Fondia

Quick Facts

• Law firm Fondia was founded in 2004 and the group has approximately 190 employees in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania.
• Fondia has been among the first in Finland to utilise Microsoft 365 Copilot tool with the help of the Sulava Copilot Adoption Service.
• The goal of using M365 Copilot is simple: the desire to make work more efficient.

Law firm Fondia was founded in 2004 and today the Group has approximately 190 employees in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and Lithuania. Fondia’s mission is to offer business law services to its clients in new and innovative ways, which has led the company to quickly adopt new technologies. Fondia have been among the first in Finland to utilize Microsoft 365 Copilot tool with the help of the Sulava Copilot Adoption Service.

“I believe this kind of early adoption is firmly in our DNA,” commented Digital Officer Joachim Mac Donald-Thomé.

“We became interested in artificial intelligence as soon as Open AI’s ChatGPT entered the market. It was allowed to be tested, but strict rules and frameworks were created for its use. As soon as rumors started circulating about the M365 Copilot tool, we were immediately on board!”

Although Fondia was interested in using M365 Copilot immediately after its launch, the project could not be started until January 2024, when Microsoft lifted the restrictions on the number of licenses.

“For a long time, we were ready to pilot Copilot. We were just waiting for the moment when we could make this a profitable business case for us. Because we were so enthusiastic, we wanted to implement M365 Copilot as quickly as possible,” Donald-Thomé continues.

Copilot provides assistance with everyday office tools

Although there are alternatives to the M365 Copilot tool on the market, the choice was easy due to Fondia’s Microsoft background. The company uses Microsoft products extensively, including Teams.

“In the end, operating in Open AI didn’t feel very secure in terms of data security, but using M365 Copilot changed that. We knew that Microsoft would also integrate Copilot into everyday office tools, which was a perfect fit for us,” says Donald-Thomé.

The goal of using Fondia’s M365 Copilot is simple: the desire to make work more efficient. Copilot is used for various tasks, such as summarizing legal texts, writing emails, implementing Excel or PowerPoint content, searching for information and generally comparing many things. In practice, there are two user groups with naturally different needs: lawyers and those working in support functions.

“I personally ask Copilot to summarize long email threads, while lawyers compare different legal cases or have various analyses done and implement training plans. According to feedback, the tool works excellently for comparing, for example, domestic and foreign legal cases.”

Donald-Thomé describes.

Assistance was needed for the implementation

The implementation of Copilot was very different at Fondia compared to the start of many other technical solutions. Due to the personal nature of the tool, immediate help was needed to implement the tool, as each user must learn to use Copilot in their own way and understand its multiple possibilities.

“At Fondia, we have talked a lot about the change in AI era work, and Copilot is wildly promoting this transformation,” comments Project Manager Reetta Kilpeläinen. “Sulava provided us with really good specifications for starting the project, and as a project manager it was easy for me to take the matter forward to different groups.”

With Sulava’s assistance, training programs were developed and a group of active users called M365 Copilot Validators was harnessed to help the entire organization with the project. People from each legal area and support functions were selected for the group. Their task was to promote and support the adoption of Copilot. The group also solved many concrete practical cases, which helped the rest of the organisation.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm both in the Validators group and in our entire organisation, and people were committed and willing to learn,” Kilpeläinen describes.

Sulava and Fondia share the same spirit

The natural nature of the cooperation between Sulava and Fondia is partly based on the fact that the companies have very similar mindsets and ways of working. Both companies genuinely want to be pioneers and take care of the organisation. Both Fondia and Sulava have received Future Workplaces certificates, and the companies have also collaborated in other ways before.

“I felt that we were already on the right track in the sales process and what was wanted from us was genuinely taken into account,” Donald-Thomé says. “Frankly, our cooperation has gone great! We got help whenever we needed it, the plans were clear, the trainers were good and informative.”

Project Manager Kilpeläinen agrees: “It was really easy, and Sulava’s desire to succeed was also strongly involved!”

The future will bring more uses

According to the user feedback collected so far from Copilot, there is a strong desire to develop its use.

“Of course, we have received feedback in both directions. Some are more enthusiastic than others and some need more support if something doesn’t work right away,” says Donald-Thomé. “We operate in four countries that are very different in terms of technology. Even though people in the Baltics are usually quite sceptical about things, the first positive feedback in this project came from there. In general, we can say that the desire to learn and develop the use of Copilot is strong in all our countries.”

After the implementation project and basic training with Sulava, Fondia intends to promote the expansion of M365 Copilot’s implementation with its own programs.

“Different competence teams and different support functions will go through the applications in more detail, and we are also considering how M365 Copilot can be utilised more efficiently on a country-by-country basis. We will continue to develop intensively,” Kilpeläinen says.

Author: Juhani Lassila
Published October 2024