Verdane

SoftwareOne helps Verdane accelerate productivity with Microsoft Copilot

Headquartered in Oslo, Norway, Verdane is among the Nordics’ largest private equity firms, with more than 190 users across seven offices spanning Norway, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, Danmark and Germany. The firm partners with companies that seek to lead in a sustainable world and operate in the digitalization and decarbonization space. Technology is Verdane’s domain. It invests strategically even in its internal operations and services, which are all digitalized and in the cloud.

In 2023, Verdane made the strategic decision to invest in using AI internally. “We developed our own internal chat interface for GPT and also our digital document assistant based on Azure Open AI,” said Morten Reinhardtsen, Verdane’s Chief Information Officer. “We integrated them into our sourcing phase and communication and productivity development. Through our experience, it became evident that Microsoft 365 Copilot would mark a strategic shift in our operations, particularly in enhancing productivity.”

Copilot promises to revolutionize Microsoft Office operations through artificial intelligence – and its results support that promise. Research conducted by Microsoft found that 64% of Copilot users said it helped them process emails faster. Eighty-five percent said it helped them get to a first draft quicker than before. And 77% said that once they used Copilot, they didn’t want to give it up.

Accelerating the AI transformation

Innovation is in Verdane’s DNA, so when the firm decided to adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot, it wanted to work fast. As soon as licenses became available in January 2024, Verdane partnered with SoftwareOne to quickly acquire them. Verdane became the first Copilot Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) client in Western Europe. It is also the largest, at 191 CSP licenses.

“We were early adopters, and we already knew a lot about AI,” Reinhardtsen explained. “So instead of putting us into a standardized project plan, SoftwareOne adapted to our actual needs, which enabled us to move quicker.”

Verdane assembled a pilot group of 25 users from its investment teams, along with users in marketing, finance, back office, support, and investor relations teams to explore and maximize Copilot use cases.

“Primarily, the group uses Copilot to drive productivity when using Office products,” said Reinhardtsen. The group uses Copilot to boost meeting productivity by quickly summarizing recordings and is exploring Copilot’s ability to generate content structures to help non-communications professionals efficiently draft compelling materials. It also uses Copilot to create tailored pitch decks, using Verdane’s branded palette, saving time and effort.

Empowering modern workflows

“We also have some super users exploring advanced use cases,” said Reinhardtsen. “For example, we’ve automated template completion. Instead of manually processing and filling out documents such as due diligence forms, Copilot handles it for us. When you're signing multiple forms daily, it translates to significant time savings.”

He added: “We’ve developed custom models, like our investor relationship model. Previously, the team had numerous Q&A documents, requiring extensive manual searches. We consolidated this information into a model so it can access it seamlessly instead of sifting through numerous Word documents.”

“Our long-term vision is to establish Copilot as the single source of truth within our operations,” said Reinhardtsen. “We’ve already begun integrating our other systems into Copilot. You can currently request live information from both our website and our CRM system, Salesforce, directly through Copilot.”

Gains in productivity, quality, and competitiveness

“The pilot group said that Copilot increases the quality and productivity of their workday” Reinhardtsen revealed. “Our dashboard also shows that productivity has massively increased since implementing Copilot. The pilot group reported an 83% increase in work quality and 67% of users said that the quality of their output improved across the Microsoft Office Productivity Suite, which is significant.”

Verdane sees Copilot as a tool to give them the edge over their competitors. Their teams have been using it for market research, particularly in exploring new industries.

“We’re in a super-competitive industry,” said Reinhardtsen. “Finding the best companies to invest in, partner with, and help turn into market leaders can be a tall order. When sourcing companies, it’s essential to know more about the market beyond what Google can provide, so using an AI tool for research is crucial.”

That edge extends to pitching. “Every day we pitch to companies to partner with us,” said Reinhardtsen. “We’re also pitching our ecosystem to showcase why we’re industry leaders and why our companies excel in their respective fields. Integrating Copilot into our foundational tools has been a real differentiator for us.”