15 top intranet best practices

Posted on 11 June 20243 October 2024 by John Scott

What is the best way to manage an intranet? What are some of the intranet best practices that we should follow?

These are typical questions that we get asked during an intranet project. Of course, there is no right or wrong or even definitive answer as every intranet and organisation is slightly different. However, over the years we’ve seen a LOT of successful intranet projects and there are a range of common approaches, techniques, tactics that work well time and time again.

In this post we’re going to explore fifteen essential intranet best practices that will help to drive adoption and value on your intranet. Of course, some best practices will be more relevant to particular intranet teams than others. You might also not agree with us, and we can’t absolutely guarantee that an intranet best practice will work for you. However, we’re pretty confident that if you follow all fifteen of these suggestions that you’ll have a successful site.

Let’s explore 15 essential intranet best practices.

1. Always have an intranet strategy based on user research

An intranet delivers benefits at multiple levels across your organisation. It supports communications, delivers change management, drives productivity, underpins learning and knowledge sharing, improves processes, minimises risk and more. It’s a strategic-level benefit and it is important to get it right.

It’s imperative to have an intranet strategy that will help to drive value and adoption. Having a well-thought-through overview of what you are trying to achieve with your intranet that aligns with your overall company strategy is essential. Having an accompanying plan and roadmap of how you’re going to achieve it also allows you to maintain focus, prioritise efforts, win over stakeholders, unite different team members around the same goals and ensure your intranet keeps moving in a strategic direction. An intranet strategy will also provide the framework for much of the detail around design, features, content and more.

A successful intranet strategy must focus on the needs of users and be wrapped around the way they work. This can only be achieved with a thorough understanding of your employees, their respective needs and their pain points. Undertaking user research and discovery exercise to fully understand the needs of different groups is key. You cannot formulate an intranet strategy and build an effective solution based on assumptions. I

f you’re going act on only one intranet best practice from this article, then this is probably the most important!

2. Involve cross-functional stakeholders from across the organisation

Intranets impact an entire organisation and also need input from a wide variety of different business functions and departments. Creating an intranet and ensuring it remains valuable and has good adoption, requires input and ongoing involvement from a range of stakeholders including HR, IT, Internal Comms, Business Operations, and more.

These cross-functional stakeholders not only provide critical feedback into the direction of your intranet but will also be responsible for important content and possibly some of the systems that you may want to integrate into your intranet experience.

Stakeholder involvement should usually be reflected in some kind of ongoing governance structure such as representation on an intranet steering committee or as part of an intranet working group. When different stakeholders from varying functions are continually involved in your intranet, it has more buy-in, relevance and value.

3. Focus on content governance

An intranet is only as good as the content published within it. Great content is purposeful, relevant, accurate, up to date, engaging and on-brand. Intranets often launch with content that has been refreshed so it ticks all these boxes, but then that content quality is not maintained, and the intranet starts to decline in value over time.

A key intranet best practice is to ensure that you have a content governance framework in place that will help to maintain the quality of your intranet content over time. This is particularly important if you work with a devolved publishing model with content owners and authors from right across your organisation.

A content governance framework will consist of a number of different elements including:

Clear ownership of content, down to the page level.
A set of clear publishing standards.
Having clear content owner training, guidance and support.
Providing site and page templates.
Having regular reviews of content.
Using automated reminders for page owners to review their content.

4. Ensure your users shape your intranet

The best intranets are often shaped by direct input from the users. Involving users through research, iteration and testing when creating your intranet will help to ensure it is user-centric, and also gives your intranet more legitimacy in the eyes of employees.

Another intranet best practice is to gather and act upon employee feedback regularly to inform changes. This not only provides hugely valuable data so you can tweak and improve your intranet, but it also lets employees know that their opinions are valued, emphasising the role of the intranet as a truly user-centric channel.

There are various techniques to support gathering feedback, including creating a regular user group, running polls and surveys, and creating feedback mechanisms via the intranet itself.

5. Leverage digital and intranet champions for launch

Invariably central intranet teams tend to be quite small, and sometimes can be just one-person or two-person teams. This can be challenging when launching an intranet across a large organisation.

Many intranet teams find that leveraging a network of voluntary digital and intranet champions is an excellent way to launch an intranet and drive adoption.

Champions provide a local point of contact to let different teams know about the new intranet, answer any questions, relay any feedback and provide any support. They may also promote ongoing changes and potentially play some kind of coordinating role with content. Digital champions provide additional value by being trusted by their peers and also by providing context about the role of the intranet with reference to local working practices and needs.

6. Make your intranet the front door to the wider digital workplace

A primary role of the modern intranet is to act as the “front door” to the wider digital workplace, providing easy access to the wider portfolio of applications used by employees throughout the enterprise. When the intranet acts as this entry point, it drives efficiency, supports intranet adoption and also the use of the individual apps.

There are multiple ways to achieve this. For a SharePoint intranet, integrations with other Microsoft 365 tools makes it easier to create this digital “front door” with web parts for tools like Microsoft Viva Engage. You can also add links to apps and tools so the intranet homepage acts as an “app launcher”.

It’s also possible to initiate specific integrations with enterprise systems like Workday and ServiceNow to help employees complete common tasks like logging a ticket or requesting annual leave. The Viva Connections dashboard and the ability to leverage out-of-the-box connectors is one of the best ways to create a task-based dashboard on your intranet so it is truly the entry point to the wider digital workplace.

