Microsoft Managed Services & Governance Tiers
Ongoing stewardship for your entire Microsoft environment. Three productized tiers with SLA-backed support, proactive governance, and compliance monitoring — because implementation is the starting line, not the finish line.
Why Managed Services: From Project to Partnership
What are EPC Group's managed services tiers? EPC Group offers three productized managed services tiers for Microsoft environments: Essentials ($3,500/month) with monthly health checks, security reviews, governance audits, 8x5 email support, and quarterly reporting. Advanced ($8,500/month) adds 24/7 phone support, performance tuning, capacity management, incident response SLAs, and bi-weekly check-ins. Enterprise Co-Managed ($15,000+/month) includes a dedicated engineering team, DR/backup management, Copilot governance, compliance monitoring for HIPAA/SOC 2/FedRAMP, weekly strategy calls, and custom operational dashboards. All tiers cover Power BI, Microsoft 365, Azure, and SharePoint with defined SLAs and governance framework documentation.
Every major Microsoft implementation follows a predictable pattern. A consulting firm spends months designing the architecture, migrating data, configuring security, and training users. Then the project ends. The consulting team moves on. Your internal IT inherits an environment they did not design, with configurations they did not choose, supporting business processes they were not part of defining. Within 6-12 months, governance erodes. Power BI reports break because nobody is monitoring dataset refreshes. Azure costs creep up 30% because resource utilization is not being tracked. SharePoint sites proliferate with no naming conventions, no retention policies, and no external sharing controls. A security incident happens at 2am and nobody responds until morning.
This is not a technology problem. It is a stewardship problem. Microsoft environments are living systems that require ongoing governance, optimization, and expert oversight. The organizations that get the most value from their Microsoft investment are the ones that treat operations as a continuous discipline — not a one-time project. EPC Group's managed services solve this by providing the ongoing stewardship your environment needs, delivered by the same team that built it.
Unlike generic managed services providers who apply one-size-fits-all monitoring templates, EPC Group brings 25+ years of Microsoft consulting expertise and institutional knowledge of your specific environment. We designed your architecture. We understand your compliance requirements, your data flows, and your business context. That depth of knowledge makes our managed services fundamentally different — and fundamentally more effective.
We have productized our managed services into three clear tiers so you know exactly what you are getting, what it costs, and what SLAs protect you. No ambiguity. No hidden fees. No scope creep. Choose the tier that matches your organization's needs, and scale up or down as those needs evolve.
Three Managed Services Tiers
Each tier builds on the previous one. Start where you need to and scale as your environment grows.
Essentials
$3,500/mo
Business Hours (8x5)
4-hour P1 Response
Organizations with 50-200 users seeking governance oversight and periodic optimization
- Monthly environment health checks
- Security configuration review
- Governance audit and documentation
- 8x5 email support (business hours)
- Quarterly operational reporting
- Power BI dataset monitoring and refresh checks
- M365 license management and optimization
- SharePoint governance review
- Azure resource utilization baseline
- Patch compliance monitoring
Advanced
$8,500/mo
24/7 Phone & Email Support
1-hour P1 Response
Organizations with 200-1,000 users needing proactive monitoring and 24/7 incident response
- Everything in Essentials
- 24/7 phone and email support
- Performance tuning and capacity management
- Incident response with defined SLAs
- Bi-weekly check-in calls
- Proactive monitoring and automated alerting
- Power BI Premium capacity optimization
- Microsoft Defender security monitoring
- Azure cost optimization reviews (monthly)
- Named account manager and engineering team
- Root cause analysis for P1/P2 incidents
Enterprise Co-Managed
$15,000+/mo
24/7/365 Dedicated Coverage
15-minute P1 Response
Organizations with 1,000+ users, regulated industries, or mission-critical Microsoft workloads
- Everything in Advanced
- Dedicated engineering team (named resources)
- Disaster recovery and backup management
- Copilot governance and usage monitoring
- Compliance monitoring (HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP)
- Weekly strategy and roadmap calls
- Custom operational dashboards
- Executive quarterly business reviews
- Microsoft Sentinel SIEM management
- Automated compliance evidence collection
- Technology roadmap advisory
- Priority access to EPC consulting resources
Tier Comparison at a Glance
Side-by-side comparison of what each tier delivers across support, governance, and coverage.
