EPC Group links 2009 Gartner governance framework to Copilot era

By AI, Created 11:31 AM UTC, May 20, 2026, /AGP/ – EPC Group says a governance model founder Errin O’Connor presented at Gartner in 2009 now underpins the firm’s Microsoft Copilot, Fabric, Power BI and Microsoft 365 services in 2026. The Houston Microsoft consulting firm is tying that message to rising Copilot adoption, tenant misconfiguration risks and AI governance concerns.

Why it matters: - EPC Group is positioning governance as the deciding factor in whether Microsoft Copilot, Fabric and Power BI deployments deliver value or create risk. - The company is using a 17-year-old Gartner-recognized framework to argue that current AI and cloud problems are the same governance problems enterprises have faced for years. - The message lands as organizations expand Copilot use, face misconfigured Microsoft 365 tenants, and deal with data exposure and unauthorized AI tool use.

What happened: - EPC Group marked the 17-year anniversary of founder Errin O’Connor’s workshop keynote at Gartner’s Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit. - The Houston-based Microsoft consulting firm said the 2009 governance methodology now powers its 2026 work across Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI and Microsoft 365. - EPC Group described O’Connor as founder and chief AI architect, and framed the anniversary as a retrospective on the firm’s governance approach. - The company included a link to its Power BI consulting page and its AI governance practice.

The details: - EPC Group says it has delivered more than 11,000 enterprise engagements since 1997. - The company cites 1,500+ Power BI deployments, 5,200+ SharePoint projects and 500+ Microsoft Fabric implementations. - EPC Group also says it holds a four-time G2 Leader status in Business Intelligence Consulting. - O’Connor said 80% of the Microsoft 365 tenants EPC Group audits are misconfigured. - The company said Microsoft retiring Dataflow Gen1 puts Power BI and Fabric ETL pipelines at risk. - EPC Group says the five governance pillars from the 2009 Gartner presentation map to current failure points in Copilot, Fabric and Power BI: - Identity maps from SharePoint user provisioning to Entra ID conditional access and sensitive-group gating for Copilot. - Classification maps from SharePoint content types to Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels that control what Copilot can surface. - Lifecycle maps from site retention and archival to Microsoft 365 retention policies, Teams lifecycle governance and stale OneDrive content cleanup. - Oversharing controls map from SharePoint permission sprawl to Copilot data exposure and the firm’s 47-point Copilot & M365 Tenant Security Review. - Executive sponsorship maps from portal adoption to vCAIO engagements and enterprise AI governance boards. - EPC Group says its security review finds issues in 80% of tenants audited. - The company says 73% of enterprises report unauthorized AI tool usage. - EPC Group says the 2009 methodology also sits behind its Enterprise Power BI Governance & Optimization engagement, Multi-AI Power BI Architecture, Zero-Downtime Microsoft 365 Tenant-to-Tenant Migration practice, and AI-driven Exchange and SharePoint emergency support. - O’Connor is a four-time Microsoft Press author, with titles including Microsoft Power BI Dashboards Step by Step, SharePoint 2013 Field Guide, Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010: Inside Out and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0: Inside Out. - The Power BI governance chapter in Microsoft Power BI Dashboards Step by Step is described as one of the first enterprise-grade Power BI governance frameworks published. - O’Connor’s Microsoft experience spans Project Tahoe beta, SharePoint 2001, SharePoint 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Fabric. - He also served on the advisory team supporting the U.S. federal 25-Point IT Management Reform Plan under former U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra and oversaw the Federal Reserve Bank’s eDiscovery effort during the TARP implementation. - EPC Group says its track record includes 6,700+ combined SharePoint and Power BI deployments, 5,200+ successful Microsoft 365 migrations with zero data loss, 625+ Google-to-Microsoft 365 migrations and a perfect Net Promoter Score of 100. - The company says it has worked with NASA, the FBI, the Federal Reserve, the Pentagon, United Airlines, PepsiCo, Nike, Northrop Grumman and more than 70 Fortune 500 companies. - EPC Group provided an email contact for organizations interested in its Copilot and Microsoft 365 security review, Power BI governance offering, Virtual Chief AI Officer service and broader Microsoft governance services.

Between the lines: - EPC Group is blending thought leadership and marketing by linking a long-standing governance framework to today’s AI adoption concerns. - The firm’s message is that Copilot readiness depends less on new features and more on tenant hygiene, information classification and executive oversight. - The comparison to newer competitors is an implied differentiator: EPC Group is arguing that older governance experience matters more than newer AI branding.

What’s next: - EPC Group is pushing its Copilot & M365 Tenant Security Review, Enterprise Power BI Governance & Optimization offering and Virtual Chief AI Officer service as current entry points for customers. - The company is also steering organizations toward Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, SharePoint and AI governance work built on the same framework it says began in 2009. - EPC Group is likely to keep using governance concerns as Microsoft expands Copilot and Fabric adoption across enterprises.

The bottom line: - EPC Group’s pitch is simple: the AI era still runs on the same governance rules that mattered in SharePoint, and firms that ignore that risk exposing data, confusing users and wasting their Microsoft investments.