The direct answer
A good data governance consulting company leaves you with a working program, not a policy binder: named owners for each business domain, data quality rules that run in your platform, an access request process people actually use, and stewards who can keep it going. When you compare firms, ask each one to show how those four pieces would be built in the tools you already own.
Five questions to ask every firm
- How will you organize our data? Look for governance domains that match your business (for example Finance or Marketing), not one long list of tables. Microsoft describes a governance domain as a boundary with its own owners, data products, glossary terms and critical data elements (Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-10-27).
- Who will own what? Every domain needs a named owner and stewards on your side before the consultants leave.
- Which data quality rules come first? A credible firm names the critical data elements it would protect first and how quality will be scored.
- How will people get access to data? Self-service access requests tied to policy beat ticket queues and shared spreadsheets.
- What runs after you leave? Ask for the runbook, the health reports and the training plan for your stewards.
What a Microsoft Purview implementation should cover
| Governance need | Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog feature (per Microsoft Learn) |
|---|---|
| Organize data by business area and distribute ownership | Governance domains |
| Group related tables, files and Power BI reports so people find the full picture | Data products |
| Shared business vocabulary that carries policy | Glossary terms |
| Standardize and protect key fields such as a customer ID | Critical data elements |
| Self-service, policy-checked access | Unified Catalog access policies and access requests |
| Measure quality and governance progress | Data quality rules and scores, health controls and health actions |
Where EPC Group fits
EPC Group designs the domains, owners and rules with your teams and implements them in Microsoft Purview, so governance is enforced in the catalog rather than kept in a document. See data governance services, the Microsoft Purview implementation answer, and how firms compare in the top data governance consulting firms for 2026.
Primary sources
- Learn about Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-10-27
- Governance domains in Unified Catalog — Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-10-27
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a data governance consulting company do?
A data governance consultancy defines who owns which data, the rules that keep it accurate and safe, and the processes that keep those rules in force, then implements them in a platform. EPC Group does this on Microsoft Purview, where Unified Catalog organizes data by governance domains and data products and adds data quality rules and health controls (Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-10-27).
What should you ask a data governance consultant before hiring them?
Ask how they would set up governance domains and owners for your business, which data quality rules they would start with, how access requests would work, and what your own stewards will run after they leave. EPC Group answers those four questions in the first scoping call, before any statement of work.
Is Microsoft Purview enough for data governance?
Purview provides the platform, not the program. Microsoft describes Unified Catalog as a platform for data governance with governance domains, data products, critical data elements, glossary terms, data quality and health management (Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-10-27), but someone still has to decide the domains, owners and rules. That decision work is what a consultancy should lead.
Should data governance be centralized or federated?
Microsoft recommends a federated approach: a central place to set data safety, quality and standards, with self-service tools so business teams can own access, discoverability and maintenance (Microsoft Learn, accessed 2026-10-27). EPC Group sets up the central standards and the domain owners together so neither becomes a bottleneck.
What are red flags when choosing a data governance consulting company?
Watch for a firm that only delivers a policy document, that cannot show how rules will be enforced in your platform, or that leaves no named owners and stewards behind. Governance that is not wired into the catalog, access requests and data quality checks tends to stop when the consultants leave.
Talk to a senior architect
A one-hour scoping call with a senior EPC Group architect covers your data domains, who should own them and which quality rules to start with. Email contact@epcgroup.net or call 888-381-9725.
Documented and anonymized engagements
Named engagements come first; anonymized summaries follow under the anonymized-engagement rule — the client is not named and every statement is EPC-reported. Documents behind named engagements are in the Evidence Center.
- Microsoft Teams Cleanup and Governance: Manufacturer (2024)Anonymized engagement summary · Industrial manufacturer · 2024
- Dynamics 365 CRM Remediation: Professional AssociationAnonymized engagement summary · Professional association · 2021
- Power BI Governance Strategy: Global Insurer (2020)Anonymized engagement summary · Global insurer · 2020
- Power BI POC, Governance and Roadmap: Electronics (2020)Anonymized engagement summary · Global electronics manufacturer · 2020