Microsoft SharePoint is a very strong platform, but only if it is used and maintained in a way that supports your team’s needs and your company’s objectives.
Before your users can fully benefit from SharePoint’s breadth, which includes collaboration, document management, search, metadata categorization, and automation, there are a lot of things to get right.
You may completely change the way your company operates when you combine it with the appropriate SharePoint consulting services and power platform consulting services. These four practical suggestions will assist you in selecting a consulting partner who will provide value rather than just a project.
(1) Look Beyond the Surface — Do Your Due Diligence
Does the SharePoint consulting company you are about to hire possess all the expertise required to finish your project successfully?
Some consulting firms might not have the necessary level of experience, but they might have secured one or two major clients by effective marketing, by being in the right place at the right time to land a few contracts, or even through good networking or insider knowledge. Therefore, it’s critical to assess the capacity maturity of the consulting firms you’re thinking about by looking past their outward appearance.
As a solution buyer, you will have the chance to establish a rapport with your prospective consultants during the due diligence process. Using that time and trust to ensure they can deliver the services you require is the goal of developing that connection. In addition to performing a technical skills and expertise evaluation, take into account the following during the due diligence period:
- Examine the financial soundness of your possible mate.
- Employee proficiency and attrition
- To find out if current clients are happy with the service, ask them for recommendations.
(2) Request an interview with the Delivery Team
While we always aim for honesty when evaluating a company’s capabilities, the truth is that asking a consulting firm to complete a questionnaire regarding their customer references or personnel competences may occasionally result in a less-than-truthful response. Even conducting interviews with the consulting firm’s staff could get the same outcome.
Therefore, even if it can be challenging to gather this information, one strategy that works better than others are to interview employees who concentrate on providing services rather than the director of the firm or the sales division.
In addition to being the team in charge of fulfilling the commitments made by the sales division, the individuals who will be performing the task are typically more likely to possess specialized knowledge about the services being requested. You might receive a more truthful and impartial response from the delivery team than from those who are more directly involved in the sales funnel, even though others might have a goal to seal the deal.
As you question the delivery team, make an effort to ascertain:
- How they’ll approach your specific project
- Are they making the most use of SharePoint’s built-in features?
- Do they just use customisation when it’s necessary?
Are they genuinely declining any of your demands and suggesting a SharePoint best practice instead? Do they take stability and maintainability into account when making decisions?
(3) Examine the Delivery Procedure and Additional Services
When discussing SharePoint consulting services and power platform consulting services in Australia, inquire about:
A team of SharePoint professionals and a variety of cross-functional roles are not enough for a successful SharePoint installation. Additionally, you must ensure that your spouse has a suitable delivery procedure in place.
Find out if the consulting firm provides any supplementary services in addition to the delivery services component. Do they have a structure for product support, for instance? Do they offer any other services, like a training program or a change management procedure, that could help with user adoption?
Many consulting firms concentrate so much on delivery that they neglect to offer a wide variety of services necessary to assure successful implementation and the fundamentals of a profitable return on investment.
Thus, a partner who offers comprehensive services — not only technical delivery, but also assistance with adoption and ongoing optimisation — will set you up for long-term success.
(4) Make sure there is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) in place
A standardized service contract that includes a formal definition of a service is called a service-level agreement (SLA). The service provider and the service user agree on specific characteristics of the service, such as scope, quality, and obligations.
A contracted delivery time (of the service or performance) is a typical component of an SLA. The goal of outsourcing SharePoint support is to assure that any problems will be fixed promptly, or within the time range specified in the SLA.
Therefore, getting your SharePoint consulting partner to sign a definite service level agreement that is customized to your company’s needs is crucial. Additionally, an SLA can assist you make sure your partner continuously delivers high-quality service by comparing them to key performance metrics.
These suggestions are meant to help you choose a SharePoint or Power Platform partner to assist with your SharePoint deployment. Any technology solution’s due diligence is an essential first step, and the selection process usually goes much more smoothly if you can collaborate with a partner who not only has the know-how to implement SharePoint in a way that satisfies your business needs but is also open and transparent about its procedures, team, and delivery.
In the long run, investing in the right SharePoint consulting services and power platform consulting services is not just about delivering a project — it is about building a sustainable digital workplace foundation. With a trusted partner, your organisation gains more than technical expertise; it gains strategic guidance, long-term support, and the confidence to innovate using Microsoft technologies.