9 best practices and tips to optimise your SharePoint intranet

Posted on 25 March 202411 October 2024 by John Scott

Every intranet manager will tell you that a SharePoint intranet is never quite finished. There is always more you can do to make it better. Improve search and findability. Ensure content is even higher quality. Add a new feature or area. Increase usability. Help employees make the most of the intranet. And so on.

Here at Content Formula we’ve been building SharePoint intranets for decades and along the way we’ve accumulated a lot of intranet wisdom and best practices. If you are planning to improve your SharePoint intranet this year or even build a new one, John Scott, our head of Consulting and User Experience, has created a handy video with nine top tips to improve your SharePoint intranet. You can either watch the video or you can read the notes on this blog article.

Let’s explore John’s tips for improving the intranet.

1. Talk to your users and understand their needs

Successful intranets are built on a solid understanding of users and their needs. It’s always good to talk to your users, get their feedback, listen to their pain points and understand their needs.

Three are different ways to achieve this. At Content Formula we’ve always found that usability testing is a great way to understand if and how the current intranet is failing; you can set people key tasks, see if they can find the information, and observe how they approach this.

You can also do focus group sessions and individual interviews in order to home in on what a person actually needs to do complete their work and how the intranet might help. Another option is to use a survey for quantitative feedback from right across the whole organization, again to see which areas your intranet should focus on to achieve the maximum impact across the most number of people.

2. Think carefully about the navigation

Your intranet navigation is important, and there’s always ways to improve it. It could be time to consider your navigation carefully and see if there are ways to better help people find what they need.

Intranet navigation can be tricky to get right. Where possible follow best practices such as avoiding using complex acronyms and sticking to plain language that users will understand. You can also improve navigation through activities such as card-sorting where you can actually see how users structure information using their own mental model. You can also validate a navigation using tree-testing and see if people can successfully find that they need, making adjustments when necessary. All these approaches will help you develop a user-centric navigation and a better intranet.

3. Make your intranet look good

First impressions count with intranets. When you have an intranet that looks modern and appealing it makes your users want to return, supporting both adoption and generating trust with the content. It’s always worth making the effort to make sure your intranet looks good and is on-brand.

There are different ways to do this. Using the right imagery will help an intranet to be engaging and attractive. You can even use branded icons to use in a house style. If you go down this path, make sure you that train your content owners on how to use these assets.

If you want to go even further with ensuring your intranet matches your brand, you can use a tool like Lightspeed365’s brand customiser feature. You can inject company fonts and have more control over your intranet’s colour palette. You can even create sub-branding across your intranet to reflect different companies or brands within your organization.

4. Prioritise killer apps and features what will make a difference to users

If you’ve talked to users and carried out some user research, it’s likely that you may conclude that there are additional features and content areas where the intranet could really make a difference. This may be because existing parts of the intranet need to be improved or they simply are missing.

By prioritising the features and content that will make a real difference to users you can effectively establish “killer apps” that will help drive maximum value from the intranet. These apps could help users to complete a particular task, find policy information, access a people directory that’s fully searchable, view a Learning Management System via the intranet, or something else entirely. By prioritising these kinds of areas and focusing your energy on them, it means you won’t be spending time and money on things that will have little utility.

5. Use templates to avoid overwhelming employees

A common problem with intranets is that they are inconsistent and present information in multiple different ways to users. This not only makes it take longer to find what people need but it can actually overwhelm users who have to think hard when they land on a page to find what they need.

One way to combat this is to use tightly controlled and consistent templates to present information in the same way across multiple pages. For example, there could be templates for:

Triage pages on a particular topic which direct users to different sub-topics with more details.
A guidance page on how to complete a task in multiple steps that needs to be presented in an easily understandable and digestible way.
An initiative or campaign page that provides an overview, plus news, files, assets, contacts and even conversations.
Department and business unit landing pages presenting information, contact details and more.

Using templates will help drive consistency across different content owners and ensure more familiarity for users.

6. Improve your intranet search

Good findability is a prerequisite of a high-performing intranet, yet focusing on search is often overlooked as part of a new intranet project. There are multiple reasons for this but one is an assumption that most employees won’t use the intranet search, partly because it has been so poor in the past. However, these days intranet search is generally better – particularly using Microsoft search tools.

There are different ways to improve your intranet search. Firstly, where possible use contextual search (or “scoped” search) so that users can search on a small area of content such as a collection of policies. This is something you can do with our Xoralia policy management software which means that users can combine browsing and search strategies to find what they need.

