Advania UK has deployed Microsoft Copilot across its entire 1,000-strong workforce in a move it claims separates it from most of its peers.
Following a pilot programme involving 50 users across all parts of its business, the Microsoft partner has rolled licenses of the enterprise AI companion to all staff.
The deployment – which comes hot on the heels of its acquisition of Servium – will hand its teams a “clear competitive advantage”, it claimed.
“Didn’t feel like the right option for us
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Chief Revenue Officer David Kress said he knew of just four other partners who have plans for “substantial” Copilot deployments.
Every Advania UK employee can now use the full Microsoft AI platform, including Copilot for Microsoft 365, Copilot Studio, and private ChatGPT deployments, the firm said.
“Limiting the roll-out to sales and marketing didn’t feel like the right option for us,” Kress said.
“Each role within the business had slightly different requirements, and all were able to deliver impressive outcomes using Copilot.
“Our clients need a partner with experience using Copilot effectively across all functions, not just sales and marketing. We will be sharing our employees’ experiences in a series of social media posts aimed at educating the market on the possibilities with Copilot by role and function”.
“Radical improvements”
When Copilot for Microsoft 365 went on general release in January, onlookers variously branded it a “tailwind for the entire channel” and a “catalyst for significant growth”.
Recent analysis by fellow Microsoft partner Avanade, following a Microsoft 365 pilot involving 700 of its employees, concluded that it “may curb spontaneous, original thinking”. It did, however, paint a glowing picture of how the tool has gone down with employees more generally.
Nordic powerhouse Advania became one the UK’s most accredited Microsoft partners when it acquired local peer Content+Cloud in 2021. The business, which was in November rebranded as Advania UK, ranked 35th in the recent Oxygen 250 with calendar 2022 revenues of £128.3m.
Advania said it had noticed “radical improvements in employee productivity and creativity with Copilot”.
On top of the standard use cases such as summarisation, sifting through stuffed inboxes, and jumpstarting content creation, Advania’s teams have already identified dozens of more complex use cases for Copilot, it said.
These include digesting and responding to complex RFPs, analysing data and producing presentation ready graphs, analysing sentiment of client communications, and improving interactive client workshops.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
