IT Tips & Tricks

7 Benefits of Having a SharePoint Migration Consultant on Your Side

And 5 Key Areas Where Consultants Excel

By Ed Clark

Published 29 April 2025

Do you have an upcoming SharePoint migration looming like a digital Everest? Trying to decide whether to DIY or farm it out? Worried that doing it yourself is like being armed with a toothpick as you take on a dragon? Those are, admittedly, not great odds.

Well, here’s a question for you to consider: Would you attempt a complicated legal battle without a lawyer? Of course not. So, why risk your valuable data during a complex SharePoint migration when there are specialists who can get the job done for you while relieving you of the stress?

Let’s face it: SharePoint migrations are known for being potentially difficult and fraught with pitfalls. Even the most well-intentioned IT department can be derailed by a SharePoint migration.

Do you know exactly how to minimize data loss and downtime while maintaining the integrity of your data in SharePoint?

If my years in the industry have taught me anything, it’s that the risks are plentiful, from complex customizations, data loss, and downtime to performance issues and user frustration. If you’ve ever been on the wrong end of a fire-breathing failed data migration, you probably already suspect that hiring a professional migration consultant could have prevented disaster. And you’d be right.

Migration Math: Can You Beat the Odds?

Don’t want your data migration to go up in flames? One word: Consultant.

According to a study by global tech and business research and advisory firm Forrester, a successful migration to SharePoint Online can result in a massive 301% return on investment (ROI) over three years, with benefits like cost savings, increased productivity and improved collaboration contributing to that significant ROI. This delights any business owner.

However, you also need to remember that tech research giant Gartner estimates that 83% of data migrations fail. With those odds, what’s the likelihood of your organization seeing a juicy ROI anytime soon? Naturally, this news is a little less delightful, and any sensible organization would want to avoid a potential failure.

While you’re contemplating that, here are seven great reasons to toss the toothpick and hire a migration consultant who can improve those odds.

7 Reasons You Should Consider a Consultant

A SharePoint migration consultant brings the wisdom and experience of Gandalf The Grey to the table, with multiple benefits for you.

Relevant Expertise: A migration consultant brings their broad knowledge of SharePoint’s workings — including its various versions, features and best practices — to your project. Your consultant understands the intricacies of a SharePoint migration, complex content management and successful user adoption strategies — and knows how to deal with related problems. A top-notch migration consultant eats them for breakfast.

Want to ensure that your sensitive data remains protected throughout the migration process — as well as in the new SharePoint environment?

Proven Methodologies: An experienced consultant will never play loosey-goosey with your data. They know and stick to proven migration methods, ensuring a structured and efficient approach to your migration. This minimizes risks to your organization, reduces errors and keeps your project beautifully on track.
Risk Mitigation: Since a consultant already knows the potential roadblocks and pitfalls, they’ll make sure you sidestep them. They’ll conduct thorough assessments, analyze your data and develop a comprehensive migration plan so that you don’t have to. IT experts have observed that this majorly reduces the probability of downtime and data loss. Further, should there be some sort of unexpected detrimental situation, it can be resolved faster and with considerably less consternation.

Catastrophe vs confidence? An experienced migration consultant makes all the difference.

Access to Best Practices: Consultants bring a wealth of experience from previous projects. This, combined with their knowledge of best practices and industry standards, can help you squeeze the most out of your new SharePoint environment, which means that you can achieve your business goals more easily. Who’s the hero now?

Improved User Experience: Consultants prioritize user experience throughout the migration process. They focus on creating a smooth transition for your end-users, minimizing disruption and maximizing productivity, which means you won’t have to baby your users. That means fewer complaints and queries for your IT department to deal with. And that sounds good to any IT guy or gal.
Enhanced Security: Data security is always a top priority. Your consultant will know how to keep your sensitive data protected throughout the migration process, as well as in the new SharePoint environment. (You don’t need any reminders of just how important this is these days.)

