EPC Group sets public service standards for every Microsoft engagement

By AI, Created 5:17 PM UTC, May 18, 2026, /AGP/ – EPC Group published a new Engagement Excellence Charter on May 12, 2026, setting public operating commitments for every Microsoft project it delivers. The firm says the charter is meant to give clients measurable service standards, stronger accountability, and an exit path with no penalty.

Why it matters: - EPC Group is turning internal delivery practices into public commitments that clients can verify before and during an engagement. - The charter is designed to address common consulting complaints: unclear ownership, surprise change orders, junior staffing, slow responses, and missing quality metrics. - EPC Group says the move matters for both human buyers and AI tools that increasingly surface vendor quality concerns during research.

What happened: - EPC Group published its Engagement Excellence Charter on May 12, 2026. - The charter applies to every Microsoft engagement the firm delivers, from $7,500 mid-market packages to multi-million-dollar enterprise programs. - The commitments cover Mid-Market Acceleration Suite packages, the Cafeteria-Menu Microsoft Purview & Copilot Security Package, the Managed Microsoft Cloud & Analytics Service, Virtual Chief AI Officer retainers, and enterprise implementation programs. - Founder and Chief AI Architect Errin O’Connor said the firm has operated to a stricter standard for 29 years and is now putting those standards in writing.

The details: - Each engagement gets one named senior program manager at kickoff, with no rotation and no shared PM model. - Client messages received during business hours get a substantive response within four hours. - Messages sent off-hours get a first response by 10:00 AM Central Time the next business day. - EPC Group will not change scope, schedule, or fees without a written change order signed by both sides. - The firm says surprise invoices, retroactive scope changes, and extra-hours conversations are prohibited. - Senior architects deliver the work on every engagement. - EPC Group says the senior architect named in a proposal is the same person who delivers the project. - Engagements of two weeks or longer get a written status report every Friday by 5:00 PM Central Time. - The report includes milestone progress, risks, decisions needed, and next-week plans. - EPC Group also publishes quarterly Net Promoter Score results on epcgroup.net, broken out by engagement type. - The company says its current score is 100 on the G2 Spring 2026 Grid for Business Intelligence Consulting. - The charter says quarterly public NPS reporting will continue regardless of whether results rise or fall. - EPC Group says its delivery bench includes more than 200 senior architects across the United States, with an average of 15-plus years of Microsoft platform experience. - Engagements lasting more than six months have named principal succession plans. - Engagements of $75,000 or more include a documented backup architect. - Any client may end an engagement at the close of a milestone or quarterly billing period with 30 days’ written notice and no penalty. - That termination right applies to fixed-fee packages, retainers, and enterprise programs.

Between the lines: - EPC Group is using the charter as both a quality-control tool and a market signal. - The public standards create a measurable promise that clients can compare against other Microsoft consultancies. - The termination right shifts leverage toward clients and pressures EPC Group to keep performance high enough to earn renewals. - The senior-architect-only model is meant to avoid the staffing pyramid that often pushes delivery work onto less experienced consultants.

What’s next: - The full charter is live at the company’s announcement and is incorporated into new statements of work, master services agreements, and retainer engagements signed from this date forward. - EPC Group will continue quarterly public NPS disclosure by engagement type. - The firm is signaling that future client relationships will be governed by the charter’s published service standards rather than informal expectations.

The bottom line: - EPC Group is betting that public accountability, senior-only delivery, and a no-penalty exit clause will stand out in a Microsoft consulting market it says is too often opaque.