Secondly, create verticals and additional filters to your main search experience, so users can really narrow down the results , for example by content type, such as news.

Thirdly, people aren’t typically great searchers, so providing help and guidance via tools tips available on screen can help users get more out of search, and better understand how to get the best results.

7. Support high quality content with a network of content owners

An intranet is only as ever as good as its content. But it takes a huge effort to produce, manage and maintain high quality intranet content and in reality, central intranet teams can’t to it alone. This is why most intranets operate on a decentralised publishing model, with content created and managed by people throughout the business.

To support high quality content, it helps to establish a network and community of content owners, with a process in place to ensure the pages they are responsible for are reviewed and reapproved regularly. If a piece of content is not reviewed and then expires, it could then be removed from the intranet and the relative search.

8. Provide guidance for users and training for publishers

You shouldn’t need to train your users on how to use an intranet – it should be intuitive and easy to use. However, it can be useful to provide orientation content via tool tips about intranet features, or provide “what tool when” guidance, for example when to use the intranet, when to use Microsoft Teams or when to use OneDrive.

However, it is definitely worth providing training for your network of content owners. For example, they’ll need to know how to use SharePoint, which is the right publishing template to use, when to choose the right brand imagery and more. Training all your publishers will ensure consistency and also help boost user adoption.

9. Make sure you have a governance plan

The best intranets have clear and robust governance. If you haven’t got this in place, then develop a governance plan that details how the intranet will be managed, covering areas such as who has the ability to grant and remove access, who is responsible for content and who should liaise with Microsoft on technical issues.

It also pays to have a cross-functional governance committee as part of your governance plan. This should meet regularly (at least once a quarter) and discuss the evolution of the intranet, for example how it should support a new intuitive or an organisational restructure. Overall, the detail of the governance plan will help to ensure content remains up to date, the intranet is managed on a day-to-day basis and has strategic direction.

Improving your SharePoint intranet in 2024

If you follow at least one or more of these tips in 2024 you’ll definitely be improving the user experience and utility of your SharePoint intranet! You may also to consider additional features and web parts. Our Lightspeed365 intranet product has a library of useful and impactful web parts that extend the power of your SharePoint intranet and fill many of the gaps that can occur when you use SharePoint out of the box for an intranet.

If you’d like to discuss improving your intranet or a new SharePoint intranet project, then get in touch!

How to Create a Lasting Intranet Support Model: 9 Key Areas

Posted on 11 March 202417 April 2024 by Joe Perry

When you launch a new intranet and go into “business as usual”, it continues to need to be actively managed and supported in order for it to carry on being successful and sustainable.

Intranets don’t just look after themselves. In order for an intranet to carry on generating value, have good adoption, and include content that is engaging and up to date, you will need to consider your intranet support model or operating model. When there is no support or stewardship in place then an intranet will inevitably decline.

In this post we’re going to explore some of the the elements that make up an intranet support model and some of the associated options. From the outset it is worth saying that there is no right or ideal support model for an intranet. Different organisations and groups of employees have different needs, and no two intranets are the same. There will also be different resourcing and budgetary constraints. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that intranets do need ongoing support if they are going to deliver on their full potential.

Who is involved in an intranet support model?

It’s sometimes said that it takes a village to manage an intranet. This is broadly true in that most intranets are truly an ensemble effort, not only in any project to create and launch an intranet, but also in supporting it in during “business as usual”.

Any intranet support model will involve a number of teams and roles. These may be scattered through your organisation, but there could also be external parties involved including your software vendor and digital agency.

Here’s who is likely to be part of your intranet support model:

A central intranet manager, function or team.
A business sponsor and possibly some kind of cross-functional steering committee, usually responsible for more strategic decision-making.
Your internal communications function, probably responsible for news or possibly the homepage.
A community of publishers and site editors who are responsible for local content from a variety of different functions, departments and lines of business.
Your technology function responsible for supporting IT issues, including an IT help desk.
Different technology teams responsible for software development and possibly other areas such as security and Microsoft 365 administration.
Different product owners who are responsible for different tools that the intranet is integrated with or relies upon, including Microsoft 365 tools.
Groups of digital champions usually recruited on a voluntary basis who help in a variety of different ways, including promoting the intranet.
Other specialist and expert teams such as those responsible for search, AI, Knowledge Management, data analytics, brand, user experience and more.
Depending on what you use, your external intranet software vendor, systems integrator or implementation partner.
Microsoft – if your intranet is based on SharePoint and Microsoft 365 technologies.
Technology vendors of other systems that are integrated with your intranet, although their involvement may be more indirect.

