Esprinet uses Copilot to boost productivity and support its 34,000 reseller ecosystem

Esprinet Group is one of the leading technology distributors in Southern Europe. As well as providing technical services, it distributes consumer electronics products and solutions for digital transformation and the green transition to an extensive B2B partner network, covering 34,000 resellers and partners. 

Esprinet Group’s business model and organizational structure are highly complex. To help simplify and speed up operations, the company deployed Microsoft Copilot to 300 of its employees. But in an organization of 1,800 employees, there were clear opportunities to go further — and one particularly compelling reason to do so.

The catalyst for scaling AI

Esprinet Group is a major strategic Microsoft partner and sells Microsoft solutions to a large partner ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, it acts as a “trusted intermediary” — helping partners adopt AI and pursue digital transformation.

The distributor sees Copilot as central to that vision. According to Bettina Bonetti, Group Officer - Digital Marketing, CRM & Data Innovation at Esprinet Group, “AI represents a unique opportunity for us to evolve, not only by increasing individual productivity, but also by building applications that enable us to create real value for our vendors and customers.”

To encourage thousands of its partners to adopt Copilot, it realized it needed to actively demonstrate the concrete value it could deliver. This led to it scaling Copilot to over 1,500 of its own employees — nearly 85% of its workforce.

The investment led to rapid productivity gains and an exciting new next phase in the Group's AI journey.

Going beyond Copilot: building tailored AI agents 

Esprinet Group’s developers have also built their own AI agents using Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models. One agent, named 'Salesmate’, is an AI-powered sales assistant that is dramatically speeding up the creation of customer reports. 

The sales team can now optimize their communication with customers by recording summarized voice notes of their meetings. The tool then automatically analyzes, transcribes, and adds this note to Esprinet Group’s CRM, and this information is then shared via email to improve internal visibility and collaboration.

What was previously a time-consuming, manual task has become quick and seamless, saving salespeople 15-20 minutes of manual data entry for every customer visit. 

A separate agent called ‘AI Smart Search’ is allowing the Group’s resellers to ask questions and search for product details using a generative AI chatbot. This is making life easier for everyone. As Bonetti notes, “This is what AI means for Esprinet Group — empowering people, increasing speed, and above all, staying closer to our partners.”

Using AI Smart Search, resellers can often find what they need through a quick online search, while Esprinet Group’s customer service teams no longer have to respond to so many incoming queries. 

Overcoming previous business challenges 

Esprinet Group distributes a huge product range for around 850 brands, and its service teams need to be ready to provide advice and support on any of those products when resellers ask. It’s impossible for the service team to know everything about this range, but Copilot has transformed the process by helping them rapidly locate relevant information, from product sheets to technical explainers. 

Cesare Pedrazzini, Chief Information Officer at Esprinet Group, highlights how ongoing training is being planned to deliver similar, widespread benefits. “Our objective is to train all employees on the effective use of Copilot, ensuring a shared and consistent level of knowledge across the organization.”

Other internal departments are reporting positive results. The legal team is using Copilot to find and analyze specific contract details — a task that would otherwise require hours of painstaking manual work.
As another example, the marketing team is using Copilot to create everything from newsletters to landing pages to promote vendor products to resellers. Previously, a newsletter took the team around a day to produce. Once again, this is a task Copilot can do in minutes.

The benefits of complete Copilot adoption 

By extending the use of Copilot across the majority of the organization, Esprinet Group is experiencing a host of benefits. Today, its sales team is saving around 2.5 days every month on creating customer reports. 

Instant efficiency gains in reporting, customer management, and content production are also being reported across the business. Meanwhile, the business is improving internal processes thanks to consolidating Copilot with existing productivity and collaboration tools, such as Teams and OneDrive.

In addition, over 5,000 of the distributor’s global partners have now adopted Copilot. According to Silvia Restelli, Head of Marketing & Solutions Sales, V-Valley Italy, Esprinet Group, “Based on a survey conducted among enabled partners, we are observing up to a 50% reduction in time spent on some repetitive tasks.”

Looking at the big picture, the organization-wide adoption of Copilot represents a key step in Esprinet Group’s AI transformation journey. And it’s also reinforced the organization’s role as an innovative Microsoft partner and digital leader — helping elevate its status among its ecosystem of resellers and partners.

Discover more about Esprinet Group on LinkedIn.