The ROI of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMBs: Savings, productivity, and growth

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of local economies, driving growth and employment. In the United States alone, they make up 99.9% of all businesses and employ nearly half of the workforce.

In today’s fast-paced world, SMBs face constant demands, from customer communication (66%) to budget management (50%) and administrative tasks (48%). Generative AI is proving to be a game-changer and Microsoft 365 Copilot is uniquely designed to help SMBs work smarter. By integrating AI into familiar tools, Copilot enables businesses to enhance customer engagement, boost productivity, and streamline operations – whether in the office, at home, or on the go.

Read more: Microsoft Copilot – Redefining Productivity with AI

Beyond efficiency, Copilot also delivers financial benefits. According to Forrester’s Projected Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMBs, businesses can achieve a return on investment ranging from 132% to 353% over three years, making AI adoption a strategic advantage.

This blog explores:

• The significant value Copilot brings to SMBs

• The qualitative benefits of investing in AI-powered productivity

• How Copilot for Microsoft 365 is driving impact across businesses of all sizes

• The impact of Copilot on Dynamics 365 ERP and CRM applications

What’s holding businesses back? Some universal challenges hindering growth and innovation

As organizations work to stay competitive, they often encounter challenges that hinder progress. These challenges include security risks and productivity bottlenecks that drain time and resources, keeping teams from focusing on strategic initiatives that drive innovation and impact. Let’s explore some universal challenges that organizations of all sizes face and now AI can help overcome them:

• Keeping up with AI advancements

In today’s fast-changing tech landscape, staying ahead with AI is no longer optional—it’s essential. Businesses that fail to embrace AI risk falling behind within the next decade. To remain competitive, organizations must continuously update their knowledge and expertise in the latest AI developments.

• Security risks from unauthorized tools

The rise of shadow IT- employees using unapproved applications – poses significant security and compliance risks. Without proper oversight, sensitive data could be exposed, and regulatory requirements may be violated, making it crucial for organizations to establish strict governance over AI tools.

• Productivity drains from daily tasks

Employees often lose valuable time searching for information, drafting emails, and managing meetings. These inefficiencies add up, reducing productivity and increasing frustration. Businesses need AI-powered solutions to streamline workflows and free up time for more strategic work.

How can Microsoft 356 Copilot come to the rescue?

By now, we are all familiar with what is Microsoft 365 Copilot. It’s an AI-powered assistant designed to enhance productivity by streamlining work tasks.

With a simple prompt, Copilot generates real-time responses, drawing from both internet-based sources and the user’s accessible work content. This ensures relevant, accurate, and actionable insights tailored to each task. Here is a brief overview of how Microsoft Copilot 356 works:

To use Microsoft Copilot 365, simply enter a prompt in Copilot, and it will generate real-time AI-powered responses. These responses can include relevant internet-based information as well as work content that users have permission to access, ensuring accuracy and context.

Further insights: Experience the power of Copilot in Dynamics 365 and Power Platform

The qualitative benefits of using Microsoft Copilot 365 for enterprises

Forrester’s Projected Total Economic Impact™ of Microsoft 365 Copilot for SMBs highlights the significant impact AI can have on businesses. Beyond enhancing productivity, Copilot serves as a strategic asset for long-term growth and investment. With benefits like a 6% increase in net revenue and a 20% reduction in operating costs, its value is undeniable.

Let’s explore Microsoft 365 Copilot’s benefits in more detail.

Accelerating growth with faster time to market

Bringing new products to market quickly and meeting customer demands efficiently are crucial for business success. According to Forrester, Microsoft 365 Copilot plays a key role in accelerating revenue growth and unlocking new business opportunities.

The study found that:

• 24% of businesses reduced time to market by 16% to 20%

• 27% of businesses saw improvements ranging from 11% to 15%

These gains enhance agility and strengthen market competitiveness.

With Copilot, you can streamline business processes by mapping out workflows, identifying inefficiencies, and receiving AI-driven recommendations for improvement. Share these insights with your team for feedback before implementation. Additionally, Copilot helps keep projects on track by providing real-time updates on progress, allowing you to address bottlenecks proactively.

Boosting productivity and efficiency across your business

In small and medium-sized businesses, employees often juggle multiple roles, leaving limited time for strategic work. Microsoft 365 Copilot helps by automating routine tasks, allowing teams to focus on high-impact initiatives.

Forrester’s study highlights Copilot’s impact on cost efficiency:

• 51% of businesses reported a 1% to 10% reduction in supply chain costs

• 59% of businesses saw operating costs drop by 1% to 20%

These savings enable businesses to reallocate resources toward growth-driven initiatives without overburdening employees.

With Copilot, teams can quickly retrieve key details from client contracts and vendor agreements, prioritize urgent emails, and analyze data from spreadsheets or text documents. It also creates visual charts and tables, making decision-making faster and more effective.

