Implementing Microsoft Copilot can have a myriad of benefits for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), from summarized searches to the ability to create AI-powered content. In order to balance the time and effort savings granted by Copilot with cost, organizations should consider calculating its return on investment (ROI) of Copilot before implementation. In this blog, we’ll explore what goes into calculating ROI for Copilot, how organizations can calculate ROI for Copilot, and how managed service providers (MSPs) can help.
Copilot: the basics
While adopting Copilot improves productivity and helps you and your clients stay competitive, there are degrees to which it can be implemented to maximize ROI.
To maximize Copilot’s impact, it’s best to start with a pilot program. A pilot involves creating a small team to train and from which to gather feedback. It’s a great way to start your journey with Copilot and begin understanding the ROI of its implementation.
When thinking about your pilot, look at how different departments in the organization can use Copilot for M365 and who has the highest propensity to use it. For instance, heavy users of Microsoft 365 products (such as Teams, Outlook, and PowerPoint) will be more likely to use Copilot.
After you’ve identified the right people and/or teams, you’ll need to clearly define a goal. Having a clearly defined goal and plan will help the team implement Copilot into their daily workflows in a way that directly supports that goal. This helps you define the value of Copilot in the organization and determine its best-fit use cases, ultimately helping you calculate ROI.
Keep in mind not everyone in the organization needs a Copilot license right away. AI represents a shift in the technological mindset across an organization, so it’s important that you find the right people to champion and promote this change internally. In addition, a pilot program enables continuous learning. By allowing a specified team to experiment, learn from each other, and share insights, Copilot can be used more consistently and effectively.
Defining success criteria
The first element to consider when predicting ROI is identifying success criteria. What will Copilot bring to various teams within your company? Aside from improving meetings, enabling quick content creation, and helping employees manage their daily agendas, here are some factors we suggest using when determining the value of Copilot:
Human resources (HR)
- Reduce cost per hire
- Reduce turnover
- Lower compliance risk
Marketing
- Generate more leads
- Increase brand value
- Lower cost per lead
IT
- Eliminate outstanding support tickets
- Reduce application downtime
- Lower departmental spending
Sales
- Increase your number of opportunities
- Boost close rate
- Generate more revenue per sale
Finance
- Enable accelerated cash flow
- Lower spend on your ERP system
- Reduce risk
Determining your use cases
Once you narrow down the teams and success criteria you want to focus on, the second element of determining ROI for the organization involves defining your use cases. These may include:
HR
- Easily communicate policies
- Draft job descriptions
- Create training materials
- Respond to applicant and employee emails
Marketing
- Identify relevant market trends and segments
- Create a first draft for a new project
- Brainstorm content topics and develop outlines
- Create visuals to summarize a campaign
Sales
- Respond to sales queries
- Quickly leverage Copilot’s summarization capabilities to have better conversations and close more deals
- Analyze current and previous sales data
IT
- Create a project plan to roll out a new product
- Stay up to date with call and project summaries
- Identify patterns in data to close tickets faster
Finance
- Simplify financial reporting and planning
- Dig into data to find ways to improve performance
- Deliver metrics with professional charts
Calculating your ROI
The outcome of your pilot program as defined by its success criteria and use cases helps you ultimately calculate your Copilot ROI. Adding up ROI throughout the pilot program will help illuminate any growing trends of success that will help determine how to expand the use of Copilot in other parts of the company.
If you need help determining Copilot ROI for your or your clients’ organizations, Pax8 built a calculator to assist in better understanding Copilot’s costs and types of licenses. You can calculate ROI for a Copilot implementation here then reach out to one of our AI experts to discuss your plans.
