By Tarah Ray, Digital Engagement Lead, Fulton May Solutions
Why Cutting Corners Ends Up Costing More
At first glance, SharePoint seems simple enough. With Microsoft’s modern tools and templates, many organizations assume their internal teams can stand up a site or even a full intranet without professional help. But what starts as a quick DIY project often snowballs into lost productivity, broken permissions, inconsistent design, and costly rework.
In this article, we’re pulling back the curtain on the real cost of DIY SharePoint. And we’re not just talking about IT hours, we’re talking about executive time, labor cost, missed opportunities, and the risk of doing it all over again.
DIY Doesn’t Mean Free
One of the biggest misconceptions about SharePoint is that because it’s included in Microsoft 365, building and managing it must be a “free” internal task. But what’s often overlooked is the labor and time investment that goes into setting it up—and the high cost of getting it wrong.
Take, for example, a common scenario we see at Fulton May Solutions: a SMB leadership team wants to launch department-level SharePoint sites. Instead of engaging an expert, they assign site-building responsibilities to department heads or even C-suite executives.
That decision might seem like a cost-saver, but when those leaders spend 40+ hours wrestling with site types, permissions, and templates, the cost skyrockets.
Let’s do the math:
- C-suite salary: $250,000/year = ~$120/hour
- 40 hours of SharePoint work: 40 × $120 = $4,800 in executive labor
- Add another 20–40 hours of troubleshooting, support tickets, or rework, and the cost doubles or triples.
Compare that to the cost of hiring a SharePoint expert or team to design the environment right the first time; usually a fraction of that investment, with far better outcomes.
Productivity Loss is Real
Every hour a department head or executive spends configuring SharePoint is an hour not spent on strategic work like managing people, developing products, engaging clients, or generating revenue. In small-to-midsize organizations, those hours matter even more.
Business leaders understand the cost of downtime. Internal meetings have a price. Delayed initiatives have a cost. Assigning complex technical projects to non-technical roles might not show up on an invoice, but it will impact your bottom line.
We’ve worked with companies who, after trying to do it themselves, ended up spending 80+ internal hours on a site setup that ultimately had to be rebuilt. Worse, the inconsistent structure and open security settings exposed them to data risks and user confusion. A 40-hour scoped project at the beginning would have saved them time, money, and headaches.
Missteps That Lead to Rework
What exactly goes wrong when organizations try to DIY SharePoint? Based on our experience:
- The wrong site type is chosen. Team sites vs communication sites carry very different functionality, and choosing the wrong one means starting over.
- Permissions are misconfigured. Sharing settings may allow public or external access to sensitive data.
- Design is inconsistent. Navigation, branding, and layouts differ across departments, confusing users and reducing adoption.
- Storage is mismanaged. Version history is left unlimited, leading to storage bloat and performance issues.
- Tools are misused. Teams are built where Planner or Lists would have been better, leading to inefficiency and duplication.
Each of these missteps costs time to investigate, understand, and correct. When combined, they often lead to full rebuilds—an expense that could have been avoided by involving experts early.
The ROI of Doing It Right
A professionally planned SharePoint environment does more than “just work.” It:
- Aligns with business goals and user needs
- Scales with your organization
- Protects sensitive information
- Saves time in training and onboarding
- Improves collaboration and productivity
The return on investment is clear: faster rollout, fewer support requests, greater consistency, and no wasted hours trying to untangle a structure that was never built to support your needs.
Work Smarter, Not Slower
SharePoint can be a powerful business tool, but only when it’s configured strategically. What looks like a money-saving DIY task often turns into a silent drain on productivity and labor cost.
At Fulton May Solutions, we specialize in helping businesses get more value out of the Microsoft tools they already own. Whether you need to migrate from legacy platforms, build a corporate HUB, or simply get your SharePoint house in order; we’re here to help you do it right, the first time.
Considering a SharePoint rollout?
Let’s talk about what it’s really costing you, and how to make the smartest investment for your team. Contact us today.
