Onboarding Copilot as part of the team
With all these considerations in mind, SoftwareOne implemented a strategic, multi-phased adoption approach designed to maximise engagement while gathering actionable insights about Copilot's real-world impact.
The initiative began with a focused pilot phase, deploying 90 licences to senior consultants and sales leaders. This group, dubbed the "Tiger Team," methodically explored Copilot's capabilities across Microsoft 365 applications including Word, Outlook, and Teams. This controlled deployment allowed SoftwareOne to identify the most valuable use cases and then refine its approach before a broader rollout.
The Tiger Team's exploration wasn't left to chance. SoftwareOne applied robust adoption and change management (ACM) strategies based on the ADKAR model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) to ensure employees had the understanding, skills, and motivation needed to integrate Copilot effectively into their daily work.
After two months of gathering data and refining the approach, the initiative expanded to include approximately 15% of the workforce across diverse departments including HR, finance, and cybersecurity. This phase broadened the use case library while testing Copilot's effectiveness in various business contexts.
The final phase placed strong emphasis on sales enablement, equipping the sales team with training to demonstrate Copilot's capabilities in live client settings. Additionally, SoftwareOne introduced floating licences for Swomies who could put forward a strong business case, ensuring that the technology reached those who could derive maximum benefit.
Throughout the implementation, SoftwareOne fostered a vibrant community of users. Weekly drop-in sessions created space to share insights, solve problems collectively, and build a growing knowledge base of effective prompts and applications. Online communities further extended this collaborative approach, allowing colleagues across global locations to benefit from collective learning.
This human-centred implementation strategy treated Copilot not as a mere tool but as a collaborative partner to be welcomed and onboarded thoughtfully into teams across the company—a nuanced approach that would later inform SoftwareOne's client advisory services.
Once Copilot became embedded in daily workflows, its impact was quickly seen across every aspect of how Swomies work together. The AI assistant didn't just automate tasks—it fundamentally enhanced how teams co-ordinate their efforts, collaborate more effectively, and create better outcomes, establishing a new standard for comprehensive AI integration in the workplace.