What are the elements you need to cover off?

There are a number of different areas that your intranet support model needs to cover. Note that here there is considerable overlap with your intranet governance model, a topic we have covered numerous times on the blog.

1. Day to day stewardship

An intranet needs oversight to ensure it is running smoothly on the day to day. It also needs someone to drive, coordinate and oversee the different projects and activities that help keep the intranet providing value, as well as invest in and manage the ongoing relationships with key stakeholders, including users, publishers, vendors and more. This day-to-day management and longer term stewardship is usually supported by an intranet manager, core intranet team or product manager with all these activities written into their job description(s).

2. Strategic direction and ownership

An intranet also needs strategic direction and ownership that usually involves more senior stakeholders. In your intranet support model there might be a senior business owner such as the Head of Communications, and potentially a steering committee or working group with representatives from HR, communications, IT, knowledge management and so on. This group might provide support by influencing and approving intranet strategy and be responsible for also signing off budget.

It’s also possible that a digital agency or implementation partner can also input into the strategic direction of your intranet. For example, as part of our intranet support service we also organise an annual or bi-annual strategic meeting based on analysis of your metrics and knowledge needs, where we will make suggestions for the direction of your intranet for the coming year or months.

3. Adoption and change management

Every intranet team we’ve ever met wants to advance adoption of the intranet, not only to increase the number of employees using it, but also to use it in the best way possible. A certain amount of time will be spent on driving adoption through different change management activities.

Activity around improving intranet adoption will often primarily rest with the core intranet team. However, additional help also often comes from a network of voluntary digital or intranet champions who will promote the intranet in their own part of the organisation, gather feedback, and can even get involved in activities such as testing. Sometimes there is overlap between an intranet champion and local site admin or content coordinator.

It’s also possible that your digital agency or vendor can get involved in supporting increasing adoption. For example, in our intranet support packages, clients have a monthly call with a dedicated success manager who can provide key analysis of metrics and also give input and advice into increasing adoption.

4. Training publishers and site editors

Intranets – particularly in large global organisations – rely on “local” publishers and site editors to create and manage high quality content and keep it up to date. That decentralised publishing model is dependent on different intranet governance measures including page templates, clear ownership models, automated reviews of content and so on. Local site admins may also manage important elements such as managing access for new publishers, for example.

A critical part of your overall intranet support model and related governance framework is any training for content contributors, site editors and related admins so they are equipped with the necessary knowledge to carry out their role. This can be challenging as content contributors frequently change with new training required, and they also may need ongoing support for ad hoc advice and help.

Training and support for publishers and site editors usually takes on several different elements including:

introductory and basic training which needs to be offered on an ongoing basis as new publishers and admins come on board.
deeper training on particular aspects of publishing or SharePoint admin.
self-serve resources such as how-to guides and explanatory videos, usually provided on a site on the intranet itself or in a separate SharePoint site.
a potential support community or group where members can ask questions and get answers, swap pro-tips and receive updates, possibly via Viva Engage.

In our intranet managed support service we offer targeted training to our clients for both content contributors and Microsoft 365 admins. We’ve had some feedback and it continues to be one of the most popular elements of the package.

5. Technology support for users

Users and also content editors will need support to resolve any technical issues. Some of these might be wider Microsoft 365 issues rather than relating to specifically to the intranet, while some may also be access requests. Often your standard IT help desk will take on these requests, forwarding them to a different team if necessary. There may also be a dedicated email address or form within your intranet where users can also submit technology issues.

6. More complex technology support

There are also going to be more complex IT issues for your intranet, some of which may come through to the core intranet team. These may need to be escalated to admins or even developers in IT, or another specialist team. You may also be using a third-party or digital agency here – for example, we often support more technical queries and consultancy. It’s also possible that some issues will need to be escalated to Microsoft themselves.

7. Improvement via analytics and feedback

A key part of any intranet support model will also incorporate gathering data and feedback to make improvements both to the intranet and to its content. There are usually a number of different ways to do this, through:

Gathering feedback via an intranet form, for example on content that has errors or broken links.
Getting feedback from a network of intranet champions, even directly from them or aggregated from users within their relevant sections.
Collating user feedback as part of a development cycle.
Using analytics reflecting usage and behaviour and areas such as search; this is again something we help teams to gather and interpret as part of our monthly calls with a dedicated account manager.
Using an intranet satisfaction survey to get employee feedback and also derive stats such as an Net Promotor Score (NPS)
Gathering other useful data, such as intranet-related feedback and query data from the IT helpdesk.

