Technical Requirements for Copilot for Microsoft 365

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you have heard and seen the buzz around Copilot for Microsoft 365. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a revolutionary tool that can create, summarize, analyze, collaborate, and automate using your business content. It also knows how to command apps and work across them. The best part is it's integrated with Microsoft 365, which means it automatically adheres to your company’s essential security, compliance, and privacy policies and processes.

Microsoft made it generally available on January 16th of this year, making this powerful tool accessible to organizations of all sizes at the price of $30 per user per month. In our January blog about Copilot for Microsoft 365, we broke down the licensing requirements and offered some tips for implementing it in your organization. Now let’s dive deeper into the technical requirements you'll want to be aware of when rolling it out.

Microsoft 365 Apps

Copilot for Microsoft 365 works alongside all apps in both Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise and Microsoft 365 Apps for Business. As mentioned in our January blog, a licensing prerequisite for Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a plan that includes Microsoft 365 Apps, such as Office E3 or Microsoft 365 Business Premium. If you haven't done so already, you'll need to upgrade your users from old MSI or 2019 deployments to Microsoft 365 Apps. Copilot will not be supported on other versions of Office.

We also want to highlight that there are three primary update channels for Microsoft 365 Apps: Current Channel, Monthly Enterprise Channel, and Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel. To leverage Copilot for Microsoft 365, organizations must be running the Current or Monthly Enterprise channel version of Apps.

"New" Outlook

Copilot for Microsoft 365 performs excellently alongside Outlook. It can summarize long email conversations, assist in drafting new emails or responses, and coach users on important emails to ensure optimal tone and messaging are used.

Currently, Copilot for Microsoft 365 is compatible only with the new Outlook version for both Windows and Mac. However, it will be supported on the classic Outlook for Windows in the future. Organizations keen on tracking this progress should review the Microsoft 365 roadmap. Users can switch to the new Outlook by selecting "Try the new Outlook" in their existing Outlook client. To activate Copilot in the new Outlook, users need to sync their Microsoft 365 settings by going to View and manage your Microsoft 365 settings.

Data Accessibility

Before discussing data accessibility in the context of Copilot for Microsoft 365, let's touch on one of its core features, Microsoft Graph. Microsoft Graph is the connective tissue that integrates all your Microsoft 365 services and data. It has access to all user data, from chats to emails and documents stored in OneDrive and SharePoint Online.

Since Microsoft Graph is a central feature of Copilot for Microsoft 365, when a user prompts Copilot, it queries all the data the organization has made accessible to them. It's crucial for organizations to ensure employees only access necessary data for their roles to avoid unauthorized data access that could jeopardize the organization and its employees. Organizations should clean up permissions, correctly label data, and enforce policies. Although doing this manually can be time-consuming, tools like Microsoft Purview can streamline the process. Your organization may already have the necessary tools licensed, or there could be additional licensing requirements to consider.

There are numerous licensing and technical requirements to consider for Copilot for Microsoft 365. If your company is contemplating or already deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365, partnering with CloudServus can ensure a seamless rollout. 

As a top 1% Microsoft Partner, CloudServus boasts the expertise, resources, and commitment to guide you through every step of your AI journey. Our team’s deep knowledge of Microsoft's suite of products and a commitment to delivering tailored solutions make us the ideal partner in navigating the complexities of AI. Contact us today to get started with Copilot for Microsoft 365.