7. Use personalisation on your intranet

Using personalisation is a “must-have” intranet best practice. Inevitably workforces are diverse, particularly in large, complex and global organisations. For intranets to succeed, content and experiences need to be relevant to different roles, divisions and locations. Invariably users also expect the technology they use inside and outside work to “understand” them and save time, reflecting their needs, interest and preferences. Internal communicators also want to be able to target items to different sections of a workforce to deliver effective messaging.

Leveraging personalisation so that relevant, targeted content appears based on an individual’s profile, groups and preferences is essential for any modern intranet.

8. Make sure your intranet helps employees get things done

Intranets support multiple processes but two of the most important are keeping employees informed and helping employees complete tasks and get things done. Because intranets are often owned by internal communication teams there is usually an emphasis on news and messaging, particularly on the intranet homepage. This is vitally important, but the truth is that most employees come to an intranet to complete their work rather than read the news. If your intranet is too focused on news only it can result in poor adoption.

An important intranet best practice is to ensure your intranet has a good balance between news and task completion. You can achieve this through using the intranet as an app launcher, integrating key enterprise systems, incorporating “How Do I” information, ensuring there is informative content such as policies, and even using the intranet to aggregate reminders from multiple platforms.

When your intranet helps employees get things done it will drive better adoption and in turn ensure news items get read when people visit, ticking both boxes for internal communications and supporting productivity.

9. Have a user-focused and task-based information architecture

Another way to help employees get things done is to create a user-focused and task-based intranet information architecture and site navigation. This guides employees towards task completion and support user journeys.

All too often an intranet has a navigation that mirrors an organisational structure, use terms that are not clear and has bad practices such using lots of acronyms. An intranet best practice is to avoid these traps and make sure your navigation uses intuitive labels and is orientated around the needs of users. The best way to make this happen is to carry out user research and testing for your navigation using techniques such as card-sorting and task-testing.

10. Use measurement to drive continual improvement

Intranets and digital workplaces are never finished. There are always improvements and changes to be made, and the best intranets are managed on a basis of continual improvement.

Measurement is a key component of continual improvement, helping to identify where changes are needed. Intranet teams collect analytics on adoption and usage, reach, engagement, user satisfaction, search results, the individual performance of different content and more.

When measuring, ensure you take time to analyse and understand what the numbers mean, make changes or adjustments, measure again to see what the impact was and then make further changes. In this way, measurement is part of the process to drive improvement over the long term.

11. Make your SharePoint intranet available via Microsoft Teams

If you have a SharePoint intranet it is easy to integrate it with a range of other Microsoft tools. Using Microsoft Viva Connections, you can also enable your intranet to be accessed via Microsoft Teams. While there are still some advantages in viewing the intranet through the browser, if your users are spending much of their working day within Teams it makes good sense to allow them to view the intranet there too. This will help to drive intranet adoption by integrating it more directly into the daily flow of work.

12. Make your site accessible

Accessibility is a neglected area in the digital workplace, and it is surprising how few intranet sites actually meet the AA level of the WCAG 2.2 guidelines – the acceptable level that most external-customer sites aspire to to support people with disabilities. Ensuring that your site and content is accessible is not only important from a diversity and inclusion perspective, but also improves the general usability of a site.

Several practices can help make a site accessible including ongoing testing, introducing policies such as always having transcripts for videos and videos, double checking that all images have alt text and more.

13. Engage and support your publishing community

We’ve already explored the importance of establishing content governance. A companion intranet best practice is to ensure that you engage and support your devolved publishing community so that they continue to produce high quality content.

Generally, any publishers or content owners that are responsible for an area of an intranet will be doing this as an additional activity that is above and beyond their day job. Spending tine on an ongoing training programme, providing an online community, driving engagement through recognition and providing the right resources and tools that will make life easier for a content owner, will all make a huge difference.

14. Ensure your intranet supports dialogue using social and community tools

Modern intranets are dynamic and lively channels with high levels of participation that ideally mirror an organisation’s vibrant culture. They have evolved from the dreary, static content repositories of the past.

An intranet best practice is to ensure that your intranet can support dialogue using social and community tools. This has multiple benefits including the ability to get feedback and input on initiatives, get a pulse check on employee sentiment and feeling, create valuable discussions for leaders, support employee engagement by giving everyone a voice and more.

There are a wide variety of different tools and features that can be used including blogs, polls, commenting, discussion forums, social feeds, hashtags and @mentions, feedback mechanisms, and more! Sometimes social tools can be added by integrating a social platform like Microsoft Viva Engage.

15. Hire an intranet manager

Intranets don’t look after themselves and they require some stewardship. While much of the responsibility for intranet content may be devolved, actually you do need someone to help coordinate everything, look after the intranet day to day, and continue to grow adoption and drive value. In our experience hiring an intranet manager or equivalent is critical to get best out of your investment in a new intranet.

Carrying out intranet best practices

In this post we’ve looked at some of our favourite intranet best practices that we’ve learned over the years. Of course, there are many more!

If you’d like to discuss a particular best practice, one we might have missed, or simply the best way to manage your intranet, then get in touch!

