting summaries allowed colleagues to quickly catch up on discussions they couldn't attend live. In fact, Microsoft Teams emerged as the most frequently used application for Copilot interactions, with meeting summaries and Copilot chat being the primary use cases.

These features eliminated information bottlenecks and created a more coherent, aligned global workforce.

Collaborate 

Beyond simple efficiency, Copilot also established itself as a genuine collaborative partner that brought humans together and helped them get more done.

Early in the pilot, teams were reporting that Copilot's ability to generate initial drafts, suggest improvements, and help refine ideas freed them to focus on higher-value strategic thinking.

This collaborative enhancement extended beyond individual productivity to cross-functional teamwork. Sales and technical teams used Copilot to bridge knowledge gaps, with the AI assistant helping translate complex technical concepts into client-friendly language or, conversely, helping sales professionals understand technical documentation more thoroughly.

Create 

Perhaps most impressively, Copilot's generative capabilities accelerated content creation across the organisation. Users saved an average of 4.8 hours monthly through more efficient document creation, email composition, and presentation development. This time saving translated directly to faster response times for clients and more capacity for creative problem solving.

The sales team particularly benefitted from Copilot's ability to rapidly generate tailored proposals and client communications. What once took hours now required minutes, allowing the sellers to create more personalised client experiences while simultaneously increasing their productivity.

Surveys revealed that 73% of users felt their knowledge of workplace AI had substantially increased since adopting Copilot. This growing confidence helped them work more effectively with AI tools and provide more informed guidance to clients based on genuine experience rather than theoretical knowledge.

The insights directly informed the development of SoftwareOne's Copilot Advisory Service, a comprehensive offering designed to guide clients through every stage of Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption. The service encompasses readiness assessments, technical deployment guidance, customised training programmes, and change management strategies—all enriched by SoftwareOne's first-hand implementation experience.

Expanding into the agentic future

As SoftwareOne's Copilot implementation matured, the company began exploring the next frontier: AI agents. Using Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, and other Microsoft tools, SoftwareOne has created over 95 AI agents that automate workflows, support decision-making, and drive operational efficiency.

Standout agent implementations

Several agents have delivered exceptional value across different business functions:

Q-Bot (Questionnaire Automation Agent)

• Purpose: Automates supplier questionnaire completion using dynamic knowledge base
• Technical approach: Built as Teams app using Azure OpenAI and Python
• Impact: Reduced task time from 20 minutes to 10 seconds
• Business value: Massive efficiency gains for BID Desk staff, enabling focus on higher-value activities

Sourcing Companion Agent

• Purpose: Identifies optimal products for customers and generates personalised sales content
• Technical approach: Integrates product databases, web data, and customer profiles using Azure AI and Databricks
• Impact: Accelerates sales cycles and improves conversion rates
• Business value: Enables personalisation at scale while reducing cognitive load on sales teams

Auto Dispatching Agent

• Purpose: Automates customer email triage and routing within Dynamics CRM
• Technical approach: Uses Azure AI and Databricks to parse emails and create cases automatically
• Impact: Instant triage of high-volume inboxes with improved accuracy
• Business value: Enhanced SLA compliance and 24/7 responsiveness

Introducing Copilot Chat: democratising AI access 

In January 2025, Microsoft launched Copilot Chat with pay-as-you-go pricing, offering organisations a flexible alternative to the $30 per user per month licensing model. SoftwareOne quickly adopted this consumption-based approach too, democratising AI access across the organisation.

This model provides an ideal "on-ramp" for employees to experiment with AI agents without requiring full Copilot licences. Teams can create agents using natural language commands and access specialised AI capabilities directly within chat conversations.

Key benefits of the pay-as-you-go approach:

• Cost flexibility: Organisations pay only for actual usage rather than fixed monthly fees
• Lower barrier to entry: Enables experimentation without significant upfront investment
• Scalable adoption: Teams can expand usage as they demonstrate value

SoftwareOne's experience with Copilot Chat has reinforced the importance of providing multiple pathways for AI adoption, allowing different teams to find approaches that match their specific needs and usage patterns.

Governance and responsible innovation

Throughout this transformation, SoftwareOne has maintained strong emphasis on AI governance and responsible innovation. The company established:

• AI Working Group and Steering Committee: Providing oversight and strategic direction
• Security frameworks: Implementing Microsoft Purview and Defender for Cloud Apps
• Ethical guidelines: Ensuring responsible AI deployment across all use cases
• Compliance measures: Meeting regulatory requirements while enabling innovation

This governance foundation enables innovation while maintaining the security and compliance standards essential for serving global clients.