Boosting employee engagement and retention

Forrester’s study highlights how Microsoft 365 Copilot enhances workplace satisfaction by automating repetitive tasks and enabling employees to focus on more meaningful work. As a result, SMBs have reported an average 18% increase in employee satisfaction and a 11% to 20% reduction in employee turnover. By fostering a more efficient and engaging work environment, Copilot helps businesses retain top talent while improving overall productivity.

The business impact of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot: Driving efficiency, revenue, and growth

Microsoft Copilot is an AI-powered assistant integrated across Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and other business applications, enhancing productivity and decision-making. As part of this ecosystem, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Copilot brings AI-driven capabilities tailored to specific business functions such as sales, customer service, finance, and supply chain management. By automating routine tasks, summarizing critical data, and providing intelligent recommendations, Dynamics 365 Copilot empowers organizations to streamline operations, boost efficiency, and drive smarter business outcomes.

Copilot in Dynamics 365: Impact on businesses

• Increased revenue and close rates: Microsoft’s internal sales analysis revealed that high users of Microsoft 365 Copilot experienced a 9.4% increase in revenue per seller and a 20% increase in close rates.

• Enhanced customer service efficiency: The Copilot analytics dashboard in Dynamics 365 Customer Service enables supervisors to monitor key metrics such as average handle time for conversations, average days to close cases, and average email response time. These insights help in understanding and improving agent performance and customer satisfaction.

• Operational cost reduction: By automating complex processes like data analysis, report generation, and scheduling, Microsoft 365 Copilot reduces the time and resources spent on routine tasks, leading to significant operational cost savings over time.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service enhances agent efficiency by generating contextual responses for chat and email while leveraging knowledge bases and case history. It also simplifies virtual agent creation with Power Virtual Agents, using Azure OpenAI and Bing to deliver answers from selected company sources.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Service provides several key features, including:

• Generating case and conversation summaries

• Answering customer inquiries

• Composing emails

• Drafting chat responses

• Retrieving information from knowledge bases and trusted sources

More insights: Learn how Dynamics 365 Customer Service can transform customer support into a profit center.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights enables marketers to create highly personalized customer segments through natural language interactions with their data platform. It also suggests additional segments that may have been overlooked and performs advanced calculations to identify customers that align with specific profiles.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service generates AI-powered work order summaries, helping managers, dispatchers, and frontline workers quickly grasp key details like history, next steps, arrival times, and required parts. Additionally, the Outlook add-in streamlines work order creation and scheduling.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Project Operations

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Project Operations enables project managers to quickly generate project plans and reports using natural language, saving time on manual planning. These plans can be easily customized to meet specific project needs.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Sales streamline administrative tasks for sellers by generating email responses and summarizing Teams meetings in Outlook, incorporating D365 CRM data and call insights. With sellers spending a significant portion of their day on emails, this AI-driven support allows more time for customer engagement.

Key features:

• Summarizing records

• Providing quick record overviews

• Assisting with meeting preparation

• Drafting email responses

• Delivering relevant news updates

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Commerce

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Commerce simplifies content creation for e-commerce by generating engaging product descriptions and marketing copy within the site builder. This AI-driven feature enhances customer engagement while saving time in the product enrichment process.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Finance

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Finance boosts efficiency for collections managers by summarizing customer accounts, overdue invoices, and payment history. It prioritizes accounts needing attention and generates personalized emails, streamlining communication and improving collection success rates.

Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Copilot in Microsoft Supply Chain Center helps Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management users identify potential disruptions by analyzing external factors like weather and financial conditions, and geography. It provides predictive insights on affected orders and enables planners to generate automated emails to notify partners and prevent delays.

Further readings: A closer look at copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Getting started with Copilot has never been easier

Microsoft 365 Copilot is now more accessible with flexible purchasing options designed to fit your business needs:

• Monthly billing for annual subscriptions – SMBs can opt for monthly payments instead of a full upfront annual payment, making it easier to manage cash flow.

• Self-service purchase – Microsoft 365 business users can purchase Copilot directly for their existing plans using a credit card, ensuring quick and hassle-free access.

• In-app purchases and license requests – Soon, users will be able to buy Copilot while working within Microsoft 365 or request a license from their admin, streamlining the process for seamless adoption.

Read more: Copilot in ERP and CRM – Shaping the future of innovation

Transform your business with Dynamics 365 Copilot

Microsoft has introduced the world’s first AI copilot natively built into both CRM and ERP applications with Dynamics 365 Copilot. It harnesses advanced AI and natural language processing to help business professionals generate ideas and content faster, automate repetitive tasks, and gain actionable insights- simply by describing what they need.

At Confiz, we specialize in helping businesses leverage the diverse capabilities of Copilot across Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations and Customer Engagement. Our end-to-end services, from seamless implementation to ongoing support, ensure your teams work smarter, innovate faster, and achieve exceptional results.

Ready to boost efficiency and drive growth? Contact us at marketing@confiz.com and learn how Copilot can transform the way you work.