10 SharePoint intranet FAQ

Posted on 26 February 202417 April 2024 by Joe Perry

We get a lot of questions about SharePoint and how it can be used for intranets. This include some people who are relatively new to the world of SharePoint and intranets and want to know the basics. If you’re one of those people, this page is for you! We’ve assembled ten key questions (and answers!) about SharePoint intranets covering everything from what SharePoint actually is to how to build a SharePoint intranet to accessing it through Microsoft Teams.

1. What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a collaboration and content management solution provided by Microsoft. It is extremely mature, having had its first iteration was in 2001. Since then, it has gone through multiple versions.

SharePoint is generally regarded as a highly flexible and scalable platform that can be used to build websites, portals, intranets, collaboration solutions, document management solutions and business applications, often in combination with other Microsoft tools.

SharePoint has a number of different versions – it is both available on-premises and online, and also in “classic” and “modern” versions. The latter has a more intuitive look and feel and works well out of the box.

SharePoint is available as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, where people access SharePoint Online using the “modern” version. The great majority of new solutions and sites built on SharePoint will use modern SharePoint Online.

SharePoint is made up of a different number of web parts which are like the building bricks of SharePoint. Different web parts include a document library, a piece of text, an image, a news feed and so on.

If you want to understand SharePoint, it really helps to understand web parts. In the video below, Content Formula’s Director of User Experience John Scott explains more about web parts and what they do.

2. Is SharePoint an intranet?

SharePoint is not an intranet. It’s a solution in its own right and many people use SharePoint for uses that are not an intranet. However, many of the world’s leading intranets are based on SharePoint.

3. Can SharePoint be used as an intranet?

Absolutely! SharePoint has been the most popular base technology for intranets for a long time – certainly for the past fifteen years or so. Many of the world’s best intranets are based on SharePoint and many of the world’s leading brands have intranets based on SharePoint. For example, when the winners of prestigious intranet awards such as the Nielsen Norman Group are announced each year, you can guarantee a good proportion of them will be SharePoint intranets.

The inclusion of SharePoint in Microsoft 365 subscriptions, the evolution of SharePoint modern, and the support for a number of “intranet-ready” features straight out of the box mean SharePoint will almost certainly continue to be the leading intranet solution for years to come.

4. What are the benefits of a SharePoint intranet?

There are many benefits of basing your intranet on SharePoint. These include:

If you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you have access to SharePoint so you’ll be making the most out of your investment in 365 with a SharePoint intranet, significantly reducing your costs.
SharePoint integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 tools, meaning your intranet can also act as a gateway to other tools like Viva Engage and help drive value and adoption.
SharePoint is a highly flexible, scalable and versatile platform, meaning that you can create an intranet that meets your organisational and employee needs, whatever your size and industry.
SharePoint is a proven intranet technology with a great track record – thousands and thousands of organisations around the world have SharePoint intranets.
There is a large ecosystem of products, services, experts and developers who can help you create a world-class intranet
And more!

In our view, SharePoint is easily the best base technology option for an intranet. For more reasons why, watch this video below featuring Joe Perry, Content Formula’s Technical Director.

5. How do I create an intranet in SharePoint?

You can create an intranet just using SharePoint straight out of the box, but this isn’t always the best option as it can lead to gaps in functionality.

There are also other choices to make including whether you want to customise SharePoint or want to use a fully-fledged additional intranet product like LiveTiles which adds additional functionality. You can also use a more targeted and cost-effective product like Lightspeed365, which bridges many of the gaps in SharePoint, but doesn’t mean you’re paying for the same features twice.

In creating an intranet in SharePoint that will be sustainable and successful there will be several steps to take including:

Carrying out discovery including user and stakeholder research to get an understanding of employee needs.
Creating an intranet strategy, vision and roadmap.
Defining more detailed requirements.
Deciding if you’re going straight out of the box with SharePoint or adding a product on top like Lightspeed365.
Working out different elements including the design, information architecture, content strategy and more.
Creating and migrating your content.
Building the actual intranet.
Carrying out change management activities .
And more!

Most organisations choose to partner with a specialist SharePoint intranet partner like Content Formula. We can do much of the heavy lifting and provide expert input through all the stages of the project to create the perfect intranet for you.

6. How do you design a SharePoint intranet?

Designing an intranet is a core activity in creating a SharePoint intranet. Sometimes this involves designing different areas such as the homepage and content types such as news items using a package like Adobe Design. The designs can then be recreated within SharePoint. Others experiment using SharePoint itself to design the homepage and different content types. There are many factors which impact your SharePoint design and it’s sensible to follow several best practices during the design process.

If you want to see some real-world examples of SharePoint intranet designs, watch the video below where Content Formula’s John Scott covers ten recent SharePoint extranet example.

7. Can the look of SharePoint be customised?

Many organisations want to make sure that their intranet has a look and feel that aligns with their corporate brand to a certain extent, helping to support employee communications, brand awareness and engagement.

However, there are some limitations to the extent that the look and feel of SharePoint can be configured without customisation. There is some flexibility over logo, font and colours.. You can also use the SharePoint lookbook to provide ideas and inspiration, and then use those templates to give you a head start, while SharePoint’s “brand centre” feature also helps control brand assets and stylings across different SharePoint sites.

