Determining the True Cost of Microsoft SharePoint

However, if an IT department is using SharePoint as a development platform for business applications, costs will increase because developers and quality assurance testers will be needed. Business analysts, project managers, IT configuration staff and IT help desk staff may also be needed. The amount of time these staff members devote to implementing and supporting SharePoint depends on the pace at which SharePoint is being deployed and on how much advanced configuration and development work is needed.

: Like all software, SharePoint is not perfect in that it does not solve every problem perfectly. Tom Rizzo, Microsoft's senior director for SharePoint, says that the product was designed to provide a rich set of functionality, and where gaps exist, third-party vendors have introduced specific products to fill such voids. Examples of third-party products include tools for image capture, metadata replication and workflow supplements. SharePoint, more so than any other enterprise content management (ECM) platform, has set the stage for a global market of third-party products. The cost of these third-party products varies.

: SharePoint 2007's phenomenal growth has occurred despite the fact that it doesn't have overly mature capabilities for configuration, replication, and the promotion of changes to code. As a result, additional time should be allocated toward . The cost of configuration management will be predicated upon an organization's process for promoting code from one environment to another. For example, for an organization with finely tuned and documented processes, it may take a week or more to prepare this type of configuration management effort for SharePoint.

: IT organizations may need to hire consultants to help configure SharePoint's many administrative options and to help integrate third-party products with it.

: should extend beyond out-of-the-box functionality to include testing of custom development, the integration of third-party products, and any formal configuration exercises. As a general rule, CIOs should allocate five to 10 percent of their overall SharePoint project effort to quality assurance.