The EPC Group Engagement Charter: Our Promise to Every Client

Why We Published This Charter

Transparency builds trust. The enterprise consulting industry has a well-documented pattern: impressive sales presentations followed by variable delivery experiences. Senior architects pitch the deal, junior consultants deliver it. Communication is proactive during the sales cycle and reactive during execution. Knowledge transfer is a slide deck emailed on the last day.

EPC Group rejects that model. We published this Engagement Charter because our clients deserve to know exactly what they are buying before they sign. Every commitment on this page is contractual — included in our Statements of Work and measured throughout the engagement. If we fail to meet any commitment, we want our clients to hold us accountable.

This charter applies to every EPC Group engagement: Power BI implementations, Microsoft Fabric deployments, AI governance frameworks, Copilot rollouts, Azure migrations, and SharePoint modernizations. No exceptions.

Communication Cadence: You Will Never Wonder What Is Happening

The number one complaint in enterprise consulting is communication gaps. EPC Group eliminates this with a mandatory communication cadence that every engagement lead is held accountable to:

Every communication is documented in the project collaboration workspace (Teams channel or SharePoint site). Nothing lives only in email inboxes. If a stakeholder joins mid-project, they can review the complete communication history in one location.

Response Time SLAs: Measured, Not Aspirational

EPC Group defines three priority levels with specific response and resolution plan commitments:

These SLAs are tracked and reported in every weekly status report. If we miss an SLA, it is flagged in the report with a root cause and corrective action — not hidden or excused. Our current SLA adherence rate across all active engagements exceeds 97%.

Escalation Paths: Three Tiers, No Dead Ends

Every EPC Group engagement has a documented escalation path that is communicated to all client stakeholders at project kickoff:

• Tier 1 — Engagement Lead: Your primary point of contact for all day-to-day matters. Authorized to make tactical decisions, adjust resource allocation, and resolve delivery issues within the approved scope and budget. Response time: per SLA above.
• Tier 2 — Practice Director: Escalation point for scope disagreements, timeline concerns, quality issues, or any situation where the engagement lead cannot resolve the concern within 24 hours. The practice director has authority to bring additional resources, adjust approach, or modify delivery methodology. Engagement within 24 hours of escalation.
• Tier 3 — CEO (Errin O'Connor): Available for any client concern that reaches executive escalation. This is not a courtesy title — Errin personally reviews every Tier 3 escalation and engages within 4 business hours. In since 1997, fewer than 2% of engagements have required Tier 3 escalation, but every client has the path documented and available.

Escalation is never punitive. We encourage clients to escalate early and often — a concern raised at Tier 2 on day 5 is far easier to resolve than the same concern raised at Tier 3 on day 50. Our escalation process is designed to catch and resolve issues before they become project-threatening.

Executive Sponsor Access

Every EPC Group engagement above $50K is assigned an executive sponsor from EPC Group leadership — separate from the engagement lead. The executive sponsor provides:

• Monthly strategic alignment check-ins with the client's executive sponsor
• Independent quality review of delivery at each major milestone
• Escalation path that bypasses the delivery team entirely if needed
• Technology advisory input based on cross-client pattern recognition
• Continuity assurance if the engagement lead changes during the project

The executive sponsor relationship exists to ensure that EPC Group's institutional knowledge and senior expertise are available to every client, not just the ones who happened to get the most experienced engagement lead.

Weekly Status Reports: Complete Transparency

EPC Group's weekly status report is a structured document (not a casual email) that includes:

• Accomplishments: What was completed this week, mapped to SOW deliverables
• Plan: What will be completed next week, with assigned owners and dates
• Risks: Identified risks with probability, impact, and mitigation plans
• Blockers: Items requiring client action or decisions, with deadlines
• Budget: Hours consumed vs. planned, projected completion vs. budget
• SLA Performance: Response and resolution adherence for the week
• Client Satisfaction: Any feedback received and actions taken

The status report is delivered every Friday by 5 PM Eastern, without exception. If the engagement lead is unavailable, a designated backup delivers the report. We have not missed a weekly status report delivery in the last 24 months.

Quarterly Business Reviews (QBR)

For retainer and multi-phase engagements, EPC Group conducts structured Quarterly Business Reviews that include:

• Technology roadmap review and alignment with client strategic priorities
• Engagement health scorecard: SLA performance, budget adherence, milestone delivery
• Satisfaction trend analysis and third-party review benchmarks
• Recommendations for the upcoming quarter based on technology landscape changes
• Resource and team composition review
• Innovation opportunities identified from cross-client patterns

QBRs are presented to C-suite stakeholders and include both backward-looking performance data and forward-looking strategic recommendations. They transform the client-consultant relationship from transactional to strategic.

Knowledge Transfer: Measured Competency, Not Just Documentation

Knowledge transfer is where most consulting engagements fail. The consultant leaves, and the client team cannot maintain what was built. EPC Group prevents this with a structured knowledge transfer process:

• Architecture Decision Records (ADRs): Every significant decision is documented with context, options considered, decision rationale, and consequences. Not just what was built, but why it was built that way.
• Operational Runbooks: Step-by-step procedures for every operational task: deployments, monitoring, troubleshooting, disaster recovery. Written for the client's team skill level, not EPC Group's.
• Recorded Training Sessions: Live training sessions recorded and indexed. Not pre-built generic training — sessions built on the client's actual implementation with their data and their scenarios.
• Competency Assessment: Before EPC Group considers an engagement complete, the client team demonstrates operational competency through hands-on exercises. If the team cannot operate independently, the engagement is not done.
• 30-Day Hypercare: Dedicated support period after go-live where EPC Group remains available for questions, issues, and guidance as the client team assumes full ownership.

Satisfaction Tracking and Continuous Improvement

EPC Group measures client satisfaction at three points: mid-engagement pulse check, engagement close, and 90-day post-completion follow-up. Our process for scores below target:

• Any score below 8/10 triggers an automatic review by the practice director within 48 hours
• Root cause analysis is documented and shared with the client
• Corrective actions are implemented and tracked to completion
• Follow-up survey confirms the concern was addressed
• Patterns across multiple engagements drive systemic process improvements

We do not cherry-pick feedback. Every survey response — positive and negative — is reviewed in monthly leadership meetings. The uncomfortable feedback drives the most valuable improvements.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Resources

• Power BI Consulting Services
• AI Governance Framework
• Microsoft Fabric Consulting
• Microsoft Copilot Services