Bonus: The Catalyst gets clear on Microsoft Generative AI – The business case Artwork

The Catalyst by Softchoice

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When people and technology come together, the potential is limitless. But while everyone is used to hearing about the revolutionary impact of tech, it can be easy to forget about the people behind it all. This podcast shines a light on the human side of innovation, as co-hosts Aaron Brooks and Heather Haskin explore and reframe our relationship to technology.

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The Catalyst by Softchoice

Bonus: The Catalyst gets clear on Microsoft Generative AI – The business case

May 21, 2024 • Softchoice

Businesses everywhere taking a good, hard look at Microsoft Generative AI are all wondering the same thing: is it really worth the hype? That's what we're here to find out.

On the inaugural episode of this brand-new miniseries courtesy of The Catalyst by Softchoice, host Braeden Banks and guest Jaime Waterfield, Director of Microsoft Category at Softchoice, explore the crucial beginnings of building a Copilot business case for Microsoft 365. Discover the best practices and potential pitfalls in planning your strategy and learn how to effectively generate buy-in and set the stage for success. Tune in to start your journey with a solid plan and get inspired to transform your business's digital landscape.

Featuring: Jaime Waterfield, Director of Microsoft Category at Softchoice

See how we can help you unleash the potential of your people and technology with Copilot: softchoice.com/microsoft-copilot

The Catalyst by Softchoice is the podcast dedicated to exploring the intersection of humans and technology.