| Capability | Essentials $3,500/mo | Advanced $8,500/mo | Enterprise $15,000+/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support Hours | 8x5 Email | 24/7 Phone & Email | 24/7/365 Dedicated |
| P1 Response Time | 4 hours | 1 hour | 15 minutes |
| P2 Response Time | 8 hours | 2 hours | 30 minutes |
| Health Checks | Monthly | Bi-weekly | Weekly |
| Security Review | Quarterly | Monthly | Continuous |
| Governance Audit | Quarterly | Monthly | Continuous + Automated |
| Performance Tuning | -- | Included | Included + Proactive |
| Capacity Management | -- | Included | Included + Forecasting |
| Named Account Manager | -- | Included | Dedicated Team |
| Status Calls | Quarterly | Bi-weekly | Weekly |
| Copilot Governance | -- | -- | Included |
| Compliance Monitoring | -- | Basic | Full (HIPAA/SOC 2/FedRAMP) |
| DR/Backup Management | -- | -- | Included |
| Sentinel SIEM | -- | -- | Fully Managed |
| Custom Dashboards | -- | Standard | Custom + Executive |
| Strategic Advisory | -- | Quarterly | Weekly |
What's Covered: Full Microsoft Stack
Every tier covers your entire Microsoft environment — the depth of coverage scales with the tier.
Power BI & Analytics
Monthly health checks, refresh monitoring, governance audit
+ Capacity optimization, performance tuning, proactive alerting
+ Dedicated BI engineer, Copilot governance, executive dashboards, data lineage
Microsoft 365
User provisioning support, license optimization, policy review
+ 24/7 monitoring, security incident response, conditional access management
+ Full tenant management, Purview DLP, Copilot governance, lifecycle management
Azure Infrastructure
Resource utilization review, cost baseline, security posture check
+ Cost optimization, scaling recommendations, VM patching, backup verification
+ Full infrastructure management, DR testing, Sentinel SIEM, capacity planning
SharePoint & Teams
Site governance audit, external sharing review, storage monitoring
+ Performance monitoring, information architecture optimization
+ Full administration, Premium integration, custom development support
SLA Definitions by Severity
Clear severity classifications with measurable response commitments. No ambiguity.
P1 — Critical
System down or severely degraded. All or most users affected. Business operations halted.
Examples: Exchange Online outage, Azure VM crash, SharePoint inaccessible, security breach detected
P2 — High
Major feature impaired. Multiple users affected. Workaround may exist but is not sustainable.
Examples: Power BI refresh failures, Teams call quality issues, Intune policy deployment failure
P3 — Medium
Minor feature impaired. Limited user impact. Workaround available.
Examples: Single user access issue, non-critical report error, cosmetic SharePoint issue
P4 — Low
Enhancement request, non-urgent change, or informational inquiry.
Examples: New user provisioning, license change, policy update request, documentation
Governance Framework Included
Every tier includes a living governance framework — not a static document, but an actively enforced set of policies reviewed and updated on your tier's cadence. Learn more about our security-first governance architecture.
Access & Identity Governance
Conditional Access policy management, Entra ID security reviews, privileged identity management, guest access controls, and role-based access enforcement across all Microsoft services.
Data Classification & Protection
Sensitivity labeling policies, Microsoft Purview DLP rules, information barriers, retention and disposal policies, and data loss prevention monitoring with incident investigation.
Workspace & Tenant Governance
SharePoint site provisioning policies, Teams creation controls, Power BI workspace naming conventions, Microsoft 365 group lifecycle management, and storage quota enforcement.
Copilot & AI Governance
Copilot usage monitoring, prompt data exposure prevention, AI-generated content policies, Copilot license optimization, and governance guardrails for responsible AI usage across your organization.
Compliance & Audit Readiness
Automated evidence collection for HIPAA, SOC 2, and FedRAMP audits. Compliance scorecards, policy violation alerting, eDiscovery management, and audit log retention and analysis.
Performance & Cost Governance
Azure spend governance with budget alerts and allocation tagging. Power BI capacity utilization tracking. M365 license reclamation automation. Monthly cost optimization reports with actionable recommendations.
How It Works: Onboarding in 4 Weeks
From signed agreement to fully managed operations in 30 days. No disruption to your team.
Discovery & Assessment
- Full Microsoft environment inventory
- Compliance requirement mapping
- Current pain points and priorities
- Baseline performance metrics
- Stakeholder identification and RACI
Monitoring & Tooling
- Monitoring agent deployment
- Alert threshold configuration
- Operational dashboard builds
- Ticketing system integration
- Baseline anomaly detection
Process Integration
- Escalation path documentation
- Runbook creation for common procedures
- Team training on engagement model
- Communication cadence setup
- Governance framework initialization
Go-Live
- Active monitoring begins
- Initial findings remediation
- First status call held
- SLA clock starts
- Steady-state operations confirmed
ROI of Managed Services
Managed services are not an expense — they are an investment that pays for itself through cost savings, risk reduction, and operational efficiency.