However, often the design options that come out of the box fall short of what brand teams and communication managers want. When this is the case, some organisations choose to customise the SharePoint design so it meets their brand requirements. However, this approach comes with drawbacks as subsequent upgrades can then break the design. To get around this issue, we created a feature within Lightspeed365 called the “Branding Customiser” that allows you to customise your design, for example adding a custom font, but then allows any future changes to be implemented safely.

8. How does a SharePoint intranet integrate with MS Teams?

SharePoint integrates with Microsoft Teams in a number of different ways, including the use of SharePoint for document libraries within Teams. There are also different ways to integrate a SharePoint intranet into Teams so users can choose whether to view the intranet there, which is usually more directly in the flow of work, or via their browser.

The main way to integrate a SharePoint intranet with Teams is by using Microsoft Viva Connections which comes free bundled with most Microsoft 365 licenses. Another advantage of integrating a SharePoint intranet into Teams is that it can then be accessed via the Teams mobile app, often a good way to provide mobile intranet access for frontline staff.

9. What if SharePoint doesn’t have a particular feature?

SharePoint has a stack of excellent features or web parts that come straight out of the box. As already noted, web parts are the building blocks of SharePoint so an individual web part might represent a block of text, an image, a document library, a feed from Viva Engage or another particular features. But the web parts that already come with SharePoint are not enough to deliver a world-class intranet, coming with several limitations and gaps. For example, perhaps you want to view a stock price on your intranet homepage, but there’s nothing out of the box.If you have a missing feature there are various different options:

You can buy an additional product and then integrate that into the intranet.
You can create a custom web part or feature from scratch.
You can buy additional intranet software that comes with extra features, although this can be expensive.

However, there is also an additional option. At Lightspeed365 we’ve taken a different and more cost-effective approach, offering packages with bundles of features that are missing from SharePoint and are commonly part of leading intranets. For example, with Ligthspeed365 you can include the stock price, add news subscriptions, add personalised bookmarks, add a custom walk-through tour and much more.

10. Can SharePoint integrate with systems outside of Microsoft 365?

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A good SharePoint intranet acts as a front door to the wider digital workplace, and sometimes can be a place where information and complete simple transactions without even leaving the intranet. Often these will involve popular enterprise non-Microsoft 365 systems such as ServiceNow, Salesforce, Workday, SAP, Condeco, Concur, Cornerstone and more. Thankfully, SharePoint can integrate with many of these systems, usually through connectors or via custom integrations. In recent years, it has become easier and easier to integrate with non-Microsoft tools due to the Microsoft’s growing library of connectors, improved APIs, and more!

Still confused about SharePoint and SharePoint intranets? Get in touch!

We hope that this Q&A provided the information you needed. If you have questions that weren’t covered then get in touch and we’ll do our best to answer them!

SharePoint intranet design best practices

Posted on 31 January 202417 April 2024 by John Scott

Design is critical for any SharePoint intranet and its one of the key elements to focus on in your intranet project. In creating a successful design there are several factors that will influence it, including the aims of your intranet, your corporate branding requirements and usability considerations. In practice a final SharePoint intranet design has to tick several different boxes, and your design process needs to consider all these. Here there are several different approaches that can help.

In this post we’re going to look at how to approach your SharePoint intranet design. We’ll cover why it is so important, the factors that will influence it and need to be taken into account, and finally some key approaches for success.

What is SharePoint intranet design?

SharePoint intranet design can be considered your approach to the design of the interfaces of your intranet, incorporating your homepage, landing pages and other standard site and page templates. The design will establish the default theme or themes for your intranet as well as any standard site or page templates that will be established that can then be deployed. Each site or page template will involve the layout of web parts, while the overall design with establish elements such as the colour palette, the logo, default fonts and more.

Information architecture (IA) and site navigation are also usually considered part of intranet design and have a strong influence on other design elements. The IA and navigation are an enormous topic in themselves and are not the main focus of this article.

Why is intranet design so important?

Intranet design is a major factor in the success of your intranet project. It influences:

The usability of your intranet, ensuring employees can complete tasks and get the information they need quickly and effortlessly.
The successful reflection of your brand and culture, ensuring you get positive stakeholder buy-in for your intranet, and supports wider organisational goals.
Establishes the right perceptions of your intranet and trust of its content to support sustained adoption.
The features and content that employees will access to drive successful business outcomes.
The ability for employees to find what they need on the intranet and navigate around it.
The ability to deliver clear messages and support communication.
The everyday performance of the intranet for example with page load times,
The accessibility of your intranet so all employees can access it.

What are the different elements that influence SharePoint intranet design?

There are several different factors that will influence your SharePoint intranet design; the final result is often a balancing act between all of them.

Strategic alignment

As you enter your project you should have an intranet strategy and perhaps a related content strategy that defines what your intranet is trying to achieve and the kind of content it is delivering. This will usually be an output from a user research and discovery phase.

Your intranet and content strategy will usually dictate the detail such as the different content types you will include. Your SharePoint intranet design is an essential way that your intranet strategy gets delivered, so it needs to align strongly with what you are trying to achieve.

Brand

Intranets need to reflect your corporate brand and visual identity so obviously this will have a major influence on your design, and impact everything from the layout of page to the font used and the use of imagery.

