CRESCO deploys Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure OpenAI company-wide, saving staff about 10 hours a month

Overview

CRESCO, a Japanese systems integrator, trialed Microsoft 365 Copilot with 30 licenses starting April 2024, found it saved the average user approximately ten hours of work per month and cut post-interview data entry for executives from 30 minutes to 5 minutes, then expanded to 1,000 licenses company-wide by January 2025, reaching over 90% usage within six months. CRESCO also uses Azure OpenAI and GitHub Copilot in its core software development processes through its Generative AI Business Transformation Lab.

The challenge

CRESCO's leadership recognized that what customers need from system integration and development would change drastically with the normalization of GenAI, and that continuing software development along traditional methods risked the company's survival in the IT field, while staff also spent significant manual time on tasks like post-interview data entry, meeting summarization and contract error checks.

The solution

In April 2024, CRESCO began a trial of Microsoft 365 Copilot limited to the Development Promotion Office of the Quality & Process Management Unit with 30 licenses, integrated with Teams, Word and Excel. After the July 2024 trial review found strong time savings, CRESCO extended licenses to 1,000 and introduced company-wide use of Copilot in January 2025, providing e-learning courses and a dedicated Teams channel for Copilot know-how. Separately, CRESCO adopted Azure OpenAI and GitHub Copilot for coding support within its core system development operations under its Generative AI Business Transformation Lab.

Reported business value

Copilot saved the average user approximately ten hours of work per month, cut executive post-interview data entry from thirty minutes to five minutes, reduced inquiries to and corrections by the legal department as production staff began pre-checking contracts with Copilot, and usage exceeded 90% six months after the company-wide rollout.