40-60%
Cost Savings vs In-House
Compared to hiring 2-3 FTE Microsoft administrators at $350K-$500K/year in loaded costs
20-40%
Azure Cost Reduction
Through continuous optimization, reserved instance recommendations, and unused resource cleanup
90%
Less Unplanned Downtime
Proactive monitoring detects and resolves issues before they impact users
75%
Faster Incident Resolution
Defined runbooks and SLAs with experienced engineers who know your environment
| Cost Factor | In-House (2-3 FTEs) | EPC Advanced Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Cost | $350,000-$500,000 (salary + benefits + training + tools) | $102,000/year ($8,500/month) |
| Coverage | Business hours only, gaps during PTO/sick days | 24/7/365, no coverage gaps |
| Expertise | 2-3 generalists covering all Microsoft services | Team of 10+ specialists across Azure, M365, Security, Power BI |
| Hiring Risk | 67-day average time to hire, 20%+ annual turnover | Zero recruitment risk — EPC handles staffing |
| Azure Optimization | Rarely prioritized (staff busy firefighting) | 20-40% cost reduction in first 90 days |
| Compliance | Manual, periodic, audit-driven | Continuous, automated evidence collection |
| Scalability | Months to hire additional staff | Scale up or down monthly |
From Project to Partnership
The most successful Microsoft environments are not the ones with the best initial implementation — they are the ones with the best ongoing stewardship. Technology evolves. Microsoft releases new capabilities monthly. Copilot, Fabric, Azure AI Foundry, SharePoint Premium — these are not one-time features, they are platforms that require continuous governance, optimization, and strategic alignment with your business objectives.
EPC Group managed services transform the traditional consulting relationship from episodic projects into a continuous partnership. Your dedicated engineering team does not disappear after go-live. They monitor your environment daily, optimize performance weekly, review governance monthly, and align your technology roadmap with your business strategy quarterly. This is what “monetizing governance lifetime” actually means — not selling you more projects, but ensuring the projects we have already delivered continue to generate maximum value for your organization year after year.
Whether you need basic governance oversight at $3,500 per month or a full co-managed engineering team at $15,000+ per month, EPC Group has a tier designed for your organization's size, complexity, and compliance requirements. Explore our full consulting services to see how managed services fit within your broader Microsoft strategy.
Already an EPC Group consulting client?
Existing clients receive a seamless transition to managed services. Your project team transfers institutional knowledge directly to your managed services team — no re-discovery, no knowledge gaps, no ramp-up period. This continuity is one of the strongest advantages of choosing EPC Group for both implementation and ongoing stewardship. Contact your account manager or reach out to our team to discuss your managed services options.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does EPC Group offer managed services for ongoing Power BI governance and support?
Yes. Every EPC Group managed services tier includes Power BI governance and support. The Essentials tier ($3,500/month) covers monthly Power BI health checks, dataset refresh monitoring, and governance audit reviews. The Advanced tier ($8,500/month) adds performance tuning, Premium capacity management, proactive alerting on report failures, and bi-weekly optimization reviews. The Enterprise Co-Managed tier ($15,000+/month) includes a dedicated Power BI engineering resource, custom executive dashboards, Copilot governance for Power BI, automated data lineage documentation, and weekly strategy sessions to align your analytics roadmap with business objectives. All tiers include report maintenance, security role audits, workspace governance enforcement, and RLS (Row-Level Security) validation.
Can EPC Group provide 24/7 support for our Microsoft 365 environment?
Yes. EPC Group provides 24/7 Microsoft 365 support through the Advanced ($8,500/month) and Enterprise Co-Managed ($15,000+/month) tiers. The Advanced tier includes 24/7 phone support with a 1-hour P1 response SLA, covering Exchange Online, SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Intune, and Entra ID. The Enterprise Co-Managed tier extends this with a dedicated support team that knows your environment by name, 15-minute critical incident response, proactive service health monitoring, and automated remediation for common M365 issues. Both tiers include incident escalation through Microsoft Premier Support channels when needed. The Essentials tier provides 8x5 email support with next-business-day response for non-critical issues.
What are EPC Group managed services tiers?
EPC Group offers three productized managed services tiers: Essentials ($3,500/month) for organizations that need monthly governance health checks, security reviews, 8x5 email support, and quarterly reporting across Power BI, Microsoft 365, Azure, and SharePoint. Advanced ($8,500/month) for organizations that require 24/7 phone support, performance tuning, capacity management, incident response SLAs (1-hour P1), bi-weekly check-ins, and proactive monitoring. Enterprise Co-Managed ($15,000+/month) for organizations that need a dedicated engineering team, disaster recovery management, Copilot governance, compliance monitoring for HIPAA/SOC 2/FedRAMP, weekly strategy calls, and custom operational dashboards. Each tier builds on the previous one, and all tiers include governance framework documentation, SLA reporting, and coverage across the full Microsoft stack.
