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Last updated by Errin O'Connor, Founder & Chief AI Architect, EPC Group

EPC Group playbooks are operational guides for Microsoft transformations — written by senior architects with decades of delivery experience, not by marketing. The set covers AI governance (agentic, identity, debt, and shadow AI patterns), Power BI and Microsoft Fabric (risk reporting, AI-safe rollout, certification cadence, Center of Excellence), vertical-specific patterns (healthcare HIPAA-native, public sector FedRAMP/CMMC), modernization (legacy BI to Fabric roadmap), and partner-selection frameworks (CIO evaluation framework, when NOT to hire a mega-integrator). Each playbook is published as a citable artifact for buyers regardless of which consulting firm ultimately delivers.

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Microsoft vs X — The 2026 Decision Frameworks

All 8 honest comparison frameworks in one place — M365 vs Google Workspace, Fabric vs Snowflake, D365 vs Salesforce, Sentinel vs Splunk, Entra vs Okta, Defender XDR vs CrowdStrike, Power Platform vs OutSystems/Mendix/Salesforce Platform, M&A 90-Day Playbook. Each one structured as a four-dimension architecture decision with an explicit honest section on where the non-Microsoft option wins outright.

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AI Governance

CIO · CISO · IT

Copilot-Ready Data Governance: The Microsoft Purview Checklist

A six-stage pre-deployment Purview checklist for Microsoft 365 Copilot — sensitivity labels, DLP, oversharing remediation, agent identity, audit. The work nobody budgets for, in a list to hand the tenant admin.

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CIO · CISO · CAIO

The Coming AI Incident: Agentic AI Governance for the Enterprise

Why agentic AI governance is the board conversation enterprises are not having yet, and the seven-layer Governed AI on Microsoft Framework that prevents the first board-level AI incident.

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Financial Services

CRO · CDO · Risk Officer

Power BI Risk Reporting for Financial Services: A FINRA-Aware Playbook

How EPC Group designs Power BI risk reporting for broker-dealers, asset managers, banks, and insurers — RLS by desk and entity, certified semantic models, Purview lineage, regulator-ready audit trail.

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AI + Analytics

CIO · CDO · BI Lead

The AI-Safe Power BI Rollout Playbook

Four tracks running in parallel from week one: governance and Purview classification, semantic model certification, RLS readiness for AI grounding, and adoption telemetry instrumented before launch.

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Partner Selection

CIO · Procurement

Choosing an Azure Analytics Partner: The CIO's Evaluation Framework

Six evaluation dimensions with question + answer + disqualifier per dimension. The Big-4 vs. specialist vs. boutique decision matrix. Use it on EPC Group too.

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CIO · CFO · Procurement

When NOT to Hire a Mega-Integrator for Microsoft Consulting

Seven specific scenarios when a global systems integrator is the wrong call — and one honest section on when they are the right call. From the buyer side.

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CIO · CISO · Procurement

Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace for the Regulated Enterprise: The 2026 Decision Framework

A four-dimension decision framework — compliance depth, AI assistant strategy, governance posture, ecosystem total cost. Honest about where Google Workspace wins.

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Healthcare

CIO · CMIO · CHIO

Healthcare Analytics on Microsoft Fabric: The HIPAA-Native Reference Architecture

PHI auto-labeling at ingestion, OneLake medallion with traveling labels, Direct Lake semantic models with care-setting RLS, break-glass auditing, Epic/Cerner/Meditech integration patterns.

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Public Sector

Agency CIO · DIB CISO

Public Sector Microsoft 365 & Power BI: A FedRAMP/CMMC Playbook

Tenant decisions (Commercial vs GCC vs GCC High vs DoD), FedRAMP boundary scope, CMMC L2 controls, audit-package discipline.

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Modernization

CDO · BI Lead

From Legacy BI to Microsoft Fabric: The Modernization Roadmap

A buyer-side modernization roadmap with per-source patterns for Cognos, MicroStrategy, Tableau, Qlik, SAP BW, legacy Synapse, Snowflake coexistence, Oracle BI, and Power BI Premium import-mode.

