Johannesburg, South Africa – 29 February 2024: In the competitive world of software development, staying ahead with innovative tools is critical. Derivco, a leading technology company delivering infrastructure, payments processing and management platforms for some of the world’s largest igaming businesses, is pioneering this approach by integrating Microsoft 365 Copilot into its operations.
“Microsoft 365 Copilot has been a game-changer, particularly within Microsoft Teams,” says Adrian Freemantle, Software Architect at Derivco. “Our employees are leveraging it to generate meeting notes and summaries. It also enables them to ask questions during meetings and to receive concise summaries afterward which has notably enhanced meeting productivity.”
While Microsoft Teams is currently the primary platform for Microsoft 365 Copilot usage, Derivco is exploring its potential in other Microsoft 365 applications:
- Microsoft 365 Chat: used for quick searches through emails and chats, proving to be a valuable tool for those who have adopted it at Derivco.
- Excel and PowerPoint: More niche usage amongst PowerPoint users, who leverage the tool for initial brainstorming and to assist in helping develop a high-level structure of a presentation.
- Word and Outlook: Outlook users appreciate the summarisation feature.
Kurt Annall, Business Relationship Manager at Derivco, finds Microsoft 365 Copilot particularly useful in translating complex technical information.
“Microsoft 365 Copilot is especially helpful in translating technical details into simpler business language, especially in emails,” says Annall. But more than that, he says that Microsoft 365 Copilot has made a significant difference in providing summaries of action items in a high-pressure environment.
“For me, the detail of meetings and client discussions are the most crucial. Microsoft 365 Copilot does an excellent job of sending minutes of meeting recordings and action items to give me the level of insight I need to do my work more effectively. This has probably been the biggest benefit for me in using this technology.”
Keenan Naidoo, IT engineer at Derivco, echoes Annall’s sentiments.
“Using Microsoft 365 Copilot for email summaries, especially in drafting, has helped improve my professional communication significantly. In IT, this solution saves a lot of time, especially in communicating with different job families and getting requirements back and forth quickly.”
Derivco has rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot to a diverse range of job roles, seeking feedback across departments and has 300 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses among a staff complement of over 2 000, spanning across all its offices. Of the active users, approximately 25% have reported productivity gains of about 20%.
“Our staff finds Microsoft 365 Copilot most useful for summarising meetings, emails, and providing action items which result in significant time-savings for the organisation. In fact, our waiting list for people who want to use Microsoft 365 Copilot is growing and reflects the positive experience we have had to date,” says Freemantle.
Discussing the overarching benefits of Microsoft 365 Copilot, Annall emphasises its time efficiency.
“The biggest benefit is the overall timesaving. The technology has cut down the time to minute meetings and share summaries by about 30%.”
Similarly, Naidoo remarks on unexpected capabilities.
“A surprise with Microsoft Copilot 365 was pushing it to its limits, like generating diagrams and flowcharts, which turned out to be more capable than I initially thought it would be.”
Looking beyond the immediate Microsoft 365 Copilot implementation, Derivco’s artificial intelligence (AI) strategy is aggressive and forward-thinking.
“We are aiming to leverage AI to boost employee productivity and create a competitive edge in our products. Using AI will enable us to gain a key differentiator in the market as our competitors are yet to integrate it extensively,” adds Freemantle.
Reflecting on the future potential and his learning experience, Annall suggests, “I would like to show our team how they can use Microsoft 365 Copilot to marry email and Teams chat threads.” Meanwhile, Naidoo looks forward to the evolving capabilities of Copilot. “The chat functionality in Teams or Edge using Microsoft 365 Copilot is really powerful because it builds context from many different places within the company.”
Derivco’s journey with Microsoft 365 Copilot reflects the company’s approach to embracing advanced technologies, complimenting its own AI developments which have been in existence for some time. By integrating Microsoft 365 Copilot, Derivco has been able to enhance its operational efficiency freeing up invaluable resources to focus on driving business growth.