Approach to customisation

Using SharePoint Online has some limitations on the flexibility of your design, so for example not everything you want to achieve to meet your brand standards might not be possible using SharePoint straight out of the box. However, you can use some levels of customisation to achieve the design you want of what you can achieve with the design, so there is usually a balance to reach.

You can also use additional web parts such as our Lightspeed 365 branding customiser module that give you more design flexibility in a sustainable way. Your overall approach to customisation and leveraging extra modules beyond native SharePoint will influence your options.

Usability

The usability of your intranet is extremely important to it use and takes in multiple elements. A confusing and cluttered intranet will result in dwindling adoption while unnecessary design features can distract by adding noise to the central communication. Large scale graphics can impact page load times – which can be a huge factor when the intranet is accessed via mobile devices. Usability is always at the heart of Content Formula’s design process.

Information architecture and navigation

Your design will always need to align with and support your intranet structure and navigation to ensure there is a co-ordinated approach to deliver strong findability. It will influence elements such as your intranet megamenu design, the layout of templates which in turn support findability, and more.

Accessibility

Accessibility is a hugely important consideration to ensure employees living with disabilities can access your intranet and its content, for example using assistive technologies such as screen readers. Ideally, most intranet teams want to achieve the AA level of compliance with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. SharePoint has good support for accessibility, but elements of design such as the colour palette can undermine accessibility. You need to ensure that accessibility is considered in the design.

Content type

You are likely to have defined different types of content such as the homepage, departmental landing pages, locations, news, policies and more. The aims of each of the content type will dictate the layout, the web parts included and more.

Governance

Governance is essential for a successful intranet and ensuring content is accurate, up to date, meets brand standards and more. Your approach to governance is going to influence design – for example influencing how locked down your designs will be, the number of designs you have to offer content owners to provide some flexibility but remain within brand, and the inclusion and position of web parts such as information about the page.

Tips for SharePoint intranet design success

There are several approaches that can help support a great design for your SharePoint intranet.

Use the SharePoint LookBook for inspiration

Microsoft have some excellent resources to support the creation of your intranet. One of these is the SharePoint LookBook, a collection of site designs and templates that can be viewed for inspiration but also actually deployed on a SharePoint tenant. This is a great starting point for thinking about your intranet design and can actually give you a head start.

Ask for agency examples

Your digital agency may also have some examples of their work that can give you tangible design examples for inspiration, and help stakeholders get their heads around design. For example, we have many examples of SharePoint intranet design here on the Content Formula website.

Get the right input from stakeholders, content owners and users

Like any aspect of creating an intranet, its key to get input from different stakeholders on your SharePoint intranet design. This will include key project stakeholders such as IT and Internal Comms, but should also include content owners and admins who are going to be actually creating content, and users who are going to be accessing the intranet on a daily basis. Getting their reactions and feedback on intranet design will help you to derive the final designs that will have the most value.

Prototype and iterate

An excellent way to get input on the design is to use wireframes to create clickable prototypes that can then be experienced by sets of users to get their reaction and feedback about a design. These prototypes can then be iterated to get further feedback and further iterated until there is a design that everyone is happy with. At Content Formula we use wire framing software and prototyping early on the project, to get input on the design and ensure any problems with the design are fixed before we move into the build phase.

Take a data-driven approach

Intranet design is always one area of an intranet project where there can be strong opinions. While it’s good to get stakeholder feedback, ultimately it is important to take a data-driven approach to intranet design that takes in overall testing and feedback from a wide group of users and stakeholders. Sometimes it is necessary not to yield to uninformed ideas about intranet design or go with untested assumptions.

Designing a SharePoint intranet

It’s always exciting to work on SharePoint intranet designs and start to see it all coming together. But it’s important to take into account multiple factors and take the right approaches.

If you’d like to discuss the design of your SharePoint intranet, please get in touch.

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Digital workplace trends for 2025

Posted on 7 January 202513 January 2025 by Dan Hawtrey

It’s hard to believe that it’s already that time of year that I make my digital workplace predictions for the forthcoming year. 2024 was an exciting but also topsy turvy year. We saw AI continue to develop and embed within products like Microsoft Copilot. Here at Content Formula, we worked with some fantastic client teams and delivered successful projects, while also continuing to evolve our Lightspeed365 and Xoralia products. But across the wider intranet and digital workplace industry, market conditions were at times a little challenging for both tech vendors and consultancies.

2025 looks set to be an equally exciting year, but with the potential to be unpredictable. The global geo-political situation feels very fluid, and that might impact the global economy. Developments in AI are also impossible to predict – who knows where we will end up?

Given this, making predictions for the coming year comes with a warning and caveat; they might not happen! You can see what I predicted for 2024 and it is fair to say some of those didn’t quite materialise as expected.

Anyway, here goes! Hera are some of the headline digital trends I think we’ll see in 2025.

1. AI tools will surprise us

Every digital workplace trend or prediction article for 2025 will be filled with forecasts about what will happen with generative AI. Of course, AI will be the dominant theme in the digital workplace space and teams will be focusing on AI-readiness, getting value from Microsoft Copilot, de-risking through governance, evaluating products, supporting employees and trying to keep up with a technology that is moving with unbelievable speed.

