The Hidden Costs of DIY
Managing Your IS Infrastructure Is More Expensive Than You Think
In 2025, every nonprofit is being asked to do more with less – smaller budgets, fewer staff, and less time. When faced with financial pressure, many organizations turn inward and opt to “DIY” their technology management, believing it to be cheaper than using a vendor.
But the truth is, managing information services infrastructure is like an iceberg. The immediately visible costs (the part “above the water”) are only a small fraction of the hidden costs (the part “below the surface”).
From staff turnover and inconsistent maintenance to delayed upgrades and data security risks, the DIY approach can quietly drain both your budget and your mission’s momentum.
Short-Term Gain; Long-Term Strain
When nonprofits rely on internal staff to manage enterprise systems, they often underestimate what’s required to keep those systems running efficiently, securely, and strategically aligned with their mission.
In particular, they don’t factor in the costs of:
- Inconsistent Maintenance: Without a structured release plan, even well-intentioned DIY teams fall behind on critical updates – leading to tech debt, performance issues, and feature gaps.
- Staff Bandwidth & Burnout: Your operations or IT manager may be capable of managing Salesforce, but at what cost to their other responsibilities? Every hour spent troubleshooting is an hour not spent driving impact.
- Knowledge Loss: Staff turnover is inevitable. When institutional knowledge lives in a single person’s head, each departure becomes a setback that can take months to recover from.
- Reactive vs. Proactive Support: Internal teams often spend their time putting out fires rather than building for the future. That reactive approach limits innovation and compounds long-term costs.
In fact, the “hidden costs” of managing systems internally can easily outweigh the price of a managed services support contract by several orders of magnitude. Exponent Partners has built a detailed total cost-of-ownership economic model. For a nonprofit with $15 million in annual budget and 80 users, hidden organizational costs add up to 3-4 times the cost of a managed service contract.
Managed Services: A Smarter Choice for Most
Most organizations would be better off outsourcing the support for their enterprise software to a managed service provider.
Rather than adding another full-time hire or piecing together freelance help, a managed services partner provides predictable costs, dedicated expertise, and proactive support designed to keep your systems healthy and evolving with your needs.
At Exponent Partners, we’ve seen firsthand how nonprofits thrive when they stop trying to do it all themselves:
- Predictable Budgeting: Fixed monthly costs replace fluctuating project expenses.
- Consistent Expertise: A team of certified Salesforce consultants ensures continuity, coverage, and best-practice execution.
- Scalability: As your organization grows or your needs change, service levels flex with you.
- Peace of Mind: Proactive monitoring, regular upgrades, and responsive support ensure your system is always ready for what’s next.
The result? More time, more clarity, and more capacity to focus on your mission.
Introducing ECM Flex: Managed Services Designed for Nonprofits
If you’re looking for a smarter, more economical way to manage your casework in a Salesforce environment, ECM Flex is built for you.
Designed specifically for human services nonprofits, ECM Flex is a case management success program with a range of managed service levels that adapt to your size, complexity, and budget. ECM Flex helps you:
- Reduce operational strain
- Outsource the management of Salesforce
- Resolve issues before they become costly disruptions
- Continuously align your system with evolving programs and outcomes
With ECM Flex, you’re not just maintaining technology – you’re building a scalable partnership that helps your organization thrive through change.
The Bottom Line
In moments of financial constraint, the most strategic organizations look beyond cost-cutting – they look for cost-effectiveness. Managed Services like ECM Flex give you exactly that: a stable, expert-led, and proactive model that keeps your technology aligned with your mission while safeguarding your budget.
Ready to see how ECM Flex can help your organization do more with less?
Connect with us to explore how ECM Flex would enable your staff to spend more time on your mission and less time on IT management.
