Node4 has become the latest Microsoft partner to ‘drink its own champagne’ on AI, claiming it has purchased over 1,100 Copilot for Microsoft 365 seats.
The Derby-based MSP said the deployment will “enhance productivity, streamline workflows, and empower its workforce to focus on higher-value tasks”.
It becomes the latest in a growing line of Microsoft partners rolling the AI assistant across all or parts of their business, following its general release in January.
In June, Bytes Technology Group announced it was rolling Copilot for Microsoft 365 to all of its sales and marketing personnel, as well as to other teams in the business.
Then late last month, Avania UK revealed it has deployed the tool across its entire 1,000-strong workforce.
“Significant head start”
Node4 claims it has been handed a “significant head start and real-world advantage” on Copilot because Microsoft shared resources and tips with it on rollout and integration.
It expects Copilot to boost departmental efficiency in its development team by up to 80%.
Longer term, the Providence Equity-backed outfit said it is also exploring how Copilot could “help create improved and automated end-to-end ERP workflow management solutions for clients”.
“Our investment in Copilot for Microsoft 365 demonstrates our commitment to staying at the cutting edge of technology,” said Node4 Managing Director Hannah Birch.
“By integrating Copilot into our operations, we are improving our internal processes and setting a standard for the solutions we deliver to our clients.”
Uncertainty ahead
Even Microsoft’s partners are reserving judgment on exactly how Copilot may help their customers.
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.
In a blog written for IT Channel Oxygen, Advania CRO David Kress admitted that rolling Copilot to all employees represents a “substantial investment”, will benefit some staff more than others, and could even potentially “create new problems”.
“As one of the most certified Microsoft partners in the UK, what is the point of taking solutions to clients that we have not fully embraced ourselves?,” he added, however.
