Comment la RPRA améliore-t-elle la productivité du flux de travail avec CDW et Microsoft Copilot?

Maha Shah (Left), Senior Data Analyst, RPRA. Danish Bhatti (Right), Senior Infrastructure Lead, RPRA.

The Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA) is a regulatory body that mandates provincial circular economy laws with a vision to build a waste-free and prosperous Ontario. The authority’s key activities revolve around enforcing compliance with producer responsibility, digital registry services and impact reporting.

As a regulator, RPRA works with a wide range of local organizations on projects that are highly analytical and process driven. From reporting on waste recovery to supporting businesses with regulations, RPRA relies on diligent and accurate workflows.

To raise their process efficiency and employee productivity, RPRA started using Microsoft Copilot for basic tasks. But soon, they saw potential in the solution and wanted to scale it within their organization. With existing Microsoft products, Copilot’s integration was a natural fit.

RPRA was already engaged with CDW for key account services, sharing a longstanding relationship for Microsoft products.

“We have been partnering with CDW for some time now and last year we partnered with them for our Azure and Microsoft licencing as a preferred cloud solutions provider (CSP). So, we purchase all of our Microsoft licences through them,” said Danish Bhatti, Senior Infrastructure Lead, RPRA.

As they saw value in the current partnership, RPRA entrusted CDW to help with the implementation of Microsoft Copilot. CDW provided essential guidance, licencing and support to ensure a seamless implementation tailored to the organization's needs.

Delivering a seamless adoption experience for Microsoft Copilot

RPRA initially explored Copilot’s potential by experimenting with Microsoft Editor to enhance email drafting and replace third-party grammar tools. However, with Copilot’s broader capabilities, RPRA began testing new use cases to optimize multiple business functions.

The adoption grew from a few initial trial licences to full-access Copilot licences for users across the IT, HR, Communications and Data Analytics teams.

To make acquiring licences a breeze, CDW provided RPRA with a dedicated portal for quickly provisioning and activating new Copilot licences. The self-serve portal simplifies the process of managing licences for newly enrolled users.

“The process of acquiring licences was pretty easy. We have the portal from CDW where we just go and add a new licence and then a few minutes later, it shows up on our Microsoft 365 Portal. From there, we can assign it to new users,” Bhatti remarked.

In addition to licencing, CDW also provides support for user training. To help new users become familiar with Copilot, a training portal was also set up for RPRA. This portal can be used to access document libraries and Copilot training from Microsoft, curated for users who are new to Copilot.

The Copilot impact: Raising productivity one task at a time

Still early in the AI journey, RPRA is beginning to see signs of improved productivity with the introduction of Copilot. The tool initially helped the team members with simpler tasks such as drafting emails, summarizing meetings, etc., but the usage has expanded to accommodate more complex requirements.

Copilot is driving impact across the following workflows:

Debugging scripts and code snippets

Data analysts have been able to use Copilot to debug code snippets and generate boilerplate code more quickly. It helps them reduce the manual effort and long hours that may go into finding solutions to common coding problems.

“It's quite helpful for reducing errors, specifically if you're looking at syntax errors in the code or scripts. It does save time spent on repetitions as it helps automate data tasks.

– Maha Shah, Senior Data Analyst, RPRA

Document generation

Copilot offers a faster way to generate new documents with the help of context from previous documents, websites or other information sources. Team members don’t have to build reports or briefing documents from scratch. They can jump right to the first draft by referencing existing documents, which saves them time.

Tailored insights inside the Azure portal

The IT team leverages Copilot to derive insights into infrastructure metrics such as an itemized cost breakdown for a workload. Rather than sifting through preconfigured reports, Copilot can generate tailored answers for specific queries.

“Instead of going through the previous month’s reports, I can simply ask a direct question on the portal to obtain a cost breakdown. So that is where I feel it saves a lot of time,” Bhatti added.

Future prospects

When asked about a situation where RPRA team members would have to part with Copilot, Bhatti responded by saying, “That might upset a few people because I think most of us are getting used to having Copilot around.”

“It has helped us make our day-to-day operations efficient enough where it's a very useful tool for us now in our daily operations,” Shah added.

Despite using Copilot for a short term, the team is able to appreciate the value it has brought to the table. Moving forward, RPRA is eager to explore advanced capabilities, such as Copilot for Developers and Power BI integrations.

These enhancements could further bolster security, data analytics and customized automation, ensuring continuous innovation and growth.

Streamlining Copilot expansion and support

CDW continues to work with RPRA in preparing for future use cases and advising on licencing costs based on current usage trends. Our account teams are in constant touch with the authority to address support issues that may arise and roadmap future expansion as new Copilot features roll out.

CDW’s commitment to enabling a smooth adoption and delivering on cost expectations has helped RPRA derive significant value from their Copilot investment.

“In general, the CDW team, the account representative, the Azure SME and the licencing SME, all have been great,” Bhatti concluded.