Room5.07Floor 5 Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Copilot setup, readiness and training
We get your Microsoft 365 ready for Copilot, fix the oversharing it would otherwise expose, run a measured pilot and train staff on their own documents, email and meetings. Then you decide who keeps a licence.
- Oversharing fixed before launch
- A pilot group first
- Copilot BusinessFor teams of up to 300
- Staff trained on their own work
Copilot is only as good, and as safe, as your Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an assistant built into Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. What sets it apart from a public chatbot is where it looks for answers. It reads the email, chats, meetings and files that the person asking already has permission to open, and works from those.
Ask it what was agreed with a client last month and it searches your mailbox, your Teams chats and the shared proposal, then answers with links back to each source.
That is also the risk. Copilot does not break any permissions, but it is very good at finding things. Most Microsoft 365 tenants carry years of loose sharing: a salary sheet in a team that was set to public, a folder opened to the whole company so one person could get at it in a hurry. Nobody ever stumbled onto those files by browsing. Copilot will surface them in seconds to anyone who asks the right question.
So Copilot projects done well start with the data, not the licences. We fix the oversharing first, prove Copilot’s value on a small group, and only then help you decide who should keep a licence.
Which Copilot does your business need?
Microsoft sells several things under the Copilot name, and the difference matters for both cost and privacy. These are the options for a business of up to 300 people, at Microsoft’s US list prices per user per month. We quote Canadian pricing on request.
| Option | What it does | US list price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat | A secure chat assistant that works from the web and from files a person uploads or has open, with enterprise data protection | Included with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans | Everyone. It is the place to start and costs nothing extra |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business | Copilot inside Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, working from each user’s mail, meetings, chats and files, plus agents | $21, on a $18 promotion until December 31, 2026. Higher on monthly billing | Organizations of 1 to 300 users on Business Basic, Standard or Premium, or Apps for business |
| Business Premium with Copilot | Business Premium and Copilot Business in one licence | $32, as a permanent bundle since July 1, 2026 | Offices that also need Premium’s device management and security |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | The same Copilot experience, licensed for enterprise plans | $30 | Organizations above 300 users or on Microsoft 365 E3 or E5 |
Copilot is licensed per person, with no minimum number of seats. Most offices do not need it for everyone. The people who read and write the most, such as managers, coordinators, account managers and administrators, tend to get the most from it. Staff who spend their day in specialist software like CAD or desktop accounting packages get less.
Oversharing: the problem Copilot exposes
Oversharing is content that more people can open than should be able to. It is rarely deliberate. It builds up one shortcut at a time, and Copilot makes every one of those shortcuts searchable in plain English.
Where it usually comes from
- Teams created as public, which gives everyone in the company access to their files
- Sites where “Everyone except external users” was added to grant one person quick access
- Sharing links that grant access to anyone with the link, still active years later
- Former project sites that nobody owns or reviews any more
- HR, payroll and board files kept in a shared site rather than a restricted one
How we find and fix it
Organizations with at least one Microsoft 365 Copilot licence get SharePoint Advanced Management features at no extra cost. Its data access governance reports list the sites shared with everyone and the sharing links in use. From there, site owners run access reviews to confirm who should be there. Restricted access control limits a sensitive site to one group. Restricted content discovery keeps a site out of Copilot and company-wide search without changing who can open it, which is useful while a site is being cleaned up, though Microsoft intends it as a temporary measure rather than a permanent fix.
For the most sensitive material, sensitivity labels from Microsoft Purview, included in Business Premium, travel with the file itself. Files labelled and encrypted for a specific group stay unreadable to everyone else, whether they find them through Copilot, search or a forwarded email.
Much of this is the same work as a well-run SharePoint migration. If your files still live on a server, moving them properly is the cleanest way to start Copilot with permissions you can trust.
The readiness checks we run before anyone gets a licence
None of these is complicated on its own. Skipping them is how Copilot ends up quoting last year’s price list to a client or summarizing a salary file for the wrong person.
| Check | Why it matters with Copilot |
|---|---|
| Multi-factor sign-in and Conditional Access on every account | A stolen password becomes far more valuable when the account comes with an assistant that can summarize everything it can reach |
| The right base licences | Copilot Business needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 business plan and tops out at 300 users |
| A sharing audit | Finds public teams, company-wide site access and anyone links before Copilot does |
| Stale content archived or removed | Copilot quotes a 2019 price list as readily as this year’s |
| Sensitivity labels on HR, finance and confidential client files | Labels that encrypt files carry usage rights that Copilot respects |
| A meeting transcription policy | Teams meeting recaps need transcription, so decide where that is acceptable, especially in client meetings |
| Web search setting | Decide whether Copilot may draw on public web results alongside your own data |
| Audit logging switched on | Copilot prompts and responses are recorded in Microsoft Purview, so questions can be answered after the fact |
| A short acceptable use policy | Tells staff what they may paste in, what needs checking, and that a person signs off on anything sent |
Where your data is processed
Microsoft stores Microsoft 365 data for Canadian organizations in its Canadian data centres, and says that prompts, responses and the data Copilot reaches are not used to train its foundation models. It has also committed to processing Copilot interactions inside Canada, but that rollout is not finished. Until it is, plan as though Copilot prompts may be processed outside Canada, and decide which content belongs behind a sensitivity label because of it.
