When it was first made generally available back in November 2023, Microsoft 365 Copilot was limited to specific enterprise licenses, such as the E3 and E5 plans. Businesses were also required to commit to a minimum of 300 seats, priced at $30 per seat per month. This high entry barrier made it challenging for most small and medium-sized businesses to afford the investment needed to use the solution, which exceeded $100,000 a year.

>> Related: Watch our webinar about Getting Your Customers Ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot Licensing

In January 2024, everything changed. Microsoft eliminated the seat minimum and extended eligibility to a wider range of licenses, including Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Business Premium. The decision opened the door to smaller groups of users and SMBs, empowering a broader spectrum of organizations to harness GenAI for productivity and creativity.

The Expanded Microsoft 365 Copilot Ecosystem

Alongside licensing adjustments, Microsoft also introduced Copilot Pro, designed for individual power users, and launched mobile app versions for both Android and iOS. These apps offer on-the-go AI assistance, integrating seamlessly with productivity tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

For the IT partner’s client base, this means access to the latest AI advancements in familiar applications, fostering a more productive and interconnected workspace.

How to guide your customers to Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness

Keeping up to speed on licensing is important, but there is much more to be done if you are IT solutions partner or MSP. Your customers are hoping to embark on a major, transformational journey, and they need your guidance at every step.

As we’ve written about before, there are three keys to helping your customers successfully adopt Microsoft 365 Copilot:

– Licensing and Costs: Keeping current with licensing entitlements, usage rates and financial implications is vital for helping clients build the business case for Copilot.

– Security and Zero Trust: Microsoft is positioning Copilot as an opportunity to modernize security. Partners must ensure customers align with zero-trust principles and identify gaps to help strengthen controls.

– Standardization: Standardizing end-user productivity applications on the Microsoft suite is ideal for delivering a cost-effective, high-impact rollout. How will you help customers identify redundancies and streamline adoption?

How Block 64 Empowers Partners

Across each stage of the Copilot journey, partners need access to dependable IT inventory data and usage metrics. But manual processes and off the shelf discovery tools make it difficult, time consuming, and sometimes impossible for partners to gather the insights they need to fully support their customers in planning for Copilot.

That’s where Block 64 can help.

Block 64 offers a Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness assessment. This tool is engineered to provide partners and MSPs with the comprehensive analysis required to navigate the three pillars effectively, enabling them to deliver informed recommendations and cultivate a more robust Microsoft 365 Copilot consulting practice.

Exclusive Trial Opportunity: We’re providing partners with a unique trial offer. This allows you to conduct an initial assessment for an eligible customer of your choice, free of charge. It’s an excellent way to introduce your clients to the possibilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot and the consultative prowess of your services.

For more details on the assessment, please visit our Microsoft 365 Copilot assessment landing page or contact sales, today.

The post Navigating New Microsoft 365 Copilot Licensing: A Strategic Guide for IT Partners first appeared on Block 64.

Build your templates in hours. Scale for ever.

The Assessment Manager is a do-it-yourself design tool, enabling partners to create unique assessment templates with dynamic graphics, charts, tables and rich text. These templates can then be populated with the real-time customer data collected by Block 64’s discovery and IT inventory tools.

After just a few hours of set up, you’ll have a powerful new way to automate and scale the creation of customer-ready reports for your most common, high-impact and repetitive sales processes.

• Powered by real-time metrics: Seamless integration with Block 64’s analytics platform, allowing automatic population of your customer’s real-time IT inventory analytics.
• No Code Template Editor: Enjoy the simplicity of point-and-click to craft layouts and widgets, as easy as using Wix, Mailchimp, or PowerPoint.
• Smart Infographics and Visuals: Insert graphs, charts, or tables, and watch your report auto-populate with real-time data from Block 64 Analytics portal.
• Smart Metrics and Auto-fill Text Editor: Seamlessly pull custom figures, reccomendations and statistics into richly formatted text.
• Customized Branding: Tailor your reports with logos and brand colors, ensuring a personalized and professional look.
• Flexible Delivery Formats: Deliver your reports as either a rich HTML webpage or a sleek PDF, catering to diverse preferences.
• Robust Security: Rest assured with encrypted data, secured through multi-factor authentication (MFA) and robust access controls.

A sample widget created on the new Block 64 Assessment Manager.

Insert dynamic, auto-populating charts, tables and graphics to illustrate key metrics and insights.

Why the Assessment Manager is a Game-Changer for Partners

Our partners are at the core of our innovation. Understanding their need to scale efforts and boost sales, we’ve tailored the Assessment Manager to streamline the repetitive and time-consuming tasks inherent in sales and service processes.

Previously, creating custom reports demanded weeks, if not months, of collaboration and development. Today, your time to market with a new assessment can take just hours – without requiring any outside support or coding.

The result? Enhanced efficiency and the ability to focus on what matters most: growing the business and serving customers better.

With Block 64’s Assessment Manager, you’ll be able to step up your role as a trusted IT advisor and value-added partner. So why not get started?

Contact our partner sales team today, or request a free demo to see what Block 64 can do for your IT assessments practice.

The post Introducing Block 64 Assessment Manager: Step up your IT insights game, today first appeared on Block 64.