It’s hard to know exactly where AI is going to take us, but I think it will surprise us, potentially on different levels:

The latest incredible development which is pushing the boundaries of the possible.
Personal tips and tricks which can transform your own productivity and save so much time.
The adoption and value it will deliver within organisations.
Amazing products with eyebrow-raising features
And in many other ways!

There are still obvious risks and uncertainties, but it is exciting and those organisations that embrace the possibilities but also prepare the foundational work, will be able to take the most advantage.

2. Microsoft Copilot finds its feet

So far Microsoft Copilot has perhaps had a bit of a mixed reaction in the market with some justifiable criticisms – for example the pricing is highly complex – and both positive and underwhelming results in terms of the business benefits. Market reaction is also more than a little muddied by the fact that there are actually multiple versions of Copilot.

We think in 2025 Copilot is likely to find its feet and the narrative around its use will start to change to something more positive. Microsoft often releases applications that first don’t quite deliver, but then get substantially better over time. Here at Content Formula when we first tried Teams in 2018, we initially got excited but overall felt pretty underwhelmed, and of course the rest is history.

In some respects, Copilot still feels a little like a beta product that has a few issues to iron out; but we think that will change and prove to be a critical tool for the digital workplace. There are also some genuinely exciting developments on the way, for example with the release of Copilot Agents, announced at the recent Microsoft Ignite conference.

3. Tool proliferation continues to negatively impact employee experience

One of the biggest issues in the world of digital employee experience continues to be the proliferation of apps (often cloud-based) within the enterprise. According to research from Salesforce, the average enterprise has over 1,061 work-based apps in being used, a growth of 26% within just two years. This complex landscape leads to overwhelm, inefficiency and time-wasting caused by context switching between apps, frustrating and fragmented user journeys, issues with findability and more. A complex digital landscape is also harder to manage and monitor.

We don’t see tool and app proliferation getting any easier during 2025. Having said this, there are many teams who want to tackle the issue and are using their intranet (either via browser or Teams) as the place to for employees to complete a wide variety of tasks and transactions without having to enter the back-end systems. In this way the “everything intranet” as we’ve called it, is driving efficiency and supporting a better employee experience.

4. The Return to the office vs Hybrid Working debate rumbles on

Last year I predicted that debates about the value of hybrid working would start to fizzle out, but that hasn’t been the case. In 2024 there is still focus on the “Return to the Office” versus remote and hybrid working. Some major companies like Amazon have called their office-based employees back to being in five days a week and notably in a recent survey by KMPG, 83% of CEOs said they expected a full return to the office within three years.

Counter to this, many observers (and employees at the companies concerned) have argued that this view is short-sighted and is not supported by the data when it comes to productivity. Meanwhile more businesses are exploring flexible work and even experimenting with the four-day week.

While it’s safe to say that there is quite often a disconnect in some organisations between what leadership and employee want on this issue, the way the RTO debate pans out tends to be very black and white. Of course, in reality there is no right or wrong answer. Different employees and generations want different things, individuals have circumstances that dictate their preferences, and different modes of work lend themselves better to in-person work, but not always. Meanwhile millions of employees who are hybrid working have found a compromise that just about works.

Unfortunately, I think the debate will go on in 2025, but it would be more helpful to recognise this is a complex issue, that one size doesn’t’ fit all, and we should be focused on the work itself, what we’re trying to achieve and what the data actually tell us.

5. Internal comms goes omnichannel

Internal communicators have long worked in multi-channel environments, but in our conversations with clients about the use of SharePoint intranets and the rest of the Microsoft 365 toolset, more and more IC teams seemed focused on going omnichannel.

One of the reasons for this is the work Microsoft has done in the background to support a more coordinated approach to omnichannel publishing. For example, Viva Engage has undoubtedly ramped up support for leadership communications while features such as Campaigns help IC teams to take more of a multi-channel approach. The recent addition of Storylines into Teams will also support more consistent leadership communications across channels.

Meanwhile Viva Amplify specifically allows IC teams to orchestrate and measure communications and campaigns across Viva Engage, Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and a mobile app. In 2025 I expect more IC professionals will take advantage of these features to go truly omnichannel.

6. Cybersecurity will remain a key concern and compliance area

If cybersecurity was a major concern in 2024 it may even be a bigger concern in 2025. In our governance and policy management predictions over on the Xoralia blog we predict that this will be a major area for compliance. Indeed, research from Thomson Reuters shows that 82% of risk professionals identify “data and cybersecurity risk” as their biggest concern.

As AI ramps up it will bring new cybersecurity threats including disturbing deep fake social engineering attacks and sophisticated phishing scams. This will necessitate the need for stricter policy management around AI and cyber risks, renewed vigour in cybersecurity awareness and training, and also advanced monitoring for threats. There will also potentially be more focus on compliance around data privacy which can in turn minimise the threat, impact and fall out from a cybersecurity attack.

7. We may see more consolidation in the intranet software market

If you’ve read the ClearBox guide to intranet software (which features our Lightspeed365 product) you’ll be aware that there are many intranet products out there. Overall, it’s been a pretty vibrant market over the past few years, with significant levels of investment, new entrants and the expansion of products. However, there are quite a few vendors merging and being acquired; the most notable event in 2024 was Omnia’s acquisition of LiveTiles.