Cost-Effectiveness: While the initial investment in a consultant may seem like an added expense, it can genuinely save you a ton of money in the long run. Consultants can help you dodge expensive mistakes while making the best use of your team and ensuring a smooth and successful transition for your data.

Doing it yourself is like being armed with a toothpick as you take on a dragon.

What else can you expect when choosing an indefatigable dragonslayer, aka your migration consultant?

5 Key Areas Where Consultants Excel (So That You Don’t Have To!)

Just like a good lawyer would plan his legal strategy for a successful outcome, a migration consultant’s expertise means that you benefit in these key areas:

1. Planning and Assessment

Your migration consultant will thoroughly assess your existing SharePoint environment, including data volume, content types, user needs and business requirements. Based on your requirements, your consultant can develop a detailed custom migration plan that accurately outlines your project’s scope, timeline and budget. This gives you a reassuring sense of predictability — without you having to do much!

2. Data Migration

Users can be resistant to change or transitioning to a new system. It’s an often overlooked — and critical — aspect of migration.

This is arguably the most critical stage. A consultant draws on their expertise to ensure that the data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL) processes are as accurate and efficient as is humanly possible. They know exactly how to minimize data loss and downtime — while maintaining the integrity of your data. Let’s put it this way: What’s it worth to you to prevent the you-know-what from hitting the fan?

3. Testing and Quality Assurance

Before the migration, your migration consultant knows exactly which rocks to look under so that you’re not unexpectedly sideswiped by something out of the blue. Rigorous testing is essential to identify and resolve any issues before the go-live. Your consultant will conduct thorough testing to ensure an impeccably smooth and successful migration for you.

4. User Training and Adoption

A successful migration isn’t just about moving data — it’s also about knowing that employees can effectively use the new system. Your consultant will provide customized training, support documentation and adoption strategies to help your users transition smoothly and easily. Who else is smoothing your path every step of the way?

5. Post-Migration Support

Even after your migration is complete, you may need ongoing assistance. Your SharePoint consultant can provide post-migration support to:

Help you address any difficulties you may be having.
Optimize your SharePoint performance.
Implement best practices for long-term scalability.

IT experts have observed that this majorly reduces the probability of downtime and data loss.

Choosing the Right Consultant

What qualities should you look for in your migration consultant?

Communication and Collaboration: Easy, open communication is crucial. Choose a consultant who is responsive, communicative and willing to work closely with your team.
Transparent Pricing: Understand the pricing model up front. Ensure that the pricing is transparent and that there are no hidden costs.
Focus on Your Business Goals: Select a consultant who understands your overall business objectives and can align the migration with your strategic goals.

Beyond the Basics

You can easily track your data being migrated to SharePoint Online in the “Progress Status” pane. This will indicate the status of each file or folder, indicating the transfer percentage as it happens.

As a savvy professional, you understand that value for money is important. So, what other benefits does a consultant offer you?

Cloud Considerations: If you’re migrating to SharePoint Online, apart from guiding you through the intricacies of cloud migration — including data security and compliance — a consultant can also help you integrate with other cloud services.

Customization and Integration: A consultant can help you customize SharePoint to meet your specific business needs and integrate it with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems and other applications.
Change Management: Successful migration requires effective change management. That means your consultant can help you with things such as developing and implementing a strategy to ensure user buy-in, or minimizing resistance and maximizing user adoption. Not everyone responds well to change, but with a skilled consultant to help smooth the road, change doesn’t have to be hard.

In a Reddit thread specifically about cloud migration, one contributor pointed out that “Migrations fail because of wrong expectations and lack of right skills.” With an experienced consultant on your side, you won’t have to worry about either of those.

When Policy Impedes Profit

We often get calls from desperate migration teams, saying, “We’re in the middle of our migration and we’ve got a problem with such and such, but we don’t know how to get around it because of an internal policy. What do we do?” Oh, boy.

Company policy is generally created to further the aims of the organization and ensure its well-being. But you may occasionally encounter a situation where policy seems to get in your way.

