The Managed Intelligence Provider · for mission-driven organizations
Walk your organization up the Frontier Firm staircase: safely, measurably, repeatably.
The Centered AI Practice is a four-stage engagement ladder that takes mission-driven organizations from “we use ChatGPT informally” to “we operate as a Frontier Firm with managed AgentOps.” Start with a two-week Shadow AI Diagnostic. Land in a recurring relationship where your agents are governed, your costs are managed, and your AI ROI is documented every quarter.
Microsoft 5x Solutions Partner Data & AI designation included Built on CompleteCare Month-to-month from day one
Your board is asking about AI. Your staff is already using it. Both conversations are happening without you.
Two patterns are colliding inside every mission-driven organization in 2026.
The first is board pressure. Funders, regulators, peer organizations, and increasingly your own board members have begun asking the same question: “what’s your AI plan?” The cost of having no answer used to be reputational. It’s now becoming material: funders are asking about AI governance in due diligence, cyber-insurance underwriters are asking about AI-specific controls, and regulators are beginning to ask about responsible-AI posture.
The second is shadow AI. Across every sector, 98% of employees are using unsanctioned apps including shadow AI tools, 90% of organizations report regular personal-AI-tool use for work tasks, and 80% of SMB AI users bring their own AI tools to work. That means donor records, grant material, client documentation, board materials, and, in healthcare contexts, PHI is walking out of your organization into models you don’t control.
35% of breaches this year involved data stored in unmanaged data sources. Average breach cost: $5.27 million. They took 26.2% longer to identify and 20.2% longer to contain.
Who takes the blame when something goes wrong?
Most mission-driven organizations don’t have a name attached to that answer. The Centered AI Practice is built to put a name there: and a plan, a deployment, and a managed relationship behind it.
The Frontier Staircase
Microsoft’s own research describes a three-pattern progression. The Practice is aligned to it.
Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2025: The Year the Frontier Firm Is Born names three adoption patterns for agentic AI. The Centered AI Practice maps directly to them: four named stages, productized pricing, Microsoft-credible methodology at every step.
01
Human with assistant
Every employee has a Microsoft 365 Copilot assistant. Governed, sanctioned, your organization’s data protected. The alternative to shadow AI.
02
Human-led agents as digital colleagues
Agents join teams as digital colleagues. The first Copilot Studio agent in production, taking on specific tasks at human direction.
03
Humans set direction, agents run workflows
Humans set direction and agents run entire business processes. Multi-agent orchestration. The Frontier Firm at full capability.
The Centered AI Practice
Four stages. Each one a named engagement with fixed pricing.
Start wherever you are. The ladder is designed so each stage is a complete outcome on its own: you don’t have to commit to Stage 4 to benefit from Stage 1.
| If your organization is here… | …start here. |
|---|---|
| Staff uses ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini informally. No governance. Board has begun asking. | Stage 1: Centered AI Quickstart |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot purchased or about to be. Need a production deployment with governance attached and a first agent live. | Stage 2: Centered Agent Launchpad |
| Stage 2 complete. Ready for the full Microsoft Frontier stack, Microsoft 365 E7, Agent 365, multi-agent orchestration. | Stage 3: Centered Frontier Transformation |
| Agents in production. Need someone to govern, monitor, and evolve them month over month. | Stage 4: Centered Managed AgentOps |
01
Centered AI Quickstart
The diagnostic that produces a board-ready AI plan in 14 days. Shadow AI exposure audit. Microsoft 365 Copilot readiness diagnostic. A 90-day adoption roadmap with named stage gates and KPIs. Executive briefing, recorded and board-ready.
$5,000–$15,000. Microsoft funding typically offsets $2K–$5K via Copilot and Power Immersion Briefing.
See Stage 1 details02
Centered Agent Launchpad
The meaningful start. Microsoft 365 Copilot deployed into production. First Copilot Studio agent in production, built from one of the four Centered Networks Agent Kits. Governance baseline in place: Agent 365 registry, Entra Agent ID, content safety policies.
$25,000–$50,000. Microsoft funding typically offsets $15K–$50K via Copilot and Power Envisioning and Deployment Accelerator.
