Start Small to Win Big: The Employee-First Approach to Selling Copilot

Many businesses are unsure about how Microsoft Copilot will fit into their current workflows. So how should you address this with your customers? Each business is unique and for your customers to understand the value of AI, Microsoft recommends looking at it from an employee perspective, and one way to do this is by functional department (i.e. sales, marketing, finance, legal, etc.).

To help your customers make Copilot real for their business, here is a closer look at how different departments within a business should leverage AI and consider applying comprehensive data protection that is tailored to their unique function:

Human Resources (HR) departments handle some of the most sensitive data within an organization and are pivotal in managing recruitment, onboarding, and benefits administration. They also generate and handle a vast amount of data, including employee records, payroll information, and performance reviews. This data is stored across various Microsoft 365 services. For instance, SharePoint Online is commonly used for managing and sharing employee documents, OneDrive for Business for storing HR personnel files, and Teams for internal communications.

Microsoft Copilot can enhance HR operations by automating routine tasks, and assisting in report generation. For instance, Copilot can study trends in employee feedback from form surveys or help create onboarding schedules using data from Excel. By leveraging these capabilities, HR teams can streamline their processes and make data-driven decisions more effectively. Additionally, to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of this data, comprehensive data protection is essential to prevent data breaches and maintain employee trust. Through utilizing backup, HR departments can fully leverage the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot while maintaining robust data protection.

Finance professionals play a critical role in managing the financial health of a business, encompassing tasks like budgeting, payroll, financial reporting, and forecasting. They also rely on a variety of Microsoft 365 services to build and share their data. Excel is widely used for creating and analyzing financial models and reports, SharePoint Online for sharing financial documents and collaboration, and Exchange Online for communicating with different business stakeholders.

Microsoft Copilot can automate many of these financial processes, to improve accuracy and efficiency. By analyzing financial data, it can provide valuable insights into spending patterns, forecast revenue, and identify potential financial risks. However, given the highly sensitive nature of financial data, these departments are prime targets for cyberattacks. Protecting financial information from breaches is crucial to maintaining the trust of stakeholders and ensuring compliance with financial regulations. By implementing a robust backup, finance departments can enhance their productivity while safeguarding the integrity of their critical financial data.

Sales teams play a critical role in driving revenue and maintaining customer relationships. They are constantly on the move, managing customer relationships, following leads, and closing deals. This dynamic environment requires that sales data be not only accurate but also readily accessible from anywhere. These roles require constant access to customer data, sales reports, and market insights. Sales teams use various Microsoft 365 services to do their work such as Exchange Online for communication, SharePoint Online for sharing sales documents, and OneDrive for Business for storing pitch decks.

Microsoft Copilot can significantly enhance sales operations by automating routine tasks, providing predictive insights, and assisting in data analysis. For example, Copilot can analyze customer interactions to identify high-potential leads or help draft personalized sales pitches using data from Outlook and SharePoint. This capability allows them to focus more on building relationships and closing deals, rather than administrative tasks.

However, achieving Copilot readiness requires comprehensive protection. Departments like Sales handle sensitive information, including customer contact details, sales agreements, and sales strategies. Protecting this data is crucial to prevent breaches and to ensure compliance with regulations like GDPR. This is why regular backups are essential. By implementing these protections, sales professionals can fully leverage the power of Microsoft Copilot, while safeguarding all critical sales data.

In marketing, marketers are responsible for promoting a business’s products or services. Their responsibilities include developing marketing strategies, analyzing market trends, positioning, and creating content. To handle their data, Microsoft Planner can be used for project managing collaborative initiatives like creative briefs, marketing collateral, and project plans. Whereas Exchange Online manages email communications and OneDrive for Business stores individual marketing assets, allowing team members to keep personal work documents and other files organized and easily shareable. Teams can also be used for real-time collaboration and communication for campaigns to fuel focused discussions.

This is A LOT of data, and Microsoft Copilot can use it to improve daily functions via campaign optimization, automated insights, assistance with data analysis, and much more. For example, Microsoft Copilot can easily assess social media engagement data to suggest optimal posting times. Time savers like this allow marketing teams to focus more on creative strategy and execution.

However, the data used in these activities is highly sensitive and because marketers have access to sensitive information like customer demographics and campaign performance data, protecting this data is crucial to prevent breaches, and ensure compliance with regulations. To help your customers become Copilot-ready, regular backups are a must.

A customer service team serves as the frontline of a business’s interaction with its customers. They manage support tickets, address inquiries, and work to resolve issues quickly and effectively. To do their jobs well, agents need access to accurate and up-to-date customer information. These roles require constant access to customer data, communication logs, and service history. To manage this data, Microsoft 365 is often leveraged to ensure customer service data is well-organized and accessible. Outlook is often used for email communications, and SharePoint Online for sharing support documentation and guides, whereas Teams is employed for real-time collaboration and case management.

Microsoft Copilot can significantly optimize customer service operations by providing insights for automation, faster resolution, and data analysis assistance. An example of this is how it can interpret past service tickets to suggest solutions for current issues or help draft responses to customer inquiries using data from Outlook. Copilot can also assist agents with generating reports on service performance by pulling data from Teams discussions and SharePoint documents. This capability allows customer service teams to focus more on building customer relationships and problem resolution, rather than administrative tasks.

However, this department handles highly sensitive information, like personal customer details and service history. Protecting this data with Microsoft 365 Cloud Backup is vital to maintaining customer trust and confidentiality in each interaction.

Legal professionals play a critical role in ensuring a company’s compliance with laws and regulations. Their work involves drafting and reviewing legal documents, managing contracts, handling litigation, and more. In their daily operations, legal teams use many Microsoft 365 services to manage all of this data. SharePoint is used for storing and collaborating on legal documents, OneDrive for personal files, Outlook for communication with customers and other stakeholders, and Teams for real-time collaboration and case discussions.

Copilot can aid in managing legal documentation and tracking compliance, but robust data protection is essential to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of legal operations. The information that legal teams work with is highly sensitive and protecting this data from breaches and unauthorized access is paramount. It is also important to ensure that their processes comply with various legal standards and regulations, therefore stringent access controls are necessary.

To ensure that your customers are Copilot-ready, it is essential to tailor your data protection strategy to the specific needs of each job function. Therefore, selecting the right data protection solution is critical for successful Copilot integration. As AI continues to advance, your customers’ Microsoft 365 data protection must be comprehensive, compliant, and complete to ensure that it meets the changing dynamics of AI.

SkyKick Cloud Backup is designed to meet these evolving needs effectively. It is:

• Comprehensive: It covers all critical M365 services, including Exchange, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Planner, ensuring no aspect of your customers’ data is left unprotected.

• Compliant: SkyKick Cloud Backup adheres to multi-level compliance standards including HIPAA, GDPR, ISO, Cloud Security Alliance, and Data Pro certifications.

• Complete: It offers detailed insights and analytics, enabling you to verify that every piece of data across Microsoft 365 is consistently protected and easily recoverable.

To discover more about selecting the right backup solution for your customers’ needs, explore our recent 3-part series on the data protection required for AI-readiness.