Where Copilot earns its licence, and where to be careful
Copilot is a first-draft machine and a very fast reader. It is not an authority. The people getting the most from it treat every answer as a draft from a capable assistant who has not met the client.
| Where | Strongest uses | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Outlook | Summarizing a long thread, drafting a reply in your tone, catching up after time away | It drafts. A person still reads and sends |
| Teams | Meeting recaps with decisions and action items, catching up on a busy chat | Needs transcription on. Check names, numbers and who agreed to what |
| Word | A first draft built from existing files, rewriting for a different reader, summarizing a long contract | In long documents it can miss or misstate details. Check against the source |
| Excel | Explaining a formula, suggesting a chart, spotting trends in a clean table | Every figure needs checking, and messy sheets give messy answers |
| PowerPoint | A deck outline from a Word document or a set of notes | Layout and brand still need a human pass |
| Copilot Chat with work data | Questions across mail, chats and files, such as what changed on a project this month | Answers are only as current as the content it can see |
Pilot first, then decide who keeps a licence
Buying Copilot for the whole office on day one is the most common way to waste money on it. A short, measured pilot answers the only question that matters: does it save your people enough time to pay for itself?
Choose the pilot group
Five to fifteen people across different roles, including at least one sceptic. Monthly-billed licences cost more per month but keep the pilot easy to stop, so we compare both before you commit.
Measure before and after
Before the pilot, each person estimates the time spent on email, meeting notes and first drafts. Copilot’s usage dashboard then shows who uses it, for what and how often. Usage on its own proves little, so we pair it with a short survey at the end.
Train on their own work
Generic Copilot demos are forgettable. Our sessions use each team’s real documents, threads and meetings, and leave every role with a short library of prompts that work for its daily tasks.
Decide with evidence
After about a month you have usage figures, time estimates and honest feedback. Licences go to the people who used them, and the rest of the office carries on with Copilot Chat at no extra cost.
Copilot projects we quote
Readiness work and training are quoted as fixed-price projects. Licences are supplied through our cloud subscriptions service, with every renewal date tracked. If you would like a broader look at your tenant first, the Microsoft 365 review covers Copilot readiness alongside security and licensing, and our Intune page explains the device rules that should be in place before Copilot reaches a laptop or phone.
- Copilot readiness review and sharing auditFixed quote
- Oversharing clean-up across SharePoint and TeamsFixed quote
- Sensitivity labels for HR, finance and client filesFixed quote
- Copilot pilot for up to 15 usersFixed quote
- Role-based Copilot training sessionsFixed quote
- Copilot acceptable use policy for staffFixed quote
Questions people ask
Does Copilot use our company data to train Microsoft's AI?
Microsoft states that prompts, responses and the data Copilot reaches through Microsoft 365 are not used to train its foundation models. Your content stays within the Microsoft 365 service and is protected by the same controls as the rest of your tenant.
Can Copilot show people files they are not allowed to open?
No. Copilot only works with content the person asking already has permission to open. The risk is that permissions are often much wider than anyone realizes, which is why we audit sharing and fix oversharing before licences are assigned.
What is the difference between Copilot Chat and Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 business plans and works from the web and files a person uploads or has open. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid licence that works inside Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint and draws on the user's own mail, meetings, chats and files.
How much does Copilot cost for a small business?
Microsoft 365 Copilot Business has a US list price of $21 per user per month on an annual commitment, with a promotional $18 until December 31, 2026, for organizations of up to 300 users. It is added to a Microsoft 365 business plan. We quote Canadian pricing on request.
Do we need Business Premium to buy Copilot?
No. Copilot Business can be added to Business Basic, Business Standard, Business Premium or Apps for business. We often recommend Premium alongside it for the device management and sign-in security, but it is not required.
Are our Copilot prompts processed in Canada?
Microsoft has committed to processing Copilot interactions inside Canada but has not finished that rollout. Microsoft 365 data for Canadian organizations is stored in Canada. Until in-country processing is confirmed for your tenant, plan as though prompts may be processed elsewhere.
Can we buy Copilot for only some of our staff?
Yes. Copilot is licensed per person with no minimum. Most offices license the people who read and write the most and leave everyone else on the free Copilot Chat.
How long does Copilot readiness take?
It depends mostly on how much sharing clean-up your tenant needs. A tidy tenant can start a pilot quickly. One with years of public teams and company-wide links takes longer. You get a timeline with the fixed quote after a readiness review.
Tell us what’s going on
Pick how urgent it is and leave a way to reach you. The help desk replies by phone or email. If work has stopped, call 647-812-3775 instead.
Something broken, or something to plan?
For anything urgent, call. A technician answers the emergency line 24/7. For everything else, open a ticket and tell us what is going on.