See Stage 2 details03
Centered Frontier Transformation
The full Microsoft Frontier stack. Microsoft 365 E7 deployment. Microsoft Agent 365 control plane. Three or more custom agents in production using multi-agent orchestration. AI Center of Excellence design with governance rituals, RAI sign-off, and monthly value review.
$75,000–$150,000. Microsoft funding typically offsets ~$47K via Copilot Accelerate ECIF.
See Stage 3 details04
Centered Managed AgentOps
The Managed Intelligence Provider relationship. Agent performance monitoring. Drift detection with documented rollback procedures. Monthly governance audit. FinOps for AI: token tracking, model optimization, cost-per-outcome reporting. Quarterly AI ROI and Risk Review, board-ready.
$500–$1,500 per agent per month plus 15% PEC on Copilot Studio consumption. No lock-in.
See Stage 4 details
Risk reversal
Three structural guarantees. One for each stage where the stakes are highest.
The guarantees propagate across the Practice because a single promise is a slogan; a stacked set of stage-specific promises is a structural commitment. Each guarantee is linked to a specific stage page where the full terms are published.
01
Stage 1 · Centered AI Quickstart
The 14-Day Diagnostic Promise
If the Stage 1 Shadow AI Diagnostic doesn’t produce a board-ready exposure report and a 90-day roadmap on your desk by Day 14, you pay nothing. Period.
See Stage 1 terms02
Stage 3 · Frontier Transformation
The Open Repo Promise
Every artifact we build: Copilot Studio agents, governance policies, RAI documentation, runbooks, dashboards. All of it lives in your tenant under your ownership. If you ever leave, you keep everything. No work product trapped in a Centered Networks tenant.
See Stage 3 terms03
Stage 4 · Managed AgentOps
The No-Shadow-AI-Drift Promise
For Stage 4 customers: if shadow-AI usage of sensitive content categories trends above the Month 1 baseline for two consecutive months, the M365 Managed Services team includes targeted remediation in that month’s retainer at no additional cost, until the trend reverses.
See Stage 4 termsWhy Centered Networks
Three structural differentiators.
01
We are a Managed Intelligence Provider, not an MSP.
The MSP category evolved from break-fix (2005) to Managed Services (2015) to MSSP (2020) to Cloud-first MSP (2025). Industry analysis names 2026 as the era of the Managed Intelligence Provider: an MSP helping customers consider, prepare for, and use AI. We built the Practice around that destination, not around legacy managed services.
02
Microsoft 5x Solutions Partner, including Data & AI.
Most local MSPs hold one or two Solutions Partner designations. We hold five. That stack of designations gates Microsoft funding access, gates the FY26 Copilot Specialization track, and gates the field engagement model that makes Stage 2 and Stage 3 funded engagements possible. The Data & AI designation is the one most directly at stake in every AI Practice engagement.
03
Mission-driven sector specialization.
The Practice is calibrated to nonprofit Microsoft licensing economics: $25.50 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Copilot, $50 per organization per month for Copilot Studio, at the 75% nonprofit discount. The agents in our Agent Kit library are designed around mission-driven workflows. The change management vocabulary is mission-driven, not Fortune-500.
Pricing transparency
What this costs for a typical 150-user nonprofit, Year 1.
List prices compared to customer net after Microsoft incentive recovery. Compare to alternatives at the bottom.
| Item | List price | Customer net (after Microsoft incentive recovery) |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1: Centered AI Quickstart | $10,000 | ~$5,000 |
| Stage 2: Centered Agent Launchpad | $35,000 | ~$10,000 |
| Stage 4: Managed AgentOps (Months 4–12) | $13,500 | $13,500 |
| Year 1 customer net | ~$28,500 |
Compare to: a Big-4 consultancy AI engagement at $300K–$750K. A solo AI consultant at $200 per hour with no production deployment. A generic MSP “turn on Copilot” project with no governance and no agent.
Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing at $25.50 per user per month (75% nonprofit discount) is separate from the above and is a Microsoft direct purchase we facilitate.
The prerequisite: CompleteCare Foundations.
Production agents do not get deployed onto an ungoverned tenant.
The Practice stands on CompleteCare Foundations.
