Project Description

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) wanted to prepare for the secure and effective adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Key concerns included sensitive-data exposure caused by broad permissions, redundant or obsolete content affecting Copilot responses, user adoption, licensing and return on investment.

Bridgeall completed a comprehensive Copilot Readiness Assessment covering WICS’s Microsoft 365 environment, data security, governance, licensing and organisational readiness. The assessment identified risks and technical prerequisites, then provided a jargon-free roadmap with a readiness health check, recommended AI guardrails and a safe-use playbook for employees. This gave WICS a clear path to protect sensitive information, improve user confidence and adoption, make informed investment decisions, and move towards an organisation-wide Copilot rollout with greater confidence.

Company Overview

The Water Industry Commission for Scotland (WICS) is the independent economic regulator of Scotland’s water sector, based in Stirling, Scotland.

Its primary duty is protecting customer interests by ensuring service excellence and value for money. WICS independently scrutinises Scottish Water’s efficiency, sets price limits, and regulates the non-household retail market to promote long-term financial and environmental sustainability.

Challenges facing WICS

WICS were looking to benefit from Microsoft Copilot like many organisations but looking to do this safely. The key challenges they were faced with that led them to needing a Copilot Readiness Assessment:

  • Oversharing sensitive data: employees having access to data they shouldn’t as permissions have not been properly set up.
  • ROT data – redundant, obsolete or trivial data driving bad results
  • User adoption
  • Understanding the art of the possible
  • Licensing and ROI concerns

Our Copilot Readiness Assessment

Bridgeall’s Microsoft Copilot Readiness Assessment was selected to help solve the above challenges. Our readiness assessment is a multiple day consultancy exercise where we carry out a full review and provide a recommendation report. The assessment is broken into a few key areas:

  • Technical Readiness Assessment

This phase evaluates your core Microsoft 365 infrastructure to ensure it meets the strict technical prerequisites required to run Copilot. Our consultants audit your tenant configuration, licensing tiers, identity foundations to eliminate any service dependencies or compatibility blocks. By reviewing your endpoint posture and operational service desk impacts, we ensure your IT environment is fully stabilised and primed for a seamless pilot rollout.

  • Data, Security & Governance Review

This phase identifies hidden security risks by scanning your digital estate for oversharing hotspots, broad permissions, and structural governance gaps where Copilot could accidentally surface sensitive corporate data. We evaluate your existing information protection baselines, external sharing rules, and user lifecycle alignment to establish clear guardrails for AI usage. The final output provides your board with a robust Copilot governance model, pilot guardrails, and practical acceptable-use frameworks to ensure a secure, compliant deployment.

Their Copilot Roadmap

We then wrapped the assessment up with a jargon-free Copilot roadmap. The report included

  • An Instant Health Check: A clear Ready / Not Ready traffic-light summary of their current IT setup, highlighting any quick technical fixes or licensing tweaks needed before you launch.
  • AI Guardrails: Practical recommendations on data sharing, user access, and file security to ensure your sensitive business data stays completely protected.
  • A Safe-Use Playbook: A friendly Do’s and Don’ts guide for your staff, giving them the exact acceptable-use guardrails they need to use Copilot safely, responsibly, and effectively from day one.

Results/Benefits

  • Sensitive data is kept secure
  • Clear roadmap for Copilot success
  • Improved user adoption
  • Ability to confidently roll Copilot out across the whole organisation.

Copilot Consultancy Services

Bridgeall provide a range of Copilot consultancy services to help you design and deliver Copilot solutions for your organisation. We provide Copilot readiness assessments to help businesses roll out Copilot safely and securely for their business.