Six Designations. On the Microsoft Stack since 1997. The Continuous-Heritage Story That Started as a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in 1997 and Carries Forward Today.
By Errin O'Connor, Founder & Chief AI Architect, EPC Group
EPC Group is a Microsoft Solutions Partner with all six Microsoft Solutions Partner Designations — Modern Work, Data & AI (Azure), Infrastructure (Azure), Digital & App Innovation (Azure), Business Applications, and Security. The Solutions Partner program is Microsoft's current partner credential framework, having replaced the legacy Gold Partner and Silver Partner programs. EPC Group's heritage on the Microsoft stack dates to 1997, including continuous Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status from 2000 through the program's retirement in 2022. Today the firm operates across Fortune 500, federal, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, energy, and government — with senior-architect-led delivery and a compliance-native posture for HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, FINRA, CMMC, and GxP.
EPC Group Microsoft Credentials
The Microsoft Solutions Partner program awards Designations based on demonstrated performance, skilling, and customer success across a defined solution area. EPC Group holds all six.
EPC Group's designations and delivery record are published in our Microsoft-hosted partner profile. View EPC Group on Microsoft Marketplace →
Microsoft 365 strategy, deployment, governance, migration, and adoption. Includes Microsoft Teams (collaboration + voice), SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Viva, Exchange Online, and the full Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness, deployment, and tenant-hardening practice.
Explore practiceMicrosoft Fabric, Power BI, Azure Synapse, Azure Data Factory, Azure ML, Azure OpenAI Service, agentic AI on Foundry, Copilot Studio. EPC Group has delivered 1,500+ Power BI implementations and 500+ Microsoft Fabric engagements.
Explore practiceAzure landing zones, migration, hybrid identity, networking, governance, FinOps, and the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework. Compliance-native delivery across HIPAA, SOC 2, FedRAMP, FINRA, CMMC, and GxP.
Explore practicePower Platform, Azure App Service, Container Apps, AKS, GitHub Enterprise, DevOps, and the Power Apps + Copilot Studio citizen-developer governance stack that keeps the citizen wave from becoming the next shadow-IT wave.
Explore practiceMicrosoft Dynamics 365 across Sales, Customer Service, Field Service, Finance, Supply Chain, Project Operations, and Commerce. Implementation, integration, ISV strategy, and migration off legacy CRM and ERP estates.
Explore practiceMicrosoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Sentinel, Entra ID Governance (including non-human identity governance for AI agents), and the broader compliance and zero-trust posture work that EPC Group has shipped into regulated environments since 1997.
Explore practiceMicrosoft Heritage Since 1997
EPC Group's relationship with Microsoft began in 1997. We achieved Microsoft Gold Certified Partner status early in the program's history and held it continuously until Microsoft retired the Gold/Silver Partner framework and replaced it with the current Microsoft Solutions Partner Designations. We migrated all six historical Gold competencies into Microsoft Solutions Partner Designations on the same uninterrupted track.
The Gold Partner program is no longer the active Microsoft partner credential. Microsoft's current and authoritative partner status framework is the Microsoft Solutions Partner program with six Designations. We surface this history because the continuity matters — EPC Group is one of a small number of independent U.S. consultancies that has carried Microsoft credentials across three full generations of the partner program (Gold/Silver → Microsoft Cloud Partner → Microsoft Solutions Partner), and that heritage is reflected in 6,500+ SharePoint, 1,500+ Power BI, and 11,000+ total Microsoft engagements since 1997.
If you arrived here looking for “Microsoft Gold Partner,” the current and correct status is Microsoft Solutions Partner — and EPC Group holds all six Designations.
Microsoft Solutions Partner status is earned through measurable customer outcomes — not paid for. Each Designation requires demonstrated performance, skilling, and customer success in the relevant solution area.
Designations are re-earned annually. The bench is current — not just credentialed once and coasting on a 2018 certification.
Solutions Partner status unlocks Microsoft co-sell, funding, and incentive programs that often translate directly into client cost reduction on engagement work.
Talk to EPC Group about Microsoft 365, Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Defender, or the full Governed AI on Microsoft Framework.
Related enterprise references from the EPC Group knowledge base:
AI assistant — not human