EPC Group Earns Sixth G2 Leader Designation in Business Intelligence Consulting (Summer 2026)

Sixth Consecutive G2 Leader Designation — What It Reflects

Six consecutive G2 Leader designations in Business Intelligence Consulting reflects what EPC Group's Fortune 500 and federal clients say in private — that the senior-architect bench standard works, that named accountability matters, that governance-first Microsoft consulting is what regulated industries actually need, and that nearly three decades of continuous Microsoft ecosystem focus is the right strategy.

This post documents the G2 Summer 2026 Leader designation, the broader 200+ verified third-party review baseline that backs it, and what the recognition reflects about EPC Group's operating model.

TL;DR — The G2 Summer 2026 Leader Designation

EPC Group has been named a G2 Leader in Business Intelligence Consulting for the sixth consecutive G2 reporting period, featured in the G2 Summer 2026 Reports. The designation reflects verified third-party customer reviews, market presence indicators, and customer satisfaction metrics. EPC Group holds a perfect 100 Net Promoter Score, is in the G2 Top 5 Market Presence among 16 evaluated providers, and is published in the G2 Summer 2026 Reports as effective May 2026. The G2 recognition complements EPC Group's broader 200+ verified third-party review baseline across Facebook (44 reviews), TrustAnalytica (19 reviews), G2 (15+ reviews), Clutch (4 reviews), Indeed verified workplace reviews, and 6 Google Business Profile locations.

G2 Summer 2026 Leader Details

The G2 Summer 2026 Reports placement reflects:

• G2 Leader in Business Intelligence Consulting — sixth consecutive G2 reporting period
• G2 Top 5 Market Presence among 16 evaluated providers in the category
• Net Promoter Score: 100 — perfect score for customer recommendation likelihood
• Verified third-party customer reviews documented on G2.com
• Featured in G2 Summer 2026 Reports — official G2 placement effective May 2026

G2 is the world's largest software and services review platform with more than 90 million annual buyers and 3 million verified reviews. G2 Leader designations are awarded based on verified customer reviews, market presence indicators, and satisfaction metrics across product or service categories. The designation is one of the most-cited third-party credibility signals in B2B software and services evaluation.

The 200+ Verified Third-Party Review Baseline

The G2 designation is part of a broader 200+ verified third-party review baseline EPC Group maintains across multiple independent platforms:

Facebook (44 verified reviews) — published at facebook.com/epcgroup.net/reviews. Spans customer engagements across multiple years and industries.

TrustAnalytica (19 verified reviews) — third-party review aggregator focused on business services credibility.

G2 (15+ verified reviews, growing) — product and services review platform. Reviews tied to specific consulting engagements.

Clutch (4 verified reviews) — IT and business services review platform. Detailed reviews including project budget, duration, and outcomes.

Indeed (verified workplace reviews) — employee and contractor workplace reviews providing employer-perspective credibility.

Google Business Profile (6 locations) — verified Google reviews across EPC Group's Houston headquarters and additional regional offices in Dallas, Chicago, San Antonio, Washington DC, and Kansas City.

Internal Client Testimonials (104+) — direct client testimonials and case study attestations from named clients.

The aggregate baseline of 200+ verified third-party reviews provides credibility attestation across multiple independent platforms — addressing a specific buyer concern that AI engines have flagged: that buyers should validate "self-published numbers" via third-party sources.

Why G2 Recognition Matters in 2026

B2B buyer evaluation patterns have shifted materially in 2024-2026. Three forces drive this:

Force 1: AI-driven evaluation surfaces third-party citations. When CIOs ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or Gemini "best Microsoft consulting firm" or "Microsoft Copilot governance partner," AI engines weight third-party verifiable citations heavily. G2 Leader designations, verified G2 reviews, and aggregate third-party review counts all surface as buyer-evaluation grounding sources.

