From Customer Zero to measurable value: Datacom’s AI journey

• Datacom is Customer Zero, testing and scaling AI internally to help customers adopt it with confidence.

• AI is delivering measurable results, reducing manual work and accelerating business processes.

• Successful AI adoption requires connected systems, strong governance, and ongoing employee support.

What does it take to turn AI ambition into real business value? Datacom started by looking within its own organisation, proactively identifying opportunities where AI could make a meaningful impact, then putting those use cases to the test.

A 50% reduction in finance reconciliation preparation time. Complex bid pricing completed in under two hours instead of days. Campaign assessments reduced from weeks to minutes.

These are some of the results Datacom has achieved by putting AI to work across its own business. But getting there required more than deploying new technology. It meant rethinking how people, data and systems work together.

We recognised early that AI had the potential to transform how organisations work, but before advising customers on how to realise its value, we wanted to understand the challenges, opportunities and lessons firsthand. 

So, we took a proactive approach, exploring where in our business AI could enhance everyday processes, improve decision-making and create measurable business value. 

We identified practical use cases to put AI to work in areas such as finance, procurement, service management and knowledge sharing. As Customer Zero, we could test and refine AI solutions within our own operations, building the experience and expertise needed to help our customers adopt AI with confidence when they were ready.

“The organisations creating the most value from AI are identifying where it can have the greatest impact, putting clear ownership around those opportunities and building the capability to scale them across the business," says Lou Compagnone, Datacom Director, AI 

Our experience revealed four important lessons about making AI work in a complex business environment.

The right connections matter more than the model

AI delivers greater value when it can access relevant business information and work within the tools employees already use. For Datacom, connecting Microsoft 365 data and everyday business applications proved more important than introducing another standalone AI destination.

AI costs need to be measured against outcomes

The conversation shifted beyond licence costs to understanding the cost of individual tasks, workflows and outcomes, including the tokens, APIs and agents involved.

AI exposes weaknesses in data foundations

Deploying Copilot made the importance of permissions, data classification and information architecture impossible to ignore. Strong data governance wasn't simply a prerequisite for good practice; it was essential to making AI useful and trustworthy.

Adoption requires more than a single rollout

Different employees need different levels of support. Champions, everyday users and those less confident with change all benefit from tailored learning, reinforcement and opportunities to build confidence.

These lessons shaped how we connected Copilot with the core systems used by our teams that manage customer procurement and licensing, including service management, quoting, inventory, supplier platforms and SharePoint knowledge repositories.

Using MCP-enabled connections, APIs and clear business-process instructions, we brought information from these systems into a single conversational experience.

Instead of navigating multiple applications, employees can now ask questions in natural language and access information from connected business systems.

Questions such as “What products are available to fulfil this order?” or “What’s the status of this service ticket?” can be answered using relevant information from across the organisation.

For employees, that means fewer applications to navigate, less time spent searching and faster access to the context they need to make decisions.

For the business, it means more time available for customer-facing work and a more connected experience across sales, procurement and service teams.

Our Customer Zero approach has delivered practical improvements across multiple teams, demonstrating how AI can reduce manual effort, accelerate workflows and support better decisions.

Finance: Less preparation, more analysis

By applying AI to the preparation, analysis and consumption of financial information, our finance team achieved:

• 50% reduction in reconciliation preparation time 

• 12 hours saved per person, per month-end cycle

• 54 hours in annualised savings from a single administrative improvement

These efficiencies create more capacity for analysis and decision-making rather than repetitive preparation.

Procurement queries: Answers in minutes, not hours

Copilot connects information from service management, quoting, inventory and supplier systems in a single conversation.

Tasks that previously took hours can now be completed in approximately 10 minutes, allowing employees to spend more time supporting customers and pursuing opportunities.

Executive support: A day's preparation reduced to an hour

Cowork-generated daily and weekly briefings bring together information from Outlook, calendars and Microsoft Teams. 

What previously required a full day of preparation now takes approximately one hour of review, freeing capacity for higher-value leadership support while maintaining human oversight.

Infrastructure Products pre-sales: Campaign assessments in 15–30 minutes

Copilot and automation help the Infrastructure Products pre-sales team assess campaign requests against defined criteria.

Turnaround has fallen from weeks to 15–30 minutes, supported by transparent, automated scoring. 

Bid and commercial: Faster, more consistent pricing

Copilot supports complex bid pricing by aligning roles with industry standards and benchmarking information.

Work that previously took days can now be completed in under two hours, leaving specialists more time for strategy and validation.

Consulting: More responsive workshop delivery

Cowork helps consulting teams bring together workshop recordings, Miro boards and client documentation to produce tailored analyses and adapt workshop activities in real time.

This reduces turnaround time while maintaining compliance requirements.

“Taking a Customer Zero approach has allowed us to identify valuable use cases, experiment and scale what works. Those firsthand experiences are helping us deliver proven, practical AI solutions for our customers,” says Darren Keall, Datacom Director, AI Frontier Solutions.

As Customer Zero, Datacom has firsthand experience of what it takes to implement AI across different teams, systems and workflows.

We’re always learning where the challenges emerge, what strong governance requires and how to support people through change. We’re also demonstrating where AI can deliver measurable improvements when it's applied to clearly defined business problems.

These lessons now inform how we help customers move from experimentation to practical, scalable AI adoption, with governance, accountability and business outcomes at the centre.

We're continually putting AI to work in our own business. Our ongoing exploration and learnings help customers realise the value of AI with greater confidence.