01
Pattern 1
Human with assistant
Every employee has Microsoft 365 Copilot. People are more productive. AI is additive to individual work.
AI Practice · Stage 3 · Frontier Transformation
Become a Frontier Firm in 90 days. Productized. Fixed-fee. Mission-driven-sector specialized.
Centered Frontier Transformation: Microsoft 365 E7 deployed, three to five production agents live, AI Center of Excellence operational, and a board-level Frontier Firm KPI dashboard delivered. 90 days. $75K–$150K. Up to $47K of Microsoft funding offsets the fee.
Microsoft 5x Solutions Partner · The partner-delivered Frontier Firm play · Productized 90-day engagement · No 12-month consultancy lock-in
- Stage 1: AI Quickstart
- Stage 2: Agent Launchpad
- Stage 3: Frontier Transformation
- Stage 4: Managed AgentOps
Where are you in the progression
Every board with an AI line on its strategic plan is asking the same question.
The answer requires understanding where your organization sits on the Microsoft Frontier Firm progression, and how to move.
02
Pattern 2
Human-led agents
Agents join teams as digital colleagues, handling specific tasks at human direction. Most mission-driven organizations are at this boundary now.
Most clients start here03
Pattern 3
Humans set direction; agents run workflows
Multi-agent orchestration. Humans approve, agents execute end-to-end business processes. The Frontier Firm destination.
Most mid-market mission-driven organizations are operating at the Pattern 1 and early Pattern 2 boundary. The strategic question is how to move: defensibly, on a timeline the board can support, at a cost that does not require a $1M Big-4 engagement.
That is what Centered Frontier Transformation is for.
The 90-day engagement
What gets delivered, when.
Three 30-day phases, each with named milestones. The structural commitment to the timeline is on us.
Days 1–30
01
Frontier Foundation
Microsoft 365 E7 deployed across the licensed user base. Agent 365 control plane configured against the Observe, Govern, and Secure framework. Identity perimeter modernized with Entra Suite ID Governance, Internet Access, and Private Access.
Data governance maturity audit on Purview Information Protection, Insider Risk, and DLP. First production agent live by Day 30. Microsoft funding stack projection delivered as the first deliverable.
Days 31–60
02
Multi-agent operations
Three to five production agents deployed: a mix of CN Agent Kit catalog agents (customer service triage, contract review, sales preparation, finance document intelligence) and custom Copilot Studio agents built for your specific workflows.
Multi-agent orchestration patterns running. AI Center of Excellence stood up: governance committee, monthly design review cadence, evaluation rubric, shared prompt library, and ROI tracking against named KPIs. Two or three named departments running pilots with executive sponsors.
Days 61–90
03
Scale and production hardening
Org-wide rollout of what the pilots proved. Frontier Firm KPI dashboard live: Pattern 2-to-Pattern-3 progression metrics tracked monthly. Industry-specific compliance overlay applied (HIPAA, FERPA, GLBA, SOC 2, nonprofit donor privacy).
Managed AgentOps handover to CompleteCare Intelligence or to your internal IT team. Board-level Frontier Firm readout delivered with a 12-month roadmap.
Microsoft 365 E7
The Frontier Suite: E5, Copilot, Entra Suite, and Agent 365 in one SKU.
E7 is the licensing SKU Microsoft created for Frontier Firm deployments. It is E5 plus Copilot plus the Entra Suite plus Agent 365, at $99 per user per month.
The Agent 365 control plane is the component most organizations underestimate. It is Microsoft’s framework for governing AI agents at production scale: agent registry, agent-to-data mapping, lifecycle management, role-specific access controls, threat protection integration, and analytics. Without it, multi-agent workflows cannot operate safely at scale. With it, the Pattern 2-to-Pattern-3 transition becomes operationally tractable.
The Microsoft funding stack offsets a meaningful portion of the engagement fee for most clients. Copilot and Power Deployment Accelerator (up to $50K), Secure Productivity CSP Deployment Accelerator (up to $38K), and the EA Deployment Voucher (up to $100K for E5+ EA customers) can together offset 25–40 percent of the engagement fee at the median. We model your specific funding stack as the first deliverable of the Frontier Foundation phase.