In 2025 we think it is very likely that we’ll see more consolidation in the industry. There is likely to be two types of acquisition. The first will be strategic mergers involving bigger players like the Omnia deal. The second will be larger providers acquiring niche players to expand the features within their platform; for example, similar to Flip’s recent acquisition of AI and chatbot specialist The Bot Company. Overall, we think the in-a-box market is still healthy, but it is highly competitive – including from Microsoft and SharePoint itself – and not every in-a-boxer will succeed.

8. Microsoft ramps up the App Store supporting the integrated digital workplace

One of the megatrends of the last few years has been the growth of the Microsoft 365-powered digital workplace, providing a series of integrated and interlocking tools that provide a more coherent and consistent digital employee experience. Much of this has centred around the toolset within 365 itself. However, there are an increasing number of solutions built by Microsoft partners that sit seamlessly within the 365 ecosystem; these include Learn365 from Zensai as well as our own Xoralia policy management solution.

The advantage of these tools being built completely for 365 is not only the seamless integration for employees, but also for IT departments, where the product will tend to tick existing security, compliance and governance boxes and meet existing policies. Solutions like Xoralia and Learn365 are also easy and straightforward to roll-out, and most vendors will ensure their product stays up to date with the M365 roadmap.

Currently Microsoft has been investing in the app store and we’ve seen it start to evolve to support this expansion of partner-produced tools that deeply integrate with Microsoft 365. Thie model is a little more like Salesforce whose app exchange and marketplace has multiple platform-ready tools. Having an effective and popular Microsoft App Store will also help incentivise Microsoft partners to continue to innovate with their products.

9. The usual intranet and digital workplace challenges remain

Saying that some things aren’t going to change is perhaps not the most exciting trend to observe, but our experiences over decades in the SharePoint, intranet and digital workplace space see the same issues coming up again and again. Search and findability. Out of date content. Lack of governance. Not enough measurement. Solutions built on assumptions rather than user research. Not quite enough change management. These are perennial problems that keep on appearing, albeit with a slightly different context.

The contrast between the constant change we see with new technologies and products and the reappearance of the same issues year after year is one of the great paradoxes of working in this space. Many of these issues are not technology-related and are often due to not carrying out enough foundational work to build requirements and establish governance. Even with the mind-bending possibilities of generative AI we need to prepare for it properly and put the hard yards in. We expect the situation won’t change in 2025 with the same challenges persisting.

Happy new year from the Content Formula team!

Whatever happens, 2025 is going to be another fascinating year for the digital workplace. Have a very happy, healthy and successful new year from all of us at Content Formula!

The story behind Content Formula

Content Formula is a leading digital workplace consultancy specializing in Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, and beyond. We design and build innovative solutions that transform the way organizations work, including custom intranets, knowledge management systems, LMS integrations, process automation, and more. With clients like Pfizer, Accenture, and Philips, our expertise spans multiple industries and business needs.

3 benefits you can expect from Content Formula

Transform your digital workplace

We create tailored solutions using SharePoint and Teams, from intranet design and architecture to knowledge management and custom applications, all aimed at improving communication, collaboration, and employee engagement.

Automate business processes

Our expertise in process automation helps organizations streamline operations through workflow automation, approvals, and integrations with Microsoft Power Platform.

Comprehensive support and strategy

From intranet strategy and migration to managed services and ongoing support, we provide end-to-end services ensuring seamless implementation and ongoing optimization.

What our clients say

A big thank you to the Content Formula team for their outstanding work on our project! We are thrilled with the Lightspeed365 intranet and the iOS-style navigation they designed and developed for us. It has been a game-changer for our associates. Their expertise in SharePoint design and digital workplace solutions, including PowerApps, were invaluable to us. The team at Content Formula are highly recommended!

Paul Marabella, VP & CIO

★★★★★

Our experience with Xoralia so far has been very positive. It not only simplifies our policy management, but also enhances our overall compliance posture and has proven to be a significant time-saver for our organization. This allows our team to focus on more strategic tasks, contributing to organizational success. Xoralia is a valuable investment for any company seeking a reliable and efficient solution to navigate the complex world of corporate policies.

Nadja Friedrichs Boyum, VP Marketing & HR

★★★★★

Lightspeed365 has given us the tools to provide our users with a more intuitive intranet experience that has resulted in better adoption and more active engagement with our intranet and our internal communication. It was a quick, easy install that gave us richer, more flexible display options, enabling us to share content in more engaging ways for our users. Would definitely recommend - we haven't looked back.

Glenda Lamb, SharePoint Architect

★★★★★

How to get started with Content Formula

Step 1: Book a free consultation

Discuss your digital workplace challenges and opportunities with our experts.

Step 2: Receive a tailored plan

Get a customized roadmap to transform your digital workplace with clear, actionable steps.

Step 3: Deploy and optimize

We support you through implementation and beyond, with a focus on change management and user adoption.

What you'll get with Content Formula

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Valo intranet end of life? Lightspeed365 is your alternative

Posted on 3 December 20243 December 2024 by John Scott

As Valo intranet support is set to end mid-next year, many organizations are grappling with the challenge of transitioning to a new platform. Finding a reliable alternative is essential, not only to ensure continuity but also to seize the opportunity to enhance your organization’s digital workplace. Lightspeed365 stands out as a seamless, future-proof solution, offering minimal disruption during intranet migration while introducing advanced features that elevate employee experience, engagement, and productivity. Here’s why Lightspeed365 is the smart choice for Valo users.

