• 4 minutes

A Center of Excellence (CoE) refers to a team or shared capability within an organization that builds and disseminates expertise on a particular technology or business practice. A CoE can play a critical role in helping companies adopt new technologies. For example, a Microsoft 365 Copilot CoE can ensure an organization maximizes the potential of this powerful AI through centralized governance. A CoE brings together the right people, clarifies the mission, executes high-impact projects, and measures progress. This proactive approach can help an organization scale usage of its AI capability, drive Microsoft 365 Copilot success, and fully capitalize on its AI investment.

Some key benefits of establishing a CoE include:

• Centralized expertise. A CoE concentrates knowledge and skills for a capability (like Microsoft 365 Copilot) in one team. This group becomes the leading experts that provide training, support, and best practices.
• Accelerated adoption. With dedicated resources focused on enablement, a CoE drives faster and more widespread adoption across the organization.
• Consistent governance. A CoE creates standards and guidelines that ensure technology usage adheres to company policies and objectives.
• Improved ROI. By encouraging adoption, optimizing uses cases, and governing responsibly, a CoE helps maximize return on investment.
• Enhanced user experience. The CoE captures user feedback and pain points to continuously refine and improve the experience.

For Microsoft 365 Copilot specifically, some companies establish a Copilot CoE with experts across IT, business analysis, change management, and department delegates. This cross-functional group can provide enablement, share best practices, monitor program metrics, and continually optimize the Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout. It can also accelerate Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption and ensure the organization uses the technology responsibly to maximize productivity.

Define the CoE mission

Organizations that are interested in creating a CoE should start by clearly defining their CoE's mandate with stakeholder input. Organizations that clarify the CoE's purpose and key objectives improve user buy-in. Example focus areas include:

• Training employees on Microsoft 365 Copilot features and usage best practices. Develop comprehensive training programs that teach employees how to use Microsoft 365 Copilot effectively for different use cases. Include live demos, how-to guides, and best practices on optimizing Microsoft 365 Copilot interactions.
• Monitoring Microsoft 365 Copilot trends to inform license assignments. Use administrative dashboards and analytics tools to track Microsoft 365 Copilot usage across the organization. Identify adoption trends by department and use cases to optimize license allocations.
• Establishing policies for responsible AI design and use. Create guidelines for ethically using Microsoft 365 Copilot in line with company values, including writing unbiased content and fostering transparency. Define review processes for high-risk AI outputs.
• Capturing lessons learned and user feedback to improve the Microsoft 365 Copilot experience. Conduct surveys, interviews, and focus groups to gather user feedback. Analyze findings to address pain points and enhance the Microsoft 365 Copilot user experience. Share key takeaways across the organization.

Staff the Copilot CoE team

When an organization staffs a Copilot CoE team, it should assemble a small cross-functional team to execute the mission. Covering a mix of disciplines ensures well-rounded governance, including:

• IT specialists to manage technical integration and administration. Assign Microsoft 365 Copilot savvy IT staff to handle the technical aspects like integration with company systems, user provisioning, and monitoring system health.
• Business analysts to examine usage metrics and ROI. Involve business analysts to evaluate Microsoft 365 Copilot usage trends and ROI across departments. They can identify high-value applications to promote.
• Change management experts or adoption managers to drive adoption. Change management professionals develop communication plans and training programs that encourage Microsoft 365 Copilot adoption. They employ best practices to drive engagement.
• Department delegates or leads to represent different user needs. Include department stakeholders that can share insights on diverse use cases and requirements. Doing so ensures the CoE addresses all user needs.
• Legal/compliance analysts to oversee responsible AI use. Assign legal counsel to provide guidance on ethical AI use cases and compliance best practices for regulated industries.

Develop Copilot CoE initiatives

Organizations should prioritize initiatives that spur adoption and productivity. With the team in place, it should identify initial projects and programs to pursue, such as:

• Leverage Microsoft 365 Copilot training resources including videos, and quick start guides. Make use of Microsoft's onboarding and training materials to help enable users.
• Capture user feedback and improvement ideas. Capture feedback through different channels such as in-product and focus groups to drive continual improvement of messaging and training materials.
• Establish company guidelines for responsible AI use. With the influx of AI-powered tools, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, companies should consider developing mandatory user training on AI ethics policies and procedures. This training should focus on mitigating bias, improving transparency, and maintaining security.
• Send tip emails spotlighting creative Microsoft 365 Copilot applications. Share company-wide emails featuring teams that created innovative Microsoft 365 Copilot applications. Promote their projects to inspire other uses.

Measure Microsoft 365 Copilot progress and impact

An organization should continually assess its CoE's impact and evolve its roadmap. In doing so, it should define KPIs and metrics to track CoE progress. Examples include:

• Microsoft 365 Copilot usage rates. Track the number of active users, sessions, and requests to gauge adoption across the organization.
• User satisfaction scores. Conduct surveys to measure user satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores for Microsoft 365 Copilot.
• Time savings from AI automation. Calculate ROI by estimating time and cost savings when Microsoft 365 Copilot automatically completes tasks.
• Knowledge sharing within the organization. Track how many Microsoft 365 Copilot tips, tricks, and best practices the CoE shared through its resources. Measure helpfulness ratings.
• Increase in employee productivity. Analyze individual and team productivity metrics before and after Microsoft 365 Copilot implementation to quantify productivity gains.