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Over the last year, we've seen huge anticipation for Microsoft 365 Copilot.And it's finally here.For most organizations, the question isn't whether to adopt, but how and how fast.Early adopters stand to gain the most, but moving ahead without a plan comes at itsown risks.You're listening to The Catalyst Gets Clear on Copilot Adoption, a mini-serieshosted by Softchoice's Braeden Banks.From building a business case,to getting security, rollout and adoption right, we're going to help leaders likeyou chart your best path forward.It starts right here, right now.On today's episode, we ask, how do you start planning for Copilot adoption?If you're considering Copilot for Microsoft 365, you're far from alone thesedays.The first question you might ask is, how soon can we get started?But perhaps the more important question is, how do we know this is going to pay off?We know about Copilot's huge transformative potential, but there's moreto it than simply turning it on and watching the productivity gains roll in.To get it right, you'll need a deep understanding of how your team works todayTo get it right, you'll need a deep understanding of how your team works todayand all the ways they'll be able to transform tomorrow.On today's episode, we'll be taking you through the best practices and potentialpitfallson the way to building a clear, compelling business case for Microsoft Copilot.I'm sitting down with Jaime Waterfield, the Director of Microsoft Category atSoftchoice.Jaime has been instrumentalin guiding our customersthrough this game-changingtransformation and taking fulladvantage of Generative AI.She also happens to be a pro when it comes to spotting trends and aligning strategiesand use cases to technology and business demands.Jaime, welcome to the show.Heading into 2024, there's a huge amount of hype around Copilot.The tool is amazing.Its capabilities are unprecedented and there's a ton of interest out there in themarketplace.How does an organization go about the process of making sure that Copilotlives up to that hype?I think it's really important to take the appropriate time to think aboutthe different personas within your organization and their specific use cases.We see a lot of companies just like, I'm going to get one or twolicenses and try this out in my IT department.Well, one, IT works very differently than your sales organization, who worksdifferently than your marketing organization, who works differently thanyour product team, who works differently than your finance, right?So throughout your business, the use cases are different and the value they're goingto get out of Copilot is different.Now, Copilot may not fit the full organization, but if you go too narrow,then you're gonna dismiss it if you choose the wrong person or use case, like twopeople in IT.If you go too wide and say, okay, well, I'm gonna get everyone a license, but youhaven't defined specifically the use case for them or the outcome that you'reexpecting,then you're likely gonna be disappointed with the results.So having clear idea of these personas because of these use cases, an idea ofthen what outcomes you want, whether it's okay, it's gonna save them time or it'sgoing to improve the quality and then training, right?So we talk about adoption and change management.So giving them the right guidanceto ensure they're successfully positioned to maximize what the tool can do for them.This is a new language that they have to learn, new prompting.It's not natural to most people.And so ensuring that community, those champions, the right training and guidanceto maximize.So all of that has to be built upfront into your approach and into your businesscase to allow this-the right evaluation and ultimately then confidence as you further move forward inthat journey.So Jaime, we understand the "why" behind approaching with a clear understanding ofthe business case and the individual personas and use cases.What's at risk for organizations who maybe skip that step, don't consider that, ormove ahead with Copilot without what we believe to be at the important planningphase?And have we seen any examplesof organizations just, you know, in our early work with Copilot where somethinghas gone wrong?Yeah.So, you know, if you're not doing the proper identification of the personas,right?The risk is I buy licenses for people,and I mean, they're not, they're not the cheapest licenses, right?and I give these people access and they don't use it,or they try and they get frustrated with it,and so they abandon it, right?So obviously no one wants to spend money on something that's not gonna be used.So that's certainly one risk.Alternatively, if I provide access to the wrong people and expect to see aparticular outcome, or maybe it's the right people but they don't provide theright support and training around it and I don't get the outcome, then I'm gonna makea quickdecision around, okay, this isn't a fit for us without giving it the proper timeor the proper focus with the persona.So, you know, we have seen people buying two licenses.Well, I'm just going to try it out and decide if I want to expand it further.That's probably not going to go very well because again, it's such a narrow lookinto your business that you're notgoing to have the right amount of data and support to further justify moving forward.So, you know, we are seeing companies err on the side of buying less licenses,thinking that, okay, I'm just going to test this out.And then sitting here going, well, yeah, it's a neat tool, right?But it's probably not a fit for us.So they're missing out on the real benefits and the potential that they canunlockwith the technology by taking that approach.No, and I mean, it's great that you raise that word "potential" specifically.And I mean, that point that one of the risks what I'm hearing is rushing that yesor no decision on Copilot for the long term.It sounds like what you're suggesting is it's easy, almost too easy for anorganization to rush the test and decide, hey, no, this isn't for us.They're losing that competitive edge that all of the competition who are onCopilot or similar Gen AI are getting.So, no, that's a great point.So we know that in the early stages, Copilot adoption can support measuresaround optimization of processes, making workflows easier, better, leading up tothose productivity gains we've seen rewarded so often.But how does an organization go about justifying that value and justifying thatinvestment in the long term beyond just 10%, 20 % more productive?What does that look like?Yeah, so there are a few other areas that you can take a look at.One is inspiring creativity.So Copilot is enabling fresh ideas.It's giving alternative solutions.So if you think about your product team or your marketing team, advertising team,that creativity, that's valuable.That has a competitive edge that has,in a way, its own productivity gain, but in a different light because you're ableto think differently with the assistance of the tool itself.You can also look at quality, quality of content produced.Copilot can provide intelligence suggestions.It can reduce errors.And so that higher quality,again is making you more reliable to your end customer.It's putting you in a better light, could again give you a competitive advantage.And then also the faster decision-making, being able to get more research, betterresearch at your fingertips is then enabling faster decision-making, whichcould speed up a,a product life cycle, right?Again, different types of cost savings that are a bit more on the periphery ofproductivity gains and more tangible to the business.productivity gains and more tangible to the business.So, Jaime, you've gone through how the ability of Copilot to enhance