Partner extends Secure Productivity practice to generative AI

Data#3 is a leading Microsoft licensing and services partner in Australia and the Pacific Islands. With deep expertise across all three Microsoft Clouds, Data#3 has seen broad success implementing Microsoft infrastructure, business applications, analytics, and productivity solutions. The company was recognized as the ANZ 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year for Modern Work and Worldwide 2024 Partner of the Year Finalist for Secure Productivity. Notably, Data#3’s security practice has emerged as its fastest-growing business in recent years. “Security has grown to be one of the most substantial parts of our business,” said Mark Pattie, Modern Work Practice Solutions and Sales Lead at Data#3. “We obviously bring Secure Productivity into nearly every Modern Work conversation, but Copilot is becoming one of the biggest drivers in this area as organizations are looking to leverage Microsoft 365 security features to actively prepare for and adopt generative AI capabilities.”

Realizing the potential for Microsoft 365 Copilot to positively impact the workplace, Data#3 invested heavily to ensure that its frontline staff would be able to fulfill the role of trusted advisor for clients seeking the benefits of generative AI. First and foremost, Data#3 deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot across its internal organization, wrapping the deployment with change management and training services to ensure frontline staff got the most out of the solution. Learnings from this internal initiative led to the creation of service offerings like Data#3’s Copilot Readiness Assessment, which provides a standardized methodology for quickly and effectively detecting sensitive information oversharing in Microsoft 365, identifying compliance with technical prerequisites, and equally important, assessing an organization’s change-readiness for this transformative technology.

Since launching this service in September 2023, Data#3 has already delivered more than 40 readiness assessments and completed or initiated more than 90 Copilot projects. “Because most organizations already have a Microsoft 365 E3 license, our customers can access the security capabilities within E3 to tackle data security and other risk areas,” said Scott Gosling, National Practice Manager for Microsoft Solutions at Data#3. “While we do short-term work to support Copilot readiness, in many cases we end up working with our customers on establishing long-term security best practices.”

One of the biggest security concerns that customers see with Copilot is information oversharing. Given the skyrocketing growth of data in Microsoft 365, this presents a real risk for organizations. Even when Copilot does not provide access to any data that a user isn’t authorized to see, if a user is accidentally given permission to data they should not have access to, they may discover it during Copilot searches. IT teams want to make sure that any sensitive information in the Microsoft 365 tenant is not exposed or overshared. “We can easily extend our end-to-end security conversation to support the desired state for our customers’ Copilot-based business activities – everything from implementing data classification with Microsoft Purview to tracking bring-your-own (BYO) AI usage with Microsoft Defender,” said Pattie. “This has significantly enhanced our ability to support customers in strengthening their data security.”

Energy company secures path to Microsoft 365 Copilot

Energy Queensland Limited is a geographically diverse organization with more than 180 sites across regional Queensland, with a mixture of information workers, temporary workers, and frontline workers who support power infrastructure and energize Queensland communities. Faced with aging devices for nearly 10,000 employees, Energy Queensland wanted to provide a better employee experience to attract and retain talent, along with enabling hybrid work throughout corporate facilities and rugged environments in the field – eventually including the productivity benefits offered by generative AI.

In collaboration with Data#3, the energy utility purchased Microsoft Surface devices in addition to Microsoft 365 E3 and Microsoft 365 E5 Security licenses for endpoint management and security. Data#3 helped implement Microsoft Intune to transform endpoint management and streamline the user onboarding experience. McAfee was replaced with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint in thousands of devices, and Data#3 also ran an Azure Virtual Desktop pilot to give field or temporary workers secure access to company resources on any device.

Now that these protections are in place, Energy Queensland is working with Data#3 on a plan to deploy Copilot for specific uses across the organization – looking to further improve employee experience with Copilot-based automations and knowledge insights. “We are utilizing the Copilot Readiness Assessment to pinpoint any extra security and change management activities,” said Gosling. “Once Copilot is deployed, Energy Queensland will have a secure endpoint environment, enabling frontline staff to leverage AI capabilities with confidence.”

Advisory services key for Copilot adoption

The connection between Secure Productivity and Copilot to secure corporate data will continue to drive demand to support adoption from Data#3’s customers in the near future. “Having the expertise to inform our customers about the appropriate way to introduce AI to an organization securely and compliantly and put governance and security guardrails in place is absolutely vital,” said Gosling.

At the same time, Data#3 sees customers increasingly seeking out its business advisory expertise moving forward. “Organizations don’t just need help to deploy and secure technology like Copilot, they need business-level guidance on what the impact will be. How should they plan for it, train users and track benefits; what acceptable use policies do they need?” said Pattie. “Although Copilot’s ability to save the average user 1.5 hours per week is promising, its true value shines when integrated into a business process, delivering increased efficiency and improved outcomes. This presents a strong business case for adoption.”

"Copilot is emerging as a major catalyst for business productivity improvement, with organizations eager to harness the advantages of generative AI. Microsoft 365's security features are instrumental in preparing for and securely integrating these generative AI capabilities into an organization."

— Mark Pattie, Modern Work Practice Solutions and Sales Lead, Data#3

"Having the expertise to inform our customers about the appropriate way to introduce AI to an organization securely and compliantly and put governance and security guardrails in place is absolutely vital."

— Scott Gosling, National Practice Manager for Microsoft Solutions, Data#3

Data#3 security expertise lays foundation for Microsoft 365 Copilot transformation