All this data and feedback can be coalesced to drive improvement.

8. Change and development requests

Change and development requests help to ensure your intranet stays aligned with user needs and also keeps on evolving. Ideally, you’ll have a backlog, a process for submitting and logging requests, and then a process where requests will be assessed by the intranet team and their technology partners, with potentially some input on prioritisation from a steering group or senior stakeholder, if necessary.

If you are working with an intranet software vendor then there might be opportunities to influence their product roadmap. For example, with our Lightspeed product, our roadmap is heavily influenced by requests and discussions with customers. Of course, there is not really a similar option to influence Microsoft’s SharePoint roadmap.

9. Other specialist requests

As already mentioned, there will be a range of other experts and specialists who may be involved in advising on or dealing with different areas of your intranet such as search, data analytics, accessibility, design, brand, compliance, data privacy and more. These may be both in-house teams or external experts.

Creating an intranet support model

Having the right intranet support model is a perquisite for a successful and sustainable intranet that will deliver value for years. If you’d like to discuss your intranet support model and related governance or would like to know more about our intranet support offering, then get in touch!

The age of the “everything intranet” is finally here

Posted on 8 March 202417 April 2024 by Dan Hawtrey

The age of the

"everything intranet”

is finally here

If you asked your employees what their perfect intranet would be like, what would they say? Some might answer that the perfect intranet would be a single place where they can find all the information they require to carry out their daily work. Others might say it’s a platform where they can get everything done without having to go to a myriad of other different apps and tools. Another employee might say the perfect intranet acts as a “one stop shop” for what they need during their working day.

For anyone who has ever carried out user research for an intranet project, these kinds of comments are very typical. Welcome to the concept of the “everything intranet” where users are able to find and achieve everything they need to do. One place. One platform. One experience. For everything. Or more realistically, just about everything.

In terms of the humble intranet, to some this may sound like nirvana. But in the past year we’ve seen more and more organisations achieve what is effectively an everything intranet.

What is genuinely surprising is that the everything intranet is not something that requires a multi-million-dollar investment and is only reserved for the world’s top global companies. Small and medium-sized organisations are investing in the everything intranet too. In fact, it’s quite possible for smaller companies to leapfrog larger and more technically mature organisations to achieve a world-class everything intranet, with relatively reasonable costs.

In this post we’re going to look at the concept of the everything intranet, the value it can bring and its main characteristics.

From the one stop shop to the digital workplace to the everything intranet

The concept of the intranet being a “one stop shop” for what employees need for their work is nothing new. I worked on my first few intranet projects in the late 1990’s – even back then it was common to have the one stop shop concept as an explicit aim of the project. But up to now this ideal has remained elusive and hard to deliver. It’s also expanded in scope, as intranets have taken on more features over the decades and introduced integrations with other systems.

Eventually the “one stop shop” idea outgrew the intranet and grew to encompass the concept of the “digital workplace”, a wider ecosystem of applications ideally underpinned by single sign-on and seamless integration. But all too often these have ended up as link farms that take the user on a fragmented and disjointed journey across corporate systems, each with their own look and feel.

Within the wider digital workplace, the intranet has taken on a role of “front door” or “window” or the first entry point to the wider digital workplace, and subsequently some intranets have been labelled as digital workplaces.

But the everything intranet is the latest evolution, with the intranet going beyond just being the front door. It’s the actual place where you can get things done without leaving the intranet itself; the majority of everyday tasks can be done via the intranet without having to visit a third-party system. The user experience is smooth and fluid. Whatever workplace task you are carrying out, things feel familiar and more harmonized. The age of the everything intranet is here.

What’s changed? Why now?

There are various enabling technologies driving the emergence of the everything intranet. These are primarily Microsoft technologies and tools.

The key one is Microsoft 365 – arguably Microsoft’s flagship technology which is now dominating the workplace. It’s the ecosystem where users can access dozens of different apps and tools, all of which integrate with each other. To use these apps, each user needs a Microsoft 365 licence and a Microsoft Entra ID which identifies them on the ecosystem and is core to delivering a highly personalized and secure experience.