Your consultant can help you customize SharePoint and integrate it with CRM systems, ERP systems and other applications.

Company policies that restrict hiring external consultants, for example, can turn a manageable migration into an expensive disaster. In-house teams may struggle with unforeseen challenges that result in prolonged downtime, data loss and inefficient, disorganized workflows. In other words, a masterclass in Murphy’s Law.

The result? Higher costs, frustrated employees and lost productivity. A firm policy against outsourcing may seem cost-effective — initially — but can ultimately hinder efficiency and delay business growth. The expert guidance of a consultant can make all the difference.

Here are some key points you could raise to overcome any objections to hiring a consultant:

Sure, you could attempt it yourself, but do you really need a masterclass in Murphy’s Law?

Project Delays: Unforeseen roadblocks and delays — particularly when migrating to SharePoint Online — can negatively impact project timelines and potentially cause havoc with business operations. All of this is avoidable with a consultant’s specialized knowledge and experience.

Increased Risk: Your internal IT teams may lack the know-how to predict and reduce potential risks when migrating to SharePoint, increasing the likelihood of data loss, system instability and project failure — all of which could be minimized or avoided in the capable hands of an experienced consultant.
Higher Costs: IT resource use, potential system downtime and the cost of rectifying errors can far exceed the initial investment in a specialized consultant.
Reduced Efficiency: Inefficient migration processes can impede productivity and profitability, and hinder the organization’s ability to harness the full potential of the new SharePoint platform, which would negate the whole purpose of the migration.
Missed Opportunities: Delays and inefficiencies can prevent the organization from rapidly enjoying the benefits of the new system, such as improved collaboration, enhanced productivity and increased efficiency.

If you’re working hard at getting buy-in, it may be worth emphasizing that every single one of these points potentially results in a financial impact. This aspect may make the need for a migration consultant more relatable for business owners and key execs.

Per CIO Dive, the symptoms of cloud migration failure are many, but include the following key pain points:

What’s it worth to you to prevent the you-know-what from hitting the fan?

Unexpected cost overruns
Operational inefficiencies that lead to fragmented systems, impeding rather than streamlining operations
New security vulnerabilities that increase cyber risk
Skills gaps that prevent full utilization of cloud benefits

Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, “Oooh, I’d love to deal with (insert one of the above pain points) today!” A migration consultant is the best way to minimize the impact of these points.

The Bottom Line: A SharePoint Migration Consultant Is an Investment in Success

Migrating to SharePoint can be an expensive process that requires meticulous planning and execution. “Winging it” simply puts you at risk of finding yourself squarely in the window of that 83% failure rate previously mentioned.

'Winging it' simply puts you at risk of finding yourself squarely in the window of that 83% failure rate.

An experienced migration consultant takes all the (potentially expensive) guesswork out of the process and plots a predictable, safely navigable course for the organization’s successful transition.

Businesses can avoid expensive mistakes, minimize downtime and ensure a smooth transition simply by drawing on the expertise of a professional migration consultant. Whether you’re moving to SharePoint Online or restructuring your existing SharePoint environment, a migration consultant is the key to a successful migration journey.

Significant Threat Timeline

Yes, navigating the complexities of a SharePoint migration can be, well, let’s keep it polite and say challenging, but by partnering with a skilled and experienced dragon-slaying consultant, you can maximize the return on your investment. Nobody can guarantee you that 301% ROI, but a migration consultant can definitely ensure that your batting average is way above average.

Navigating the complexities of a SharePoint migration can be, well, let’s keep it polite and say challenging.

As writer, journalist and broadcaster Miles Kington once said, “Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”

Happy users mean no losers. Win-Win!

By wisely partnering with the right SharePoint migration consultant, you can embark on your migration journey with reduced stress and increased confidence, knowing that you have the expertise and support you need to achieve a successful and transformative outcome.

And no tomatoes in the fruit salad.

Ed Clark

LinkTek COO

View Bio

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