Microsoft 365 Copilot is now generally available and it’s got the IT world excited, especially your customers.

They’re looking forward to giving end-users a smart assistant to draft emails in Outlook, whip up code, or put together a Powerpoint deck in a snap. But while the excitement is high, there’s a lot of confusion and uncertainty. As their trusted IT partner, there’s a huge upside for you to deliver clarity and maximize your impact around Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The hype is real – but so are the risks of adopting Microsoft 365 Copilot

The excitement around Microsoft 365 Copilot and other generative AI solutions isn’t just hype. Your customers see these tools as a chance to bolster productivity and stay competitive. If the historic adoption rate of ChatGPT is any indicator, the appetite for large language model (LLM) solutions is insatiable.

In fact, analysts at Jeffries say there is “significant” interest in M365 Copilot, with more than 10,000 customers already in line to adopt it this November. Jeffries also estimates the M365 solution will drive at least $23B in revenues through FY24 and FY25 – and likely much more.

But diving in unprepared can lead to problems, such as poor adoption, security lapses, and ultimately, failure to realize its intended benefits. We’ve detailed a few of the most common issues to be expected, and how to handle them, below.

Diving in unprepared can lead to problems, such as poor adoption, security lapses, and ultimately, failure to realize its intended benefits. We’ve detailed a few of the most common issues to be expected, and how to handle them, below.

Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing: What will it cost?

Customers with existing Microsoft licensing agreements want to know: Do we have to purchase Copilot licenses? And if so, how much will it cost? As is always the case in the world of enterprise licensing, getting to an answer depends on a number of factors, and demands accurate data and expertise.

The bottom line is your customers might already have the core licenses they need to access Copilot – but they will have to purchase a Copilot add on to use it. M365 Copilot is currently limited to users with a Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 license. But those users will also need to pay an additional $30USD a month for the Copilot add on.

That’s a hefty price increase from the existing licensing costs – nearly doubling the $36 a month customers already pay for E3, for example. So, you’ll want to make sure your customers know exactly what to buy, for whom, and how much.

The most effective way to move forward here is to capture a detailed picture of your customer’s existing entitlements and current usage metrics. Using a tool such as Block 64’s IT Discovery platform will make it much easier to budget and plan for your Copilot kick off, and likely will unearth critical insights and opportunities for cutting waste and licensing optimizations.

Meeting security and privacy requirements for M365 Copilot

While it’s always a good idea to identify vulnerabilities, such as unpatched endpoints or unsupported operating systems, Microsoft highly recommends your customers do this before they moving to Copilot. Why? Well, Copilot accesses data across Microsoft 365 services, so ensuring your customer’s security measures are up to par is crucial to prevent data breaches.

There is also no shortage of fears and concerns around data privacy, and to what extent the LLM uses your personal and confidential user data for training.

At this stage, you will need to take inventory of your customer’s current security status across all endpoints and hosts and address gaps to ensure compliance with Microsoft’s security requirements for Copilot. (We have built a series of assessments that do just that. Learn more.) You’ll also need to take the time to educate your customer on how Copilot handles sensitive information and address any concerns about data privacy.

Standardizing and consolidating applications

Most organizations leverage dozens of different productivity apps and there’s no guarantee that just because your customer bought it, users will use it. Before advancing with Copilot, your customers should go through an assessment of the current usage of M365 applications and other competing productivity tools.

If they don’t have a majority of end-users active on Teams, for example, it might be time to hit pause and focus first on change management and adoption plans. Not only will you be able to eliminate a handful of redundant and expensive Teams alternatives, you’ll make sure the real benefits of an investment in Copilot can actually pay off. You can’t unlock more productivity if no one’s using your new productivity tools.

The bottom line: Before going to M365 Copilot, you have some homework

Realizing the potential of Copilot requires a solid game plan – and lots of intelligence and insights along the way.

But here’s the key: All of these efforts are basic ITAM best practices and should be something you and your customers are already doing. Taking a full inventory of licensing needs, identifying security vulnerabilities, and standardizing collaboration tools will always make good business sense. These efforts lead to simpler IT management, a more robust security foundation and untold opportunities to reduce waste and cut costs.

