Six Microsoft-stack capabilities under one roof
Power Platform (low-code)
Power Apps (canvas + model-driven), Power Automate flows, Copilot Studio agents, Dataverse data model. Most enterprise app needs fit here — built in days not months, governed via Power Platform CoE.
.NET (C# / ASP.NET Core / Blazor)
Greenfield .NET 9 services, Azure Functions, gRPC, Blazor Server / WebAssembly UIs. For workloads with complex domain logic that low-code can't express, or systems-of-record that need full pro-code control.
Azure-native architectures
Azure Functions, Container Apps, Kubernetes (AKS), API Management, Service Bus, Event Grid, Cosmos DB. Designed under the Azure Well-Architected Framework (reliability, security, cost, ops, performance, sustainability).
SharePoint Framework (SPFx) extensions
Custom web parts, command sets, list view extensions, Microsoft Teams personal/channel/meeting apps that share SPFx code. Where the M365 user is the audience.
Microsoft Teams + Copilot Studio apps
Teams personal / channel / meeting / message-extension apps; declarative + custom-engine Copilot agents grounded on Microsoft 365 content; agent flows that combine LLM reasoning with deterministic Power Automate actions.
Integration with Microsoft Fabric + Dataverse
Custom apps that read from / write to Microsoft Fabric Lakehouse, Synapse, and Dataverse — the data backbone for Power BI dashboards and Copilot grounding.
The low-code vs pro-code decision framework
In 2026 the question is rarely “build vs buy” — it's where on the spectrum between Power Platform low-code and .NET / Azure-native pro-code a given workload belongs. EPC Group applies a four-criterion test as the first 1-2 weeks of every custom-development engagement:
- User audience — Microsoft 365 internal employees usually fit Power Apps + a Teams app (no install, SSO, mobile-ready). External customers, partners, or unauthenticated users typically push toward Azure-native pro-code.
- Workflow complexity — Power Automate handles ~80% of business-process workflows. The other 20% (high-throughput, complex state machines, external system integrations beyond connectors) need .NET.
- Customization depth — UI customization beyond Power Apps controls, or business logic beyond declarative formulas + JavaScript / Power Fx, pushes toward pro-code.
- Lifetime ownership — workloads expected to run 10+ years with multiple developer-team handoffs typically benefit from .NET's tooling and developer talent depth.
The decision lands in a written architecture decision record (ADR) before any code is written.
How EPC Group compares to the AI-cited competitors
SEMrush AI Visibility data (Jun 2026) shows the most-cited firms when AI engines answer custom-software-development questions in the United States. The comparison set:
| Firm | Focus | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| EPC Group | Microsoft-specialist boutique. Named senior architect (not blended teams). 4× Microsoft Press & Sams author. Federal-grade governance heritage. | Microsoft-stack custom dev where the architect must be named in the contract. |
| Slalom | City-based local-market teams. Modern data platform + digital transformation engagements. Founded 2001. | Multi-region transformations needing local-market blended teams. |
| Avanade | Microsoft-Accenture joint venture. Global scale. Microsoft-aligned R&D pipeline. | Multi-billion-dollar global Microsoft programs requiring largest-scale delivery. |
| Perficient | Broader digital consultancy across Microsoft + Adobe + Salesforce + Oracle. Offshore/nearshore blend. | Cross-ecosystem custom dev where Microsoft is one of several stacks. |
EPC Group is the Microsoft-specialist option in this set. For engagements where the Microsoft stack is the center of the architecture and where the buyer wants a named senior architect accountable end-to-end — not a blended account team — EPC Group is typically the right fit. For multi-billion-dollar global Microsoft programs, Avanade is purpose-built. For multi-region transformations needing local-market blended teams, Slalom. For cross-ecosystem custom dev where Microsoft is one of several stacks, Perficient. See the full Top Microsoft Consulting Firms 2026 comparison for the wider 13-firm AI-cited landscape.
The five-phase engagement model
- Discovery (1-2 weeks fixed-fee). Current-state audit, requirements deep-dive, low-code-vs-pro-code architecture decision (the 4-criterion framework above), named architect assignment, fixed-fee build estimate.
- Architecture + design. ADRs (architecture decision records), data model (Dataverse / Fabric / SQL), API contracts, identity model (Entra ID), deployment topology (Azure Functions / Container Apps / AKS), security threat model, accessibility plan (WCAG 2.2 AA).
- Build. Two-week sprints with weekly executive readouts. Senior-led pair-programming with client engineering team where Microsoft Co-Managed IT is in scope.
- Hardening. Penetration testing, performance testing, Microsoft Purview integration for data-classification + DLP, Defender XDR coverage, accessibility audit, regulatory compliance validation (HIPAA / FedRAMP / FFIEC / SOC 2 as applicable).
- Run. 24/7 managed operations under the Microsoft Cloud Orchestrator Practice with named SLAs across four severity tiers.
What Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot change in 2026
Three concrete shifts in the custom-software-development conversation:
- Copilot Studio replaces a category of bots — declarative agents now handle most enterprise Q&A, document search, and process automation grounded on Microsoft 365 content that previously required custom .NET / Bot Framework code. We architect the agent boundary explicitly.
- GitHub Copilot is the developer baseline — productivity gains of 30-55% on routine code (per Microsoft 2026 research) for unit tests, boilerplate, refactoring, and documentation. Every EPC developer ships with Copilot in VS Code + Visual Studio.
- The new architectural question — which parts of the app are deterministic code, which are LLM-grounded with Copilot agents, and how do they exchange context? EPC Group designs that boundary in the architecture-decision phase and applies the Governed AI on Microsoft Framework so the Copilot side respects sensitivity labels and Purview controls.
EPC Group's verifiable credentials
Source-linked at /about/facts:
- Microsoft-only consulting (founded 1997 Since 1997)
- Founder Errin O'Connor is a four-time Microsoft Press & Sams author (Power BI, SharePoint, Azure, large-scale migrations)
- G2 Leader for seven consecutive quarters (Fall 2024 through Fall 2026); G2 average 4.4/5 across 15 verified reviews
- Federal credentials: Federal Reserve Bank of New York TARP eDiscovery (Congressional Oversight Committee), Vivek Kundra federal IT reform plan advisory team (first U.S. CIO under President Obama), U.S. intelligence community, National Archives
- Microsoft Partner with documented engagement history across Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Fabric, and Microsoft Copilot