Webinar Recap: Getting the Most Value out of Microsoft 365 Copilot

Just in time for the highly-anticipated launch of one of Microsoft’s most innovative tools in decades, ECI hosted a webinar, “Microsoft 365 Copilot is in Flight: Are You Prepared?” to unpack the groundbreaking capabilities and prepare clients for implementation. Nearly 100 attendees joined ECI Chief Innovation Officer Rich Itri and Lead Product Consultant Julius Damato for the September 27 online session. Here are highlights from the dynamic discussion on how financial sector firms can tailor and implement Copilot for accelerated business processes and value generation.

Navigating the Copilot Implementation Journey

ECI’s webinar was designed to serve as a road map to assist financial sector organizations in implementing Copilot. The hour-long session covered ways to make the most of Copilot’s capabilities and safely deploy them for maximum efficiency and value. In the process, the panelists shared implementation tips and important recommendations for data security, role-based-access-controls, integrations, compliance and more.

For instance, while Copilot can power innovative use cases – such as comparing multiple Excel files to display and analyze drivers of deltas; sifting through historical data for instant analysis and decision support for trades; and aiding research by automatically correcting for differences in how various companies report earnings and other KPIs – these use cases don’t come to life unless Copilot’s capabilities and activities are properly aligned and secured within the larger enterprise IT environment.

The panelists also emphasized the importance of making sure as much of your corporate information as possible is stored within Microsoft 365, as this connectivity is crucial to unlock all the productivity benefits of Copilot. However, that doesn’t happen without adequate configuration and rules to manage issues like data loss, ensuring proper access protocols and weeding out AI hallucinations and internet misinformation, just to name a few.

Configuration Tips and Advice

As evidenced by the strong turnout of close to 100 attendees, most enterprise clients will need guidance from a trusted MSP for configuring, deploying and managing how Copilot operates in the enterprise on an ongoing basis. Although Copilot help streamline business processes, firms must also remember that whether the work product was generated manually or by an AI assistant like Copilot, all business activities within a financial firm must adhere to the same strict regulatory requirements that govern the financial sector.

In light of these issues – which are especially challenging in the financial industry, where IT systems often work with particularly sensitive financial data, services and transactions – the webinar panelists shared several key insights and suggestions. These include:

● Take a holistic “lifecycle” approach to implementation – a journey through four stages of Organize, Assess, Deploy and Manage as the essential steps clients should take to incorporate and manage Copilot in a collaborative, secure and compliant manner

● Key configuration factors to prioritize, including access controls, security integration and data governance, labeling and protection

● Helpful tips to streamline adoption, including training the workforce on newer search protocols to ensure accuracy and relevance of the query results and work product generated by Copilot

The webinar closed with a dynamic Q&A session that served as a valuable how-to clinic and deep dive discussion on additional configuration issues. Responding to attendee questions, the panelists shared tips on setting up Copilot to work on mobile devices; support limitations around certain legacy Microsoft Software Installer (MSI) plug-ins; and how to leverage OneDrive and SharePoint to migrate key data from file servers into the Microsoft environment for Copilot to access and manage.

Finally, in response to one question from an attendee about the ultimate value of Copilot, the panelists shared some of ECI’s own ROI modeling – including one model showing that an average 40-person firm can save 5 hours a week for each employee, all based on a modest investment of less than $35,000 in Copilot licensing and user costs. Keep in mind that Copilot’s time-saving abilities bode particularly well for financial sector organizations – where salaries tend to be higher and every hour saved magnifies the ROI compared to other industry sectors.

Interested in learning more about how you can make the most out of Microsoft 365 Copilot? Contact ECI for a custom consultation specific to your business!