There are also a number of other complementary developments that are enabling the everything intranet, including:

The evolution of Microsoft Teams into a platform which can aggregate information from multiple sources into one seamless experience.
A growing library of out-of-the-box connectors that help integrate Microsoft 365 with key non-Microsoft enterprise applications such as ServiceNow and Salesforce.
An expanding number of products based on SharePoint and other core 365 technologies that deliver key solutions such as a learning platform (e.g. LMS365), a policy management tool (e.g. Xoralia) that expand what’s possible to achieve using the intranet and SharePoint; these include Microsoft Viva modules.
Native solutions such as Lightspeed365 enable the rapid building of an everything intranet, meaning organisations don’t need to use a full intranet in-a-box solution but still extend the power of SharePoint.
Frameworks such as SPfX and Microsoft’s Adaptive Cards that make it easier and cheaper for organisations to build seamless integrations into their intranet experience.
Microsoft Graph which is working in the background in 365. It enables personalized experiences by aggregating user information, emails, files, and even information from other systems. This allows the intranet to display tailored content and relevant information, enhancing user engagement and productivity.
And, of course, this article wouldn’t be complete without mentioning AI. Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service leverages the OpenAI large language model popularized by ChatGPT. This new technology is rapidly ushering in AI-driven content assistance, intelligent chatbots, and automated workflows, transforming the intranet into a dynamic, AI-enhanced workspace.

Ten characteristics of the everything intranet

The everything intranet delivers a consistent, seamless and intuitive user experience, that ultimately simplifies things for users, but is also on-brand. It avoids the cluttered, fragmented and frustrating experience often associated with digital workplaces that involve multiple applications to get things done.
The everything intranet covers a wide range of business processes and services with everything from learning to engagement to booking meeting rooms to HR transactions; in fact, it covers most work-related tasks and information outside core operational and project work.
The everything intranet uses personalisation and targeting to deliver a highly relevant experience that is different for every individual and tailored to their particular needs.
The everything intranet has strong findability – delivered through search and browsing – connecting employees to the content, people, apps and data they need to get things done and make decisions, usually with personalised results. This findability isn’t necessarily just confined to items with Microsoft 365; increasingly Microsoft Search is also being used to connect to other content sources and third-party repositories. Going forward search will also integrate generative AI, with the use of natural language so users can simply ask questions rather than look for answers.
The everything intranet allows users to complete simple transactions without the need to visit third party applications – all from within the intranet estate. For less common and more complex transactions, a user is handed off to the third-party application in question.
The everything intranet often has a dashboard-like experience, aggregating data and features from multiple tools and repositories, all in one place.
The everything intranet is highly secure and can be accessed in different ways – via the browser, Microsoft Teams, on a mobile device and increasingly via conversational interfaces and chatbots.
The everything intranet is based on Microsoft 365 and encompases the myriad apps and tools included within it.
The everything intranet is never finished and keeps on evolving and incorporating new features, including AI, which has the potential to transform the everything intranet into a personalised digital assistant
The everything intranet has high value and tends to have high adoption, but barriers to entry and costs are now relatively low. It’s completely achievable for every organisation. If your current intranet is delivers a poor experience it’s now time to do something about it and build an everything intranet inside your organisation.

What are the benefits of an everything intranet?

There are multiple benefits of an everything intranet:

It has high value and relevance for employees, so it tends to have higher adoption than more traditional intranet models.
It surfaces and highlights Microsoft 365 tools and features such as Viva Engage, helping drive 365 adoption and ROI.
It supports productivity and efficiency by reducing the time employees spend finding information and having to log into multiple systems.
It reduces complexity and the overwhelming experience of “app overload” as well as the loss of focus that occurs from “context switching” between different applications multiple times per day.
It helps employees get things done with confidence now that they are able to complete a multiplicity of day-to-day tasks easily and quickly.
It contributes to an overall better employee experience by removing friction and saving time.
It can prove to be highly cost effective given the value it brings and the productivity it supports, opening up the opportunity to build an everything intranet to small and medium-sized businesses.

What does an everything intranet homepage look like?

There’s no definitive everything intranet as one size does not fit all. An intranet will differ from organisation to organisation. The example below shows an everything intranet accessed through Microsoft Teams.

The everything intranet is here to stay

We think 2024 will see more and more everything intranets delivering value for employees and organisations. If you want to create an everything intranet for your organisation or transform your current solution into an everything intranet, then get in touch!

7 objectives for your modern intranet in 2024

Posted on 4 March 202423 May 2024 by Dan Hawtrey

Every few months, we come across someone telling us that intranets are dead or are no longer relevant. As we start 2022, this is very much not the case. Organisations from small charities with under a hundred staff through to global household brands with a workforce of hundreds of thousands still choose to invest in intranets. Intranet software providers and intranet consultancies are also thriving, and Microsoft continues to extend the power of SharePoint to make it easier to create an enterprise intranet. Modern intranets are very much here to stay, and are a central pillar of the wider digital workplace.