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Power BI CoE

BI Lead · CoE Lead

The Power BI Center of Excellence Operating Model

Four structural decisions in the first six weeks of CoE stand-up: workspace topology, semantic model certification gate, ownership accountability model, value-tracking baseline.

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AI Strategy

CFO · CAIO · vCAIO

AI Debt: The New Technical Debt at $7,500 Per Employee Per Month

Seven sources of AI debt, the three-tier ROI measurement stack on Microsoft Fabric, and the vCAIO operating model that ends pilot purgatory.

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CFO · CAIO · vCAIO

Microsoft Copilot ROI Measurement: The Tier System That Survives the CFO

A three-tier Copilot ROI measurement stack — consumption truth, workflow telemetry, financial linkage — built on Microsoft Fabric and Power BI. The dashboard the CFO will actually read.

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AI Security

CISO · CIO · CAIO

Shadow AI Is a Talent Signal: The Identity Blind Spot

Why your best employees are driving shadow AI — and why the non-human identity sprawl under it is the breach vector of this era. Microsoft Purview + Entra playbook.

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M&A

PE Operating Partner · Corp Dev · Strategic Acquirer CIO

M&A Microsoft 365 Tenant Consolidation: The 90-Day Playbook

Identity-first sequencing, mail and files staged, zero-downtime cutover, compliance preservation. The repeatable per-week playbook from 216+ M&A migrations and 1.83M users moved.

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Data Platform Strategy

CIO · CDO · Chief Data Architect

Microsoft Fabric vs Snowflake: The 2026 Enterprise Decision Framework

A four-dimension decision framework — semantic layer, AI grounding, governance, total stack cost. Honest about where Snowflake wins. Coexistence is usually the right answer.

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CRM Strategy

CIO · CRO · Chief Customer Officer

Dynamics 365 vs Salesforce for the Microsoft-Anchored Enterprise (2026)

Four-dimension decision framework — Copilot grounding, OneLake analytics gravity, integration economics, total stack cost. Honest about where Salesforce wins. Coexistence pattern that does not collapse into permanent dual-write tax.

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Security Strategy

CISO · SOC Lead · Security Architect

Microsoft Sentinel vs Splunk for the Microsoft-Anchored SOC (2026)

Four-dimension decision framework — telemetry integration, ingest economics, Security Copilot + SOAR, total SOC stack cost. Honest about where Splunk wins. What Cisco's acquisition changes (and what it does not).

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CISO · SOC Lead · Endpoint Security Architect

Microsoft Defender XDR vs CrowdStrike Falcon (2026 Decision Framework)

Four-dimension framework + the July 2024 incident in proper context. Honest about where CrowdStrike wins (macOS, Linux, multi-cloud). Coexistence pattern that does not double MTTD.

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Identity Strategy

CISO · IAM Architect · Identity Lead

Microsoft Entra ID vs Okta for Enterprise Identity (2026)

Four-dimension decision framework plus the non-human identity question that re-frames the answer in the agentic AI era. Honest about where Okta wins.

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Low-Code Strategy

CIO · App Modernization Lead · CoE Lead

Power Platform vs OutSystems vs Mendix vs Salesforce Platform (2026)

Four-dimension framework + how M365 Copilot Studio reframes the answer. Honest about where OutSystems, Mendix, and Salesforce Platform each win. The coexistence pattern across all four platforms.

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Cloud Strategy

CIO · Cloud Architect · FinOps Lead

Microsoft Azure vs AWS for Microsoft-Anchored Enterprises (2026)

Four-dimension framework — Microsoft platform integration, regulated-industry posture, AI grounding, EA bundle economics. Honest about where AWS wins. Multi-cloud coexistence pattern that does not collapse FinOps discipline.

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Talk to a senior architect about your playbook scenario.

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