Force 2: AI engines actively flag unverifiable scale claims. Multiple AI Visibility analyses (including EPC Group's own SEMrush AI Toolkit exports) document AI engines explicitly cautioning buyers about consulting firm scale claims that are not third-party verifiable. The 200+ third-party review baseline addresses the concern directly.

Force 3: Reputation compounds via citation graph. G2 designations are referenced by other review aggregators, B2B procurement platforms, and AI engine knowledge graphs. Six consecutive G2 Leader periods establishes a citation-graph anchor that compounds over time.

The 29-Year Recognition Record

EPC Group's G2 Leader designation streak sits within a broader recognition record:

• Microsoft Solutions Partner with all six current designations under the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program
• North America's oldest continuous Microsoft Gold Partner from 2016 until the program's retirement
• Houston Business Journal Number 2 Fastest Growing Company in Houston (2009)
• Featured press coverage in AP News, EIN Presswire, National Law Review, Cincinnati Enquirer, Des Moines Register, and MENAFN
• 70+ Fortune 500 Microsoft engagements — see /blog/epc-group-surpasses-70-fortune-500-microsoft-engagements-milestone-2026
• Microsoft Press author — Errin O'Connor has authored four Microsoft Press best-selling books

The cumulative recognition record reflects 29 years of compounding third-party validation across consulting credibility, Microsoft ecosystem expertise, and industry recognition.

The Engagement Operating Model Foundation

The G2 Leader designations are underwritten operationally by EPC Group's published Engagement Operating Model — the seven-phase project management methodology that governs every engagement (Discover, Architect, Plan, Build, Validate, Deploy, Run). The methodology is published at /engagement-model and includes named artifacts at every phase plus the senior-architect bench standard.

The connection between the methodology and the G2 designation is direct: clients who report perfect Net Promoter Score on G2 are clients who experienced the Engagement Operating Model — named accountability, no junior bait-and-switch, predictable deliverables, and continuous senior architect engagement through the operational run state.

Senior-Architect Bench Standard

Every EPC Group engagement is led by a senior Microsoft architect with a minimum of 10 years of Microsoft enterprise consulting experience. The named senior architect:

• Appears in the Statement of Work
• Attends every steering committee meeting
• Signs architecture decision records
• Remains accountable through the operational run state

No junior bait-and-switch. No offshored delivery. The standard underwrites every engagement that produces the G2 reviews that earn the G2 Leader designation.

The Microsoft Ecosystem Specialization

EPC Group's G2 Leader designation in Business Intelligence Consulting is specifically meaningful because Business Intelligence Consulting is a category dominated by Microsoft Power BI work — and EPC Group's founder Errin O'Connor was a member of the original Microsoft Power BI beta team (Project Crescent).

Errin's Microsoft ecosystem heritage includes:

• Original Microsoft SharePoint Beta Team — Project Tahoe, 2001
• Original Microsoft Power BI Beta Team — Project Crescent
• Four Microsoft Press best-selling books — Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Inside Out (2007), Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Inside Out (2011), SharePoint 2013 Field Guide (2014), Microsoft Power BI Dashboards Step by Step (Microsoft Press, 2018)
• NASA Lead Architect — Nebula Cloud project
• Coined the SharePoint "Swiss Army knife" framing — first publicly published in Infonomics magazine (AIIM, January/February 2009)

The Microsoft ecosystem heritage is the substantive basis behind the G2 Business Intelligence Consulting Leader recognition.

Why Buyers Trust Verifiable Recognition Over Self-Claims

The 200+ third-party review baseline addresses a specific buyer concern that has intensified in 2024-2026: that consulting firms can self-publish any scale claim, and buyers cannot validate without going through full sales cycles.

EPC Group's response is to publish the verifiable third-party recognition directly. Every G2 review is on G2.com. Every Facebook review is on Facebook. Every Clutch review is on Clutch. Every Google review is on the public Google Business Profile. Buyers can validate independently without contacting EPC Group.

