CASE STUDY
They rolled it out to save time.
It kept guessing wrong.
They asked us to roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot so the team could save time on emails and documents. The scope: speed was never the issue — the firm's knowledge was scattered and ungoverned, so Copilot grounded on the wrong sources and answered confidently from them.
Real Problem
“Roll out Microsoft 365 Copilot so the team saves time on emails and documents.”
Scope
Typing speed wasn't the bottleneck. Knowledge was scattered across drives and sites with messy permissions, so Copilot grounded on the wrong data — fast answers no one could trust.
The Challenge
A professional-services firm — a mid-sized legal and advisory practice — bought Microsoft 365 Copilot expecting an instant productivity lift. Instead, lawyers and consultants got plausible- sounding answers drawn from outdated templates, superseded matters and the wrong client folders. A diagnostic found three compounding causes.
- Knowledge scattered, not governed. Current and obsolete versions sat side by side across SharePoint, OneDrive and email — Copilot couldn't tell which to trust.
- Permissions were a mess. Over-broad SharePoint permissions meant Copilot could surface — and pull from — things people shouldn't see.
- No grounding, no adoption. Without governed sources or trained prompts, people tried Copilot once, got a wrong answer, and quietly stopped.
The Solution
- Govern the data first : A SharePoint permissions cleanup and oversharing fix, then we defined the governed sources Copilot may ground on — so answers come from current, correct material.
- Ground it, target the work : We grounded Microsoft 365 Copilot on those trustworthy sources and built the highest-value use-cases — proposals and RFPs, client and matter summaries — with a tested prompt library.
- Drive adoption : A structured Copilot adoption program — training, prompt patterns and champions — turned a tool people had abandoned into one they rely on.
The Impact
5hrs
Per person, per week
Reclaimed from drafting and searching.
30%
Faster proposals & RFPs
Grounded Copilot drafts from the firm's best material.
50%
Less time hunting for docs
Governed sources and search that actually works.
The win wasn't faster typing. It was knowledge people could finally find — and trust.