The Complete Guide to Hiring a SharePoint Consultant for Your Business

This pin provides a complete guide to hiring a SharePoint consultant for your business. It explains the value a consultant brings, from setting up intranets and customizing SharePoint to automating workflows and improving collaboration. You’ll also learn what skills and expertise to look for when selecting the right consultant, ensuring you make an informed choice that boosts productivity, streamlines processes, and helps your organization get the most out of SharePoint.

1. The Complete Guide to Hiring a
SharePoint Consultant for Your Business
SharePoint Services
Introduction: Why This Guide Matters
In this detailed guide, we’ll cover:
1.Why hiring a SharePoint consultant is often better than
going in-house
2.Key criteria to evaluate consultants
3.The questions you must ask before signing a contract
4.Common mistakes to avoid
5.Freelancer vs. consulting firm - pros and cons
6.A practical hiring checklist
7.Conclusion: What kind of partner your business
really needs

2. 1. Why Hire a SharePoint Consultant?
Many organizations begin their SharePoint journey with
internal IT or a basic out-of-the-box setup. But they soon hit
barriers:
Low user adoption
Poor navigation and UI
Inconsistent file governance
Inability to scale for business needs
Missed automation and integration opportunities
What a SharePoint Consultant Brings:
Deep platform expertise: SharePoint Online, SPFx,
Power Platform, Teams, Microsoft Graph, etc.
Strategic alignment: Matching SharePoint’s capabilities
to your business goals
Process mapping and workflow design
Knowledge of compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, ISO) and
secure architecture
Post-launch support, training, and optimization
Think of a consultant not just as a technician, but as an
intranet architect who ensures your digital workplace
performs at every level.

3. 2. Key Criteria to Evaluate a SharePoint
Consultant
Choosing the right consultant isn’t just about experience or
pricing. You need a well-rounded partner.
Key Evaluation Criteria:
A. Experience & Portfolio
Do they have a track record of successful SharePoint
deployments?
Have they worked in your industry or with your use
case?
B. Business Understanding
Can they translate business challenges into platform
solutions?
C. Design & UX Skills
Do they offer modern, branded, user-friendly designs
or just functional backends?
D. Custom Development Capability
Can they build SPFx web parts, automate flows, and
integrate with Teams, Power BI, and Azure?
E. Communication & Transparency
Will they walk you through every phase, or just drop a
delivery?
F. Support & Training

4. Do they train internal admins and end-users for long-
term success?
3. Questions to Ask Before You Hire
A consultant’s true value shows in how they respond to
these questions:
Strategy & Planning
What is your approach to understanding our business
needs?
How do you decide between out-of-the-box features
and custom development?
Implementation & Delivery
What’s your delivery methodology? Agile? Waterfall?
Hybrid?
Can you give us a timeline with milestones and
checkpoints?
Adoption & Training
How will you ensure adoption across departments?
Do you offer training sessions, videos, or
documentation?
Post-Launch Support
What does your support structure look like after go-
live?
How do you handle future feature requests or
troubleshooting?

5. 4. 5 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a
SharePoint Consultant
Hiring the wrong consultant leads to low ROI and high
frustration. Here are mistakes you should avoid:
Mistake #1: Hiring for Cost, Not Capability
Low-cost freelancers or agencies may lack the depth
needed for complex setups, resulting in patchy work that
requires rework.
Mistake #2: Ignoring UX and Branding
A clunky UI kills adoption. A great SharePoint consultant
should care about layout, navigation, and branding as
much as backend logic.
Mistake #3: No Roadmap or Governance Plan
Without a roadmap, SharePoint turns into a dumping
ground. Consultants must help you structure libraries,
permissions, metadata, and workflows.
Mistake #4: Not Involving End-Users Early
User feedback helps shape a usable, useful system. If you
don’t involve real users early, expect resistance at launch.
Mistake #5: No Post-Implementation Support
A consultant who leaves right after go-live can leave your
internal team stranded. Support, iteration, and governance
are essential.
5. SharePoint Freelancer vs. SharePoint Consulting Firm:
Pros & Cons

6. Depending on your project’s complexity, timeline, and
internal capacity, you might consider a freelancer or a full
consulting team.
Freelancers
Pros:
More affordable
Fast for small tasks or isolated issues
Flexible for short-term work
Cons:
Limited skillset (often one-person team)
Risk of unavailability or bandwidth issues
Little to no project management or documentation
No support continuity
SharePoint Consulting Firms (Like SharePoint Designs)
Pros:
Team-based expertise (UI, backend, architecture,
governance)
Better quality assurance and peer review
Defined SLAs, training, and documentation
Long-term support and scalability
Cons:
Higher investment (but also higher ROI)
May require more structured planning

7. Tip: Choose a freelancer for one-time help. Choose a firm
for enterprise-wide impact.
6. SharePoint Consultant Hiring Checklist
Use this checklist before making a final decision:
Can they demonstrate relevant, recent SharePoint
projects?
Do they understand business processes beyond just
SharePoint tech?
Have they asked about your end-users, pain points,
and KPIs?
Can they balance out-of-the-box and custom solutions
intelligently?
Do they offer user training and documentation?
Are they clear about scope, timelines, and pricing?
Do they support post-launch optimization?
Do they bring design, automation, and compliance
thinking into one plan?
7. Final Thoughts: Hire for Growth, Not Just Setup
A SharePoint consultant isn't a plug-and-play hire. You're
choosing a partner who will define how your team works
every day, how they collaborate, how they find information,
how they feel about internal tools.

8. At SharePoint Designs, we bring the full package:
Branded and user-friendly intranets
End-to-end DMS and KMS setups
Process automation with Power Platform
AI integrations and Copilot agents
Deep understanding of your people, not just your
platform
We don’t just build SharePoint portals, we maximize your
team’s performance through smarter digital workspaces.
Let’s Talk
If you're exploring SharePoint for the first time or need to
fix what's already built, we're happy to help.
Book a Free Consultation