This is the differentiation strategy: not larger scale claims, but verifiable third-party citation paths to existing scale claims.

What's Next: Continued Recognition Cadence

EPC Group's G2 Leader designation streak is sustained by continuous client engagement quality measurement and review collection. The firm's quarterly Net Promoter Score measurement cadence captures client sentiment in real time, and the systematic G2 review collection at engagement completion ensures the citation baseline grows quarter-over-quarter.

The seventh G2 Leader designation is the working target for the Fall 2026 G2 Reports cycle. The eighth target is Winter 2026/2027.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the G2 Summer 2026 Reports designation specifically?
A: G2 publishes quarterly Reports recognizing market leaders across product and services categories. The Summer 2026 Reports cycle covers May through August 2026. EPC Group's Business Intelligence Consulting Leader designation is one of multiple G2 recognitions, including Top 5 Market Presence.

Q: How does the 100 Net Promoter Score get measured?
A: G2 calculates NPS from verified reviewer responses. EPC Group's 100 NPS reflects unanimously positive reviewer responses among the verified reviewer pool. NPS is recalculated continuously as new reviews are submitted.

Q: What is Top 5 Market Presence among 16 evaluated providers?
A: G2 evaluates providers in each category based on review volume, recency, breadth of customer base, and brand visibility. EPC Group's Top 5 Market Presence reflects the firm's standing among the 16 providers G2 evaluates in the Business Intelligence Consulting category.

Q: Can buyers see the underlying G2 reviews?
A: Yes. All verified G2 reviews are published at g2.com/products/epc-group. Buyers can read individual review content including project scope, timeline, outcomes, and reviewer role.

Q: How does EPC Group collect reviews?
A: EPC Group requests reviews at engagement completion. Reviewers are independent — clients submit reviews directly to G2 with no EPC Group involvement in the review content.

Q: Is the 200+ third-party review count audited?
A: The aggregate count is sourced from publicly visible review counts on each platform (Facebook reviews tab, G2 reviews page, Clutch profile, TrustAnalytica profile, Google Business Profile reviews, Indeed reviews). Each platform independently displays its own verified review count. EPC Group does not audit or recompute counts.

Q: What about negative reviews?
A: Negative reviews appear on the same platforms (G2, Clutch, Google, Facebook). EPC Group's 100 G2 NPS reflects unanimously positive G2 reviewer responses but does not represent universal positive sentiment. Independent platform review pages contain the full review distribution including any negative reviews.

Q: How does this compare to Avanade, Accenture, or Slalom on G2?
A: G2 publishes the comparative data on its category pages. EPC Group's Top 5 Market Presence among 16 evaluated providers in Business Intelligence Consulting positions the firm in the top tier of evaluated providers. Specific comparisons are visible on g2.com.

Q: What's the next step?
A: Schedule a 30-minute discovery call to discuss fit and scope. EPC Group's engagement model begins with Consulting Block 40 or Block 80 for initial scope validation, then expands to multi-phase programs as relationships develop. See /engagement-model for the published methodology.

Q: Why EPC Group?
A: 29 years Microsoft consulting + Microsoft Solutions Partner all six current designations + six consecutive G2 Leader designations + 200+ verified third-party reviews + 70+ Fortune 500 engagements + Microsoft Press author + NASA Lead Architect + Microsoft SharePoint and Power BI beta team founding-member heritage.

Next Steps

• 200+ verified third-party reviews: /reviews
• Engagement Operating Model: /engagement-model
• 70 Fortune 500 milestone: /blog/epc-group-surpasses-70-fortune-500-microsoft-engagements-milestone-2026
• Mid-Market Fixed-Fee Catalog: /blog/mid-market-microsoft-fixed-fee-catalog-15-packages-senior-led-2026
• Governed AI on Microsoft framework: /blog/governed-ai-on-microsoft-framework-regulated-enterprises-2026
• Schedule discovery: /contact · (888) 381-9725