It’s early April 2024. In a new meeting room, with large panoramic windows and a view of the old Little Belt Bridge, Kristian Kaas Rasmussen, Business Consultant at Energinet, is sitting with Outlook, his third cup of black coffee of the day and a dilemma.
Sebastian from VENZO just asked a question that would prove to be crucial for both the way Energinet rolled out AI to the organization and for the team behind it.
Safety first and foremost
At the same moment, another VENZO consultant shuts down his preliminary draft of a large Data Privacy Impact Assessment. “Hold on to the railing on the way down the stairs,” Peter from VENZO is reminded as he makes his way down to the parking lot, where he, like most others, has backed his car into the stall. Just in case.
At Energinet’s head office, you’re constantly reminded that things can go wrong quickly – and with good reason.
Energinet is an independent public company that owns and develops the electricity and gas grid in Denmark. It is Energinet that prepares the Danish energy system for more renewable energy while maintaining security of supply.
Not surprisingly, Energinet is therefore also under constant attack from the outside. Hundreds of cyberattacks are thwarted every day and the attacks are becoming more and more advanced.
Energinet headquarters.
Photo: Peter Palle Skov
Everyone in Energinet must have access to AI
Nevertheless, Energinet’s management sees IT, data and digitalization as a crucial part of the company’s development and ability to solve its society-critical tasks.
Energinet’s management was therefore quick to recognize the potential of giving all employees access to AI. A bit like when Denmark decided to ensure that all citizens and businesses had access to reliable electrical power in the early 20th century.
Specifically, management expects Energinet to free up precious time and resources for development and innovation by using Microsoft Copilot to solve tasks across the company.
Kristian’s dilemma
VENZO was in the process of implementing Microsoft Purview and uncovering the security risks of rolling Copilot out to all of Energinet.
Purview is a unified security solution that helps large companies manage their data in an efficient, secure and compliant way. Now the solution was to be used to scan, classify and label millions of pieces of data at Energinet.
Data security in particular was crucial for Kristian, together with Sheila Maria Handberg and the rest of the team behind Energinet’s collaboration tools, to get the green light to power Copilot.
They had known that for a long time.
The question
However, they didn’t expect that they would change suppliers during the process and that Kristian would end up being responsible for both the rollout of Copilot and its embedding in the organization.
But that was the conclusion of the dilemma that Kristian faced in early April.
Energinet was pleased with VENZO’s work on safety and the little advice they had received regarding the technical implementation of Copilot. It was honest, straightforward, at eye level and structured in a very special way, they thought.
And then there was the approach and not least the question that Sebastian from VENZO had asked:
“How will you measure the impact of Copilot?”
This was crucial to the decision to change both supplier and approach.
Kristian was therefore keen to take on the responsibility, but only if he could get more people from VENZO to join the team.
"We really appreciate suppliers who work at eye level and become part of the team. In this case, it was also crucial to achieve a fairly ambitious rollout of Microsoft Copilot, whose potential we have high expectations and hopes for."
Shiela Maria Handberg, Product Owner, Energinet
Photo: Maria Tuxen Hedegaard
Next installation ready
Once the team was in place, it was a busy few weeks preparing for the big AI initiative.
Learning from both their own and VENZO’s experience, they took VENZO’s “AI ADOPT Framework”, a holistic approach to AI that all companies can use. This way, they got around all corners and answered all the relevant questions.
VENZO had become an integral part of the team and when Sheila and Kristian’s team threw balls into the air, Peter, Sebastian and the rest of the VENZO team were ready to catch them in the planned sprints. It was true co-creation and a team effort where everyone pulled together without, as the electrician apprentice would put it, so much fuss.
They were almost ready to power up when the rollout target suddenly changed significantly.
A small short circuit
The ambition from management was that all 2,400 employees would have Copilot at the same time on May 15, 2024. But shortly before the planned rollout, Energinet’s compliance department decides that employees must read the terms and conditions before they can use Copilot, and thus actively opt-in to the solution.
It’s the right thing to do, but it means that the task for Kristian and VENZO changes from simply rolling out the technical solution to everyone and training employees, to also being an exercise in getting people to choose Copilot.
The “scoreboard” needs to be adjusted and Kristian has time to work up a sweat.
Despite the deadline, the team receives permission to postpone the rollout – by 24 hours.
Go-Live
On May 16, Energinet is ready to power Copilot.
The technical foundation is in place. The solution has been tested by 300 pilot users and prepared for 2400 users.
All stakeholders are informed and both the instruction and training material is ready. The “scoreboard” to measure the use of Copilot against defined KPIs is ready.
Last but not least, Peter from VENZO, and Sebastian Albers from Energinet, have mastered data security.
Kristian arrives early and pours black coffee while he waits anxiously to see if anything happens.
It’s quiet both on screen and in the office after a hectic few days of final preparations.
But slowly but surely, users are starting to sign up. First 10, then 50, 350, 600, and after just 10 days, almost half of the employees have actively chosen to use Copilot.
Users are ready too.
Despite the challenges along the way, Energinet has succeeded in powering Copilot and their digital ambitions for our shared future energy supply.
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Want to know more? In this article from Microsoft Denmark you can read more about the journey Energinet is on and of which Sheila and Kristian’s success story is an important part:
▶︎ Energinet expects to Triple Electricity and Gas Capacity with AI