How is EPC Group managed services different from a generic MSP?
EPC Group is not a generic managed services provider that monitors tickets. We are the consulting firm that designs, builds, and governs enterprise Microsoft environments. The difference is institutional knowledge: we understand your architecture because we built it. Generic MSPs apply cookie-cutter monitoring templates. EPC Group applies governance frameworks tailored to your compliance requirements, data classification policies, and business processes. Our managed services include strategic advisory — quarterly business reviews, technology roadmap alignment, and proactive recommendations for new Microsoft capabilities like Copilot, Fabric, and Azure AI. We also maintain dedicated engineering teams (not rotating help desk staff) who know your environment, your stakeholders, and your priorities.
What SLA response times does each tier include?
SLA response times vary by tier and severity. Essentials tier: P1 Critical — 4-hour response (business hours), P2 High — 8-hour response, P3 Medium — next business day, P4 Low — 2 business days. Advanced tier: P1 Critical — 1-hour response (24/7), P2 High — 2-hour response, P3 Medium — 4-hour response, P4 Low — next business day. Enterprise Co-Managed tier: P1 Critical — 15-minute response (24/7), P2 High — 30-minute response, P3 Medium — 2-hour response, P4 Low — 4-hour response. All tiers include monthly SLA compliance reporting. The Enterprise tier also includes root cause analysis (RCA) for every P1 and P2 incident, and proactive trend analysis to prevent recurring issues.
What governance frameworks are included with managed services?
Every managed services tier includes a governance framework tailored to your environment. This covers: data classification and sensitivity labeling policies, access control and conditional access policy management, SharePoint and Teams governance (site creation policies, external sharing controls, retention policies), Power BI workspace and dataset governance (naming conventions, certification workflow, refresh schedules), Azure resource tagging and cost allocation policies, and Microsoft 365 group and Teams lifecycle management. The Advanced and Enterprise tiers add Copilot governance (prompt monitoring, data exposure prevention, usage analytics) and compliance-specific frameworks for HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, and GDPR. Governance documentation is maintained as living documents and reviewed quarterly (Essentials), bi-weekly (Advanced), or weekly (Enterprise).
Can we start with Essentials and upgrade to a higher tier later?
Yes. EPC Group managed services are designed to scale with your organization. Many clients start with the Essentials tier to establish governance baselines and monitoring, then upgrade to Advanced when they need 24/7 coverage or proactive performance tuning. The upgrade process takes 1-2 weeks: we expand monitoring coverage, activate 24/7 alerting, assign additional engineering resources, and update your SLA agreements. There is no penalty for tier changes, and we provide 30-day notice periods for downgrades. We also offer custom hybrid configurations — for example, Enterprise-tier coverage for your Azure and security environments with Advanced-tier coverage for Microsoft 365.
What is the onboarding process for managed services?
EPC Group managed services onboarding follows a structured 4-week process. Week 1: Discovery and Assessment — we inventory all Microsoft resources (Azure subscriptions, M365 tenants, Power BI workspaces, SharePoint sites), document current configurations, identify compliance requirements, and establish baseline metrics. Week 2: Monitoring and Tooling — we deploy monitoring agents, configure alert thresholds, build operational dashboards, and integrate with your ticketing system (ServiceNow, Jira, or our portal). Week 3: Process Integration — we define escalation paths, train your team on the engagement model, establish communication cadences, and document runbooks for common procedures. Week 4: Go-Live — active monitoring begins, initial findings are remediated, first status call is held, and steady-state operations are confirmed. After Week 4, your environment is under full managed governance with your assigned engineering team.
What ROI can we expect from managed services versus hiring in-house?
Organizations that move to EPC Group managed services typically realize 40-60% cost savings compared to equivalent in-house staffing. A concrete example: hiring 2 Microsoft administrators and 1 security analyst costs $350,000-$500,000/year in loaded costs (salary, benefits, training, tools, facilities). EPC Group Advanced tier at $8,500/month ($102,000/year) delivers broader coverage from a team of 10+ specialists with 24/7 availability — a 60-70% cost reduction with superior expertise depth. Beyond direct cost savings, managed services deliver measurable operational ROI: 20-40% Azure cost reduction through continuous optimization, 90% reduction in unplanned downtime through proactive monitoring, 75% faster incident resolution through defined runbooks and SLAs, and elimination of recruitment risk (average IT hire takes 67 days and 20% leave within the first year).
Stop Managing Microsoft Alone
Schedule a free managed services assessment. We will evaluate your Microsoft environment, identify governance gaps, and recommend the right tier — with a detailed cost comparison showing exactly how managed services delivers better coverage at lower cost than in-house staffing.