Copilot for M365 Enablement: How to Get Started in the Government Community Cloud

Microsoft 365 Copilot is coming to GCC. 

As organizations in the public sector continue to embrace digital transformation, the need for efficient and secure cloud solutions becomes paramount. Copilot for M365 offers a robust platform to enhance productivity and collaboration within government agencies. However, to successfully deploy and leverage Copilot for M365 in the Government Community Cloud (GCC), organizations must focus on three critical pillars of readiness:

• Pillar One: Technical Readiness
• Pillar Two: Content Readiness
• Pillar Three: Organizational Readiness

In this blog, we will explore these pillars and outline what it takes to be ready for Copilot for M365 enablement in GCC.

What You Need to Do to Get Started with Microsoft Copilot in Government Cloud?

Pillar One: Technical Readiness for Copilot for M365 enablement

Technical Readiness is the foundation for a successful Copilot deployment. It involves ensuring that your organization’s infrastructure, security measures, and data governance policies are aligned with Copilot requirements. Here are the key steps to achieve technical readiness:

1. Implement Data Loss Prevention Policies: Protect sensitive information by implementing data loss prevention (DLP) policies. This helps prevent unauthorized sharing and ensures compliance with regulatory requirements.
2. Classify Data and Implement Sensitivity Labels: Classify your data based on its sensitivity and apply appropriate sensitivity labels. This ensures that sensitive information is adequately protected and managed.
3. Setup Default Sensitivity Labels: Apply default sensitivity labels on libraries, SharePoint sites, and Team sites to ensure consistent data protection across your organization.
4. Monitor and review audit logs. Monitoring and reviewing audit logs for Microsoft Copilot is crucial for security, compliance, and governance adherence.

Pillar Two: Content Readiness for Copilot for M365 enablement

Content Readiness focuses on organizing and managing your organization’s data to ensure it is accessible, relevant, and secure. Here are the strategies to achieve content readiness:

1. Plan Site Index Exclusions: Identify and exclude sites that should not be indexed to prevent unnecessary data exposure. Restricted SharePoint Search and Restricted Content Discoverability curated allow lists can help with focusing on just the content you want exposed to Copilot.
2. Understand File Permissions, Review Sharing and Permissions: Ensure that sharing and permissions settings are configured correctly to prevent data leaks and unauthorized access to sensitive data. Review file permissions are configured correctly to control access to sensitive information.  This is not a onetime task as it will need to be monitored regularly.  There are PowerShell scripts and tools like SharePoint Advanced Management that can help with this.
3. Clean Out Redundant, Outdated, Unused and Orphaned sites: Regularly review and clean out redundant, outdated, unused content and orphaned sites to maintain a streamlined and efficient data environment for Copilot to search.
4. Organize Content into Logical Folders and Sites: Structure your content into logical folders and sites to improve accessibility and management.
5. Tag Files with Keywords and Standardize File Names: Use keywords and standardized file names to enhance searchability and organization.
6. Consolidate Multiple Versions and Data Repositories: Reduce data redundancy by consolidating multiple versions of files and data repositories.

Pillar Three: Organizational Readiness for Copilot for M365 enablement

Organizational Readiness involves preparing your team and stakeholders for the adoption of Copilot. It includes training, change management, and continuous improvement. Here are the strategies to achieve organizational readiness:

1. Assess Stakeholder Concerns and Vision: Understand the concerns and vision of stakeholders to align Copilot adoption with organizational goals.
2. Develop a Copilot Adoption Plan: Create a comprehensive adoption plan that includes training, use case development, and pilot rollout. The Pilot members should include different personas to capture use cases.
3. Train on Generative AI Concepts and Copilot Tools: Provide training on generative AI concepts and Copilot tools to ensure users are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills.
4. Encourage Collective Intelligence: Foster a culture of collective intelligence by encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing among users.  A champions program is the perfect solution for enabling this.  You can also set up a Microsoft team to centralize a prompt library and foster collaboration.
5. Measure Adoption and Collect Feedback: Continuously measure adoption and collect feedback to improve the Copilot experience and training programs.

Conclusion

Enabling Copilot for M365 in the Government Cloud requires a strategic approach that focuses on technical, content, and organizational readiness. By implementing the strategies outlined in this blog, organizations can ensure a smooth and successful deployment of Copilot for M365, achieving enhanced productivity, increased collaboration, and improved efficiencies within daily work. Remember, readiness and training are not a one-time effort but an ongoing process that requires continuous, monitoring, improvement and adaptation to evolving needs and technologies.