Addressing Valo’s impending challenges

Valo intranet has served as a dependable solution for many organizations, but with the announcement of its discontinuation, businesses face several challenges that must be addressed. Here are the key risks of staying on an unsupported platform:

Lack of updates and technical support: as Valo stops receiving updates, the platform becomes increasingly vulnerable to technical issues, bugs, and compatibility problems. Without active support, organizations may find themselves unable to resolve critical issues, leading to operational inefficiencies and increased downtime.
Incompatibility with Microsoft 365 advancements: Microsoft 365 is constantly evolving, introducing new tools and features like AI-powered intranet capabilities and workflow automation. An unsupported platform like Valo may lag behind, creating friction in workflows and preventing teams from fully leveraging Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Security and compliance risks: outdated software can expose organizations to significant security threats. Unsupported platforms are more susceptible to cyberattacks, while compliance requirements may become harder to meet, especially for organizations operating in regulated industries.

These challenges highlight the urgency of transitioning to a cloud-based intranet solution that ensures continuity, security, and adaptability in an increasingly hybrid workplace.

Lightspeed365: a superior alternative

Lightspeed365 is more than just a replacement for Valo, it’s an upgrade that transforms your digital workplace into a dynamic, efficient, and future-ready environment. Here’s how Lightspeed365 addresses Valo users’ needs:

Seamless integration: Lightspeed365 is designed to integrate effortlessly with SharePoint and Microsoft 365, ensuring that your existing workflows and data remain intact. By preserving what works, the platform minimizes disruptions during the migration process.
Enhanced features: while Valo provided a solid foundation, Lightspeed365 introduces advanced capabilities such as workflow automation, enterprise social networking tools, and personalized dashboards. These features not only streamline internal communications but also improve knowledge management and team collaboration.
Future-proofing: Lightspeed365 evolves alongside your organization. With regular updates, scalability options, and cutting-edge tools like AI integration through Microsoft’s Copilot products, the platform ensures that your intranet remains relevant and effective as technology advances.

Making the transition: seamless and efficient

The idea of switching platforms can feel overwhelming, but Lightspeed365 is built with flexibility and adaptability at its core, making the migration process straightforward and efficient. Here’s what you can expect during the transition:

1. Pre-migration planning: before the migration process begins, Lightspeed365’s team works closely with your organization to assess your existing intranet setup, data, and workflows. This ensures that the transition is tailored to your unique needs and minimizes any potential disruptions.
2. Data migration: Lightspeed365 prioritizes preserving your existing data, workflows, and governance structures. Advanced tools and structured processes are used to ensure that everything is transferred accurately and efficiently, eliminating the risk of data loss or misalignment.
3. User onboarding: a seamless transition isn’t just about technical migration, it’s also about ensuring your employees can adapt to the new platform quickly and confidently. Lightspeed365 retains familiar elements from Valo’s interface, reducing the learning curve. Comprehensive training and resources are also provided to help employees embrace new productivity tools and features like mobile intranet access and analytics dashboards.
4. Dedicated support: the Lightspeed365 team is with you every step of the way, providing dedicated support to address any challenges that arise during the transition. This hands-on approach ensures that the migration process is smooth, stress-free, and completed on schedule.

By simplifying the migration process and prioritizing user experience, Lightspeed365 ensures that your organization can move forward without missing a beat.

Driving engagement, communication, and collaboration

Once your organization is fully transitioned to Lightspeed365, you’ll experience the benefits of its enhanced features firsthand. Here’s how the platform elevates engagement, communication, and collaboration:

Engagement: Lightspeed365 includes personalized dashboards and enterprise social networking features that allow employees to tailor their digital workspace experience. By delivering relevant and timely content, these dashboards help employees stay connected and motivated. The platform’s social intranet capabilities also create opportunities for employees to interact with each other, fostering a sense of community and belonging.
Communication: effective communication is the backbone of any successful organization. Lightspeed365 streamlines internal communications with enhanced integrations for Microsoft Teams, real-time messaging tools, and targeted notifications. These features ensure that employees stay informed and engaged, whether they’re working remotely or in the office.
Collaboration: collaboration is at the heart of Lightspeed365. Advanced task management tools, document-sharing capabilities, and co-authoring features enable teams to work together seamlessly. Whether your employees are located in the same office or spread across the globe, Lightspeed365 makes teamwork more efficient and transparent than ever before.
Knowledge management: Lightspeed365 simplifies the management and accessibility of company knowledge. Its centralized hub ensures that critical information, resources, and policies are easy to find, improving employee efficiency and reducing time spent searching for information.

Conclusion

The end of Valo support is not just a challenge, it’s an opportunity to embrace a more robust, secure, and feature-rich intranet solution. With its seamless integration, advanced tools for workflow automation and internal communications, and commitment to continuous improvement, Lightspeed365 ensures your digital workplace remains efficient, adaptable, and future-ready.

Ready to make the switch? Explore Lightspeed365 today and experience how it can elevate your digital workplace. Schedule a demo to see the difference firsthand.

The story behind Content Formula