That’s why Block 64 created the M365 Copilot Readiness Assessment. This guided workshop and data-driven assessment uses our agent-less inventory tool to capture a full picture of your customer’s licensing and security gaps, as well as metrics on usage. We then provide a detailed report, providing crystal clear next steps, opportunities and urgent actions needed to get going on Copilot. Our reports bring decades of award-winning Microsoft licensing, security and ITAM expertise, to help you cater a strategic plan for your customers everyone can get behind.

M365 is coming. And your customers are both excited and concerned. If you want to help them see clearly, sign up for a free 7-day trial of Block 64 and speak to our team about our M365 Copilot Readiness Assessment.

The post 3 ways to get ready for Microsoft 365 Copilot first appeared on Block 64.

An auditor discovered NASA spent $35 million on unnecessary licences and penalties – including $15 million on un-needed Oracle seats alone. The culprit? Sub-par software asset management and identity access policies, mixed with a healthy fear of not buying enough.

You might be tempted to make a few rocket scientists jokes. But the sad reality is these kinds of horror stories are all too common in our industry. If you are an IT solutions provider, the fact is many of your customers are burning their money on software.

Bad software asset management happens all the time.

Even the smartest, best equipped organizations get their software licensing extremely wrong. We should know: Working with our partners, we’ve helped more 22,000 organizations worldwide get their IT spending in order.

Here are just a few examples that we encountered with our partners, recently:

• A healthcare organization discovered they were overpaying $2 million on Microsoft, after using our assessment tools ahead of an audit
• A hospitality business uncovered $8 million in software spending, after going through our licensing consolidation process
• A construction firm freed up 60% of their total software budget – and identified numerous security vulnerabilities – across Adobe, Microsoft and Oracle

We could go on. Every day we hear from our partners and IT teams about similar situations. But with rising economic pressures, where every dollar counts, there’s simply no more room for error.

The common thread: Easily avoidable oversights

The worst part is all of this is easily avoidable.

ITAM and software licensing can be extremely difficult and time consuming for IT teams. But there are proven, known solutions to avoid the fees and the wasted spending. Every time we see a big eye-opening story like this, it usually boils down to the same oversights and human errors.

With NASA, they had no centralized view of their software spending – and they didn’t have the right tools or policies in place to avoid making costly mistakes.

The same issues caused the millions in over-spend, unnecessary complexity and security risks for the three customer examples we shared above.

Only when it was time for an audit, did the problem and the solutions become clear.

There’s a better way to do software asset management.

If you are an IT solutions provider, there’s a better way forward. You can help your customers avoid the pain and get total control on their licensing and ITAM. And you can get started in just a few minutes

Hidden inside your customer’s environment is a gold mine of opportunity to maximize your impact as a trusted partner. But disparate systems and complexity make it nearly impossible for you to surface the insights you need to show them how to improve their spending, close security gaps and optimize investments in the cloud.

With an ITAM discovery engine, like Block 64, you can uncover a consolidated, real-time view of your customer’s entire IT infrastructure, including assets, cybersecurity threats and licensing utilization metrics. You will be able to inventory thousands of end-points and generate executive-ready reports in minutes, providing clear, actionable insights to your customers, so they’ll know exactly what they need, and how much to pay.

By leveraging the right ITAM tools, insights, and guidance, you can help your customers circumvent SAM pitfalls and pre-empt financial penalties. Rather than viewing SAM as an insurmountable challenge, with your help it can be seen as an opportunity to cut costs and mitigate risks.

And, by the way, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get this stuff right. You just need the right partner.

About Block 64

Block 64 is a modern IT discovery platform. We empower over 22,000 customers to implement smarter ITAM strategies, courtesy of our real-time reporting, analytics, and sales enablement tools.

Improve your software asset management – try free

We’re currently offering a fully funded Zero Trust Readiness assessment for you or one of your customers. With it, you’ll be able to quickly identify vulnerabilities and discover opportunities to reinforce endpoints in a few clicks. If you are interested in speeding the path to zero trust, reach out to us or book your free demo.

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