One of the reasons that misunderstandings about the value of intranets persist is that some commentators aren’t referring to modern intranets. In the past, many intranets have been poor, with low adoption, bad findability and stale content; unfortunately, these issues are still prevalent today due to lack of TLC from intranet owners. Such repositories of out-of-date and hard-to-find content, often with a poor user experience, have given intranets a bad name.

Modern intranets are actually vibrant and valuable, come integrated with digital workplace tools, provide strong content and communications, evolve with employee need and are driven by user feedback. They are essential in supporting employees everyday work as they get things done.

If you have a modern intranet that is delivering value, that’s great. But this year is no time to rest on your laurels. Modern intranets can always improve and extend their success. If you’re thinking about some 2022 goals for your intranet, we’ve listed some of our thoughts on what you should focus on.

Here are seven 2022 objectives for your modern intranet.

1 Deliver on your modern intranet strategic objectives (or revisit your strategy)

A great ambition for 2022 is to make sure you are delivering on your original intranet strategic objectives. But do you even know what your modern intranet strategic objectives are? Do you have a clear intranet strategy, or at least a strategy that has been reviewed more recently than when you originally set up your modern intranet?

It’s always good to revisit your intranet strategy to make sure it is relevant, provides value and is moving forwards in alignment with wider strategic goals. If your strategy is no longer relevant, you may need to redraft or reconsider your strategy, which might require further discovery or user research. Whether working towards a new strategy or reviewing your old one, it can be an excellent frame of reference and starting point for working out your modern intranet’s priorities and objectives going into 2022.

2 Make your content better

Having good quality content is essential for your intranet; it drives both value and employee trust, therefore underpinning adoption. Every piece of content on your intranet should be:

Purposeful
Accurate
Timely
Engaging
Findable
In accordance with publishing standards.

This is hard to achieve when you have a decentralised publishing model, which is the norm for most intranets. Unless they have been freshly launched, the vast majority of modern intranets have room to improve their content.

In 2022, a great commitment to make for your modern intranet is improving your content. Unless all your content creation and publishing is centralised, this can only be done by doubling down on content governance. This usually entails a variety of approaches and measures, including defining your publishing standards, establishing automated content reviews for authors, conducting annual site reviews involving the central intranet team, providing more training and resources across your content community and establishing approval workflows where necessary. Executing a combination of these tactics reaps rewards, improving adoption and increasing trust.

3 Be the front door to your wider digital workplace

A key role of a modern intranet is to provide the entry point into the wider digital workplace. Making the intranet a personalised front door and single pane of glass to the enterprise’s portfolio of applications is an excellent use case which is popular with employees. If it isn’t already, making your intranet just that front door should be a strong priority for any intranet team.

Again, there are multiple ways to achieve this, including creating a central directory of apps that employees choose from to create personalised links, integrating other platforms and apps to enable simple transactions to be completed or data to be viewed, or enabling a navigation or search that allows users to reach other digital workplace tools and content.

4 Improve findability

Poor search and findability is often the number one complaint from intranet users. One of a modern intranet’s key roles is to help employees find the content, apps and people they need to carry out their role. But all too often, finding what they need is more painful than it should be, resulting in wasted time and effort.

Even strong modern intranets usually have room for improvement when it comes to search and findability; moving the needle on this important aspect of a modern intranet is a great new year’s resolution to make. Here, a coordinated combination of approaches is needed. Findability is not just about search, but also about the content you’re searching for, as well as your information architecture.

Approaches to consider include tagging your content, training content authors to make their content more findable, regularly analysing search metrics, reducing the amount of content, adding best bets, re-jigging your intranet navigation and even creating directories of information such as apps and sites.

5 Support a better employee experience

The past couple of years have seen a real focus on employee experience for intranet and digital workplace teams. Products like Microsoft Viva are firmly positioned as improving employee experience, and some intranet software is being branded as employee experience platforms (EXPs).

Intranets have a role to play in improving employee experience through content, features and services. They can increase productivity, save time, reduce frustration and help employees get things done, as well as facilitating learning, supporting well-being and providing access to data that aids better decision-making. They can also engage the workforce by driving connections and community.

Employee experience is a wide term, so one of the secrets of ensuring your intranet promotes better employee experience in 2022 is to actually work out what this means to you and your employees. Here, having conversations with users, inviting feedback from employees and examining the results of your employee engagement survey, as well as working with partners in HR and learning, can help