Bechtle deploys Copilot for Microsoft 365 across 14 countries

German IT provider rolls out AI assistant to 5,000 seats and develops expertise

Bechtle is deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365 to sites in 14 countries, rolling out a total of 5,000 seats.

The German IT service provider is focusing its attention on the structured development of its expertise in AI assistants for Office applications, and looking to expand its own sales abilities for the service based on GenAI.

Bechtle is deploying its own project team made up of Modern Workplace and AI experts to support the extensive roll out and use of Copilot for Microsoft 365.

"As well as sharing training materials, guidance and successful use cases, Bechtle has formed a project team to support change across the whole company. We have colleagues from our business development teams supporting this and there is an agile project team driving this forward," Bechtle CTO Dirk Müller-Niessner, told CRN.

"This support extends from every employee right up to the executive board. Furthermore, we have set up special training courses and a unique intranet site that summarises all the information about using Copilot."

He adds Bechtle has been using Copilot as an early adopter since Q4 2023 and has already seen improvements finding "much better results when the teams have a broader base and exchange ideas at short notice and regularly".

"To get results more quickly, we have decided to roll out the system in all 14 countries.

"We are also convinced that our sales staff are better equipped to work with and for our customers thanks to the experience they have gained with Copilot."

The CTO says the company has developed a framework to increase the speed of implementation for customers and are now expanding this on a large scale for Bechtle, German SMBs and enterprise customers.

"All use cases are documented and made available to the entire Bechtle network. We measure the ‘time to resolve' for existing processes, but much more exciting are the use cases that we are developing for ourselves and which are not yet foreseeable."

Overcoming challenges

Müller-Niessner said the reseller is evaluating Copilot "intensively" with regards to GDPR and data security in collaboration with Microsoft.

"This step was already part of last year's test. This was important to us, as it will also be highly relevant for our customers in the future.

"It is also a challenge to ensure that Copilot is used at a high level right from the start, as only then can we gain the insights we hope for.

"To do this, we need many users and as many different use cases as possible.

"We have to ensure a high and diverse usage rate by offering a comprehensive range of training courses."

Bechtle has been going from strength to strength - recently reporting a 7.8 per cent increase in revenue to €6.4bn in its FY23 results, despite economic challenges, and expanding in Spain through acquisitions.