thatcreativity and quality of outputs across a whole bunch of different use cases.It makes a lot of sense to build into your business case, but to put yourself in theshoes of someone, perhaps an IT leader or business leader who's in the process ofbuilding that case themselves, how do they go about putting that on a PowerPointslide, so to speak?Yeah, so again, this is why it's important to partner with different businessdepartments,and look at those process flows, right?You talked earlier about the benefits of AI improving process flows, right?So if I'm say working with my product development team on their specific processflows and where we expect some gains, then I might say, okay, their typical sprint orcycle to developing on a new design or idea is15 weeks and two of those weeks is spent on particular research.And then we can say, all right, well, with Copilot, we expect to be able to cutthat in half.And then that's gonna allow us to move to the next phase, which is design thinking.And because of the creativity aspects here, I'm able to cut two days out ofthatlife cycle and now instead of bringing a product to market in say 15 weeks, we'reable to bring this new product to market in 10 to 12 weeks.What does that benefit me in terms of sales, in terms of competitive advantage?So you can start at each step of the way to put some dollar value to that, right?So depending on your business, taking a look at very specific departments, veryspecific process and workflows,and then the expected, time savings or, other benefits from, from the improvementsthat Copilot is enabling.You can put some hard dollars to that.Right.And it also reinforces that notion that, you know, this can't just be an IT or justa technical decision, right?Really understanding how this tool is going to show up in the daily, daily workof everybody, who's going to touch it is just town amount to success.And you can kind of see right away, you know,failing to consider that would almost certainly lead to disaster or at least,you know, wasted investment.Absolutely.Absolutely.Beyond the productivity gains and the upticks we've already seen in Microsoftstudies and things like that about workers able to produce the same level of workmuch faster, how does an organization justify the investment beyond just thoseearly productivity gains?Yeah, so I think one of the big ones is the creativity, right?So Copilot is inspiring creativity by providing fresh ideas and alternativesolutions.So depending on your business, maybe you have a product team, right?And so thinking through new product ideas.Copilot can really help to inspire that creativity with your product team or withyour marketers.That is going to result in faster to market perhaps or more unique fresh ideasthat are gonna be more marketable.Also just the faster decision making.because of the research capabilities of Copilot.And then quality, which I think is different than a productivity game becauseit's really ensuring that you're getting intelligent suggestions and reducingerrors so that quality of your content that's being produced is next level,again, to help your competitiveness in the field or your reliability to the endconsumer.Excellent.Now let's take a bit of a reverse angle.What about those cases where someone who sees the light and wants to get Copilotmoving, but faces a skeptical leadership team or maybe a board that's not seeingthat vision?Do you have any advice for leaders in those positions?Yeah.I mean, obviously you've got your business case that we talked about earlier.And so leaning into that business case and focusing on the long-term benefits.So it's important to consider Copilot as aninvestment for the long term.it certainly is going to address immediate challenges like some immediateproductivity gains, but it's also preparing the organization for futureadvancements in AI.So looking at this as a stepping stone into understanding how AI can benefit,your organization in the long term.And, and then looking at those benefits that we mentioned earlier, like making youmore creative.Higher quality, how is this helping you from a competitive standpoint?So these would be considered long-term benefits.And that's why it's important to understand the use cases and the personas,right, that you can benefit from Copilot.So choosing one department that you know is gonna have the greatest return based onhow they use the tools and where they have challenges today, that can help.get through that skepticism and show some real hard results in a relatively quicktimeframe.Amazing.Copilot is great and it's built into just about everything within the Microsofttechnology stack.But what about cases or use cases where there is a need for Generative AI, butsomething more custom built on something like Azure OpenAI, for example, makes moresense?How does an organization make that determination as they're building thebusiness case?Yeah, I mean, this isn't a new question, right?It's that build something custom versus buying off the shelf and package, right?There's obviously going to be pros and cons and limitations depending on whichway you go.So for more complex use cases where I do need customization, I want more control,then a custom-built Generative AI solution is probably going to be thebetter choice for me.I can train my own LLMs.I canhave it work exactly the way that I need it for my business.that investment is therefore going to be worthwhile.Jaime, you know, after listening to our conversation this morning, what is, whatis the next thing that, anyone out there listening, who is in the process orplanning to begin the process of building that business case, what do you recommendthat they do next?If they aren't sure where to start, right,I'd recommend reaching out to Softchoice and having a conversation with, with ourspecialists around understanding, okay, their business, their different users,we can provide the guidance on, you know, where they could focus in. Our readinessofferings, focus on all aspects, from the use cases and the personas to the adoptionand change management best practices.So as you build that overallplan for your business and start to put some estimates behind it.We are prepared to guide you not just from our own experience, but the hundreds ofcustomers we've already spoken to and learned, have takeaways from.Because you as a customer only are doing this once, right?And we're doing this on a repeatable motion.So we're able to provide those learnings into the experience and working alongsideyou.From there then, that will start to uncoveryour technical dependencies and we can again hold your hand through that journey.Alright, Jaime.Thank you so much for your time.Thank you.It's a pleasure to be here.Building a clear business case is step one on the flight path to success with Copilotfor Microsoft 365.This process is all about getting clear on use cases, generating buy-in andexcitement, and charting all the steps between takeoff and your destination, afully AI-assisted workforce.Well, that's a wrap for today.On our next episode, we'll look into everything you need to know to assess yourreadiness for Microsoft Copilot.Until then, I'm your host, Braedon Banks.Thank you for listening.Imagine a world where your organization doesn't just follow AI trends, it leadsthe way.Softchoice is ready to help you build that world with Copilot for Microsoft 365.Why Softchoice?We help our customers navigate the whole Copilot journey with a proven consultingframework, secure implementation experience, and deep certification inMicrosoft technology.We know Microsoft better than anyone.Every Copilot needs a navigator.Softchoice is yours.Visit softchoice.com/microsoft-copilotto learn how we can help youunleash the potential in your people and technology with Copilot.