The Centered AI Practice is built on top of CompleteCare Foundations (or an equivalent identity, device, and email baseline). Most customers run Foundations and the Stage 1 AI Quickstart in parallel, and the baseline is in place by the time Stage 2 begins.
If you’re not on Foundations, start there. It’s the floor the Practice stands on. The Foundations tier is designed to run in parallel with Stage 1 so there is no forced sequencing delay before your AI plan is in motion.
Questions
Frequently asked questions about the Centered AI Practice.
What if a workflow needs an AI tool Microsoft doesn’t offer?
We lead with the Microsoft stack because it’s the cleanest path to governed AI for our clients — one tenant, one identity, one governance posture. For most mission-driven organizations, that integration is the value: data already lives in Microsoft 365, identity already runs on Entra, and compliance and audit trails already flow through Purview. When a workflow genuinely requires a different model or a sector-specific tool — a domain-tuned model, a specialized clinical or grants-management AI, or a capability Microsoft doesn’t yet deliver — we tell you, we explain why, and we deploy it. We don’t push you into Microsoft when it’s not the right answer, and we don’t push you out of Microsoft for the sake of vendor neutrality. The right tool for the job is the rule.
Do we need Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses before starting Stage 1?
No. Stage 1 runs on your existing Microsoft 365 environment. The AI Quickstart includes a readiness diagnostic and a license fit analysis so you make the Copilot purchase decision with the right data, not the wrong data.
Can we skip Stage 1 and start with Stage 2?
Sometimes. If you already have a documented AI plan, a governance posture in place, and a clear use case for the first agent, Stage 2 can be the starting point. The AI Quickstart is the right entry for customers who don’t yet have a defensible AI story to take to the board.
What if our board doesn’t approve Stage 2?
That’s a healthy outcome of Stage 1. The roadmap stays yours under the Open Repo Promise. You can run Stage 2 in three months, six months, or a year later when budget and board readiness line up. We don’t pressure-sell Stage 2 to a customer not ready for it.
How is this different from a generic MSP “turn on Copilot” project?
A generic MSP project ends when Copilot is turned on. The Practice begins there. Generic MSPs do not deploy agents, do not configure governance baselines, do not run AgentOps, and do not have the Microsoft Solutions Partner depth to unlock Copilot Specialization funding. Different category.
Do we need to be a nonprofit to qualify for the Practice?
No. The Practice is built for mission-driven organizations broadly: nonprofits, foundations, rural hospitals, and FQHCs. The nonprofit Microsoft licensing economics apply only to 501(c)(3) and equivalent entities; for other mission-driven organizations the Practice still applies with standard Microsoft licensing.
What happens to our work if we leave?
Everything stays with you. Copilot Studio agents, Power Platform connectors, governance policies, RAI documentation, KPI dashboards, deployment runbooks: all of it lives in your tenant under your ownership. The Open Repo Promise is structural; we don’t hold customer agents hostage.
Is there a multi-year commitment?
No. Stage 4 Managed AgentOps is month-to-month with 30-day notice. Stages 1, 2, and 3 are fixed-fee project SOWs: once the project completes, there is no continuing project obligation. The relationship is what continues.
Start with a 60-minute scoping call.
We walk through your current AI posture, the specific board pressure or shadow-AI exposure you’re seeing, and we tell you whether the Stage 1 AI Quickstart is the right starting point, or whether something else needs to happen first.
The scoping call is a no-cost conversation. If we agree the AI Quickstart is the right fit, the 14-Day Diagnostic Promise applies: the deliverable lands on Day 14 or you pay nothing. Either way, the conversation is useful.
Want a board-level executive session first? Request a Frontier Briefing, our 90-minute no-charge briefing on the Managed Intelligence Provider model and what it means for your organization.
Thanks, we’ve got it.
A senior member of our team will reply within one business day to set up your scoping call.
Microsoft alignment
Five Microsoft Solutions Partner designations, including Data & AI.
The Centered AI Practice is credentialed at every layer of the Microsoft stack it deploys. The five designations together are what gates access to Microsoft funding, the FY26 Copilot Specialization track, and the field engagement model that makes funded engagements possible.
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data & AI (Azure)
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure)
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Digital & App Innovation (Azure)
- Nonprofit charity tenant authorization
- Month-to-month from day one