AI Center of Excellence
The component most clients realize, by Day 90, was the highest-impact part.
Most organizations get stuck after a few successful Copilot pilots because they lack the operating discipline to scale them. There is no governance committee. No evaluation rubric for new agent proposals. No shared prompt library. No ROI tracking. No cadence for the Responsible AI review. Pilots stay isolated and do not compound.
The AI CoE installs the discipline. Pattern 2 actually scales when you have governance infrastructure, not just deployed agents.
What the AI CoE includes
- Governance committee chartered with executive sponsorship
- Monthly design review cadence for new agent proposals
- Evaluation rubric: what proceeds and what does not
- Quarterly Responsible AI review
- Shared prompt library accessible to all departments
- Champion network across pilot departments
- ROI dashboard the Executive Director can take to the board
- Pattern 2-to-Pattern-3 progression metrics tracked monthly
Risk reversal
Three guarantees. None of them cosmetic.
Structural commitments that put our delivery economics on the line, not aspirational language.
01
The 90-Day Frontier Promise
If we do not deliver the named Day 30, Day 60, and Day 90 milestones on schedule due to factors within our control, we work additional days at no charge until we do. The structural commitment to the timeline is on us.
We can stand behind this because the engagement is productized and the phases are named in the SOW. Most clients hit Day 30 with their first agent live and ahead of schedule.
02
The Production-Live Agents Promise
If we do not deliver the named number of production-live agents in your tier (three at $75K, four at $100K, five or more at $150K), we either deliver the gap at no charge or refund a per-agent pro-rata of the engagement fee. Production-live is defined in the SOW with specific acceptance criteria.
Production-live means the agent is in active use by named users, handling real workflows, not a demo environment. The definition is in the contract before we start.
03
The Open Repo and No-Lock-In Promise
Every artifact we produce, including agent code, Copilot Studio definitions, prompt libraries, the AI CoE charter, governance policies, KPI dashboards, and runbooks, is delivered into a repository you own. After Day 90, you continue with CompleteCare Intelligence on a month-to-month basis, hand off to your internal IT team, or move to a different partner. No 12-month consultancy lock-in.
This is structural, not aspirational. The repository lives in your Git provider. Nothing is proprietary. Any partner can pick up where we left off.
Engagement tiers
Three tiers. Fixed-fee. No T&M.
Select the tier that matches your user base. The named deliverables and the 90-day timeline are the same across all three.
Foundation tier
Foundation
$75,000 fixed-fee, 90 days
For organizations with 200–500 users.
What is included
- Microsoft 365 E7 deployment
- Agent 365 control plane setup
- Standard Copilot configuration
- Identity Perimeter Modernization
- 3 production agents live by Day 90
- AI CoE charter and governance structure
- Day 90 board readout
Production tier
Production
$100,000 fixed-fee, 90 days
For organizations with 500–1,000 users.
All Foundation, plus
- Full AI CoE stand-up with champion network
- Multi-agent orchestration patterns
- Two department-level pilots with executive sponsors
- 4 production agents live by Day 90
- ROI tracking dashboard
Expansion tier
Expansion
$150,000 fixed-fee, 90 days
For organizations with 1,000 or more users.
All Production, plus
- Copilot Tuning (where 5,000 or more Copilot licenses are in scope)
- Copilot Cowork enablement for long-running multi-step work
- Three department-level pilots
- Industry compliance overlay: HIPAA, FERPA, GLBA, SOC 2, donor privacy
- 5 or more production agents live by Day 90
Microsoft 365 E7 licensing at $99 per user per month is separate from the engagement fee, procured directly from Microsoft. For the median engagement, the Microsoft funding stack offsets 25–40 percent of the engagement fee. We model your specific funding scenario as the first deliverable.
Compare to Big-4 transformation programs at this depth: $500K–$2M over 12–18 months on time-and-materials terms. Centered Frontier Transformation delivers comparable Pattern 2-to-Pattern-3 progression in 90 days at one-tenth the cost.
Built for organizations ready for the Frontier.
This is built for you if
- CompleteCare Foundations is active: the governance and security baseline is non-negotiable for production agents at this scale
- Your board has an AI strategy and is asking when, not whether
- You have 200 or more Microsoft 365 users and want production agents, not just Copilot licenses
- You want the Frontier Firm outcome without a 12-month, $500K consultancy program
- You want named milestones, named guarantees, and a repository you own
- You want an AI Center of Excellence that will outlast the engagement
This is not a fit if
- CompleteCare Foundations is not yet in place: production agents at this scale require a governed security baseline
- Your organization has fewer than 200 Microsoft 365 users: the economics of E7 deployment and Agent 365 require this floor
- Your board has not aligned on an AI strategy: the 90-day engagement assumes executive sponsorship is in place before kickoff
- You want a free pilot or proof of concept: this is a production deployment, not an assessment
Not quite ready for Frontier Transformation?
The Centered AI Practice ladder is designed to build readiness. AI Quickstart ($5K–$15K, 2 weeks) establishes your Board-Ready AI Readiness document and 90-day roadmap. Agent Launchpad ($25K–$50K, 4–6 weeks) puts your first production agent into operation. Either stage can be completed before Frontier Transformation.
For organizations with strong CompleteCare Foundations but without a completed Quickstart or Launchpad: a combined Discovery and Transformation engagement is available. It adds 30 days to the front of the timeline (120 days total) and adds $25K to the base tier. We will tell you during the Frontier Readiness call which path is right.
In practice
What this looks like in practice.
Regional nonprofit health system, 600 users
Entered the engagement at the Production tier. CompleteCare Foundations was already active. E7 deployed across the licensed base in 22 days. Four production agents live by Day 55: a clinical documentation intake router, a contract review assistant, a grants compliance checker, and a finance document intelligence agent. AI CoE governance committee chartered with three executive sponsors. Board received the Frontier Firm KPI dashboard on Day 88.
“We had been told by three consultancies that this would take 18 months and $800K. The structured milestones and the guarantee language were what got it past our board.”
Chief Operating OfficerRepresentative client profile
Grantmaking foundation, 1,100 users
Expansion tier. Copilot Tuning configured against the foundation’s 12-year grants database. Five production agents deployed, including a donor data analysis agent and a grantee reporting assistant. Donor privacy compliance overlay applied against GLBA and state-specific nonprofit donor privacy statutes. Pattern 2-to-Pattern-3 KPI baseline established for the board. Month 4 Intelligence retainer activated.
“The AI CoE was the piece we had not anticipated needing. By Day 60, every department head was submitting agent proposals. Having an evaluation rubric meant we could say yes to the right ones and no to the ones that were not ready.”
Chief Technology OfficerRepresentative client profile
Community hospital system, 420 users
Foundation tier, combined Discovery and Transformation engagement (120 days). No prior Quickstart or Launchpad. E7 deployed with HIPAA compliance overlay across clinical and administrative users. Three production agents live: a prior authorization intake agent, a clinical documentation assistant, and an operational intelligence agent for supply chain exception handling. Managed AgentOps handover completed at Day 90 to the CompleteCare Intelligence team.
“The combined path was the right call. The extra 30 days at the front meant we were not improvising on governance while also deploying E7. Everything arrived in the right order.”
Chief Information OfficerRepresentative client profile
Questions
Frequently asked questions.
Why a partner-delivered Frontier engagement?
Microsoft directs the Frontier Suite, Agent 365, Copilot Tuning, and Copilot Cowork story upmarket and to system integrators. Big-4 consultancies deliver it as 12–18 month, $500K–$2M transformation programs built for the Fortune 500. The gap is real: a 500-user nonprofit health system or a 1,200-employee foundation wants the Frontier Firm outcome but cannot absorb a Big-4 program. Centered Frontier Transformation is the productized, mission-driven-sector-aware engagement that closes the gap.
Why does the Frontier Suite cost what it does?
E7 at $99 per user per month is the only commercial SKU that bundles E5 (the security floor) plus Copilot (the user experience) plus Entra Suite (the identity perimeter modernization) plus Agent 365 (the agent control plane). The Microsoft funding stack offsets a meaningful portion of the licensing investment. The first deliverable of the engagement is the funding-stack projection for your specific licensing scenario.
What if we want to deploy agents that Microsoft does not directly support?
Microsoft Agent 365 and Copilot Studio cover most mission-driven workflows. For genuinely novel agent needs that do not fit the Microsoft fabric, we partner with the CompleteCare Construct tier, which builds custom Azure-hosted agent applications on Azure AI Foundry. Same engagement model, separate tier.
Can you guarantee ROI?
We guarantee the deliverables (the three structural guarantees on this page) and we measure ROI against named KPIs in the Day 90 board readout. We do not claim guaranteed ROI on agent workflows themselves, because ROI is a function of how your organization adopts the agents, not just how we build them. The AI CoE and the champion network maximize the probability; the guarantees provide the structural commitment. Partners who promise guaranteed ROI on 90-day AI engagements have usually defined ROI narrowly enough to be guaranteed but broadly enough to be meaningless.
What happens after Day 90?
You choose. The Open Repo Promise means every artifact is in a repository you own. The No-Lock-In Promise means our CompleteCare Intelligence retainer is month-to-month at $2,500 per month. Three paths after Day 90: continue with Intelligence (the path most clients take), hand off to internal IT using our documentation, or move to a different partner. We earn the next month or we do not keep it.
How does the combined Discovery and Transformation engagement work?
For clients with strong CompleteCare Foundations but without a completed Quickstart or Launchpad, the combined engagement adds 30 days to the front of the timeline (120 days total) and absorbs the Discovery Sprint and Agent Launchpad activities into the Frontier Foundation phase. Adds $25K to the base tier. We will tell you during the Frontier Readiness call whether the combined engagement is right or whether the staged ladder is the better path.
Schedule your Frontier Readiness call.
60 minutes with your Executive Director, COO, or board AI-strategy owner. We walk through your current pattern position, your strategic rationale, the prerequisite check, and which tier fits.
If Frontier Transformation is not the right next step, the call says so. We do not sell engagements that are not ready to succeed. If we agree it is a fit, kickoff is within 10 business days.
Not ready for a Frontier engagement? Begin with a Discovery Sprint or review the full Centered AI Practice ladder to find the right starting point.
- Microsoft 5x Solutions Partner
- Fixed-fee, 90-day engagement
- Three structural guarantees
- No 12-month lock-in
We have your request.
A senior member of our team will reply within one business day to schedule your Frontier Readiness call. If your timing is urgent, email us directly at sales@centerednetworks.com.
The Centered AI Practice
The four-stage AI Practice ladder.
Frontier Transformation is Stage 3. Every stage builds on the last, and every stage has named deliverables and structural guarantees. See the full AI Practice overview →
Stage 1
AI Quickstart
$5K–$15K · 2 weeks · Board-Ready Promise
Stage 2Agent Launchpad
$25K–$50K · 4–6 weeks · 6-Week Production Promise
Stage 3 (current)Frontier Transformation
$75K–$150K · 90 days · 90-Day Frontier Promise
Stage 4Managed AgentOps
$2,500/mo · Month-to-month · No-Shadow-AI-Drift Promise
Microsoft alignment
Five Solutions Partner designations, including Data and AI.
Frontier Transformation maps directly to Microsoft’s Modern Work, Data and AI, and Digital and App Innovation designations. The engagement is built on Microsoft-native technology throughout.
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Security
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Data & AI (Azure)
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Infrastructure (Azure)
- Microsoft Solutions Partner for Digital & App Innovation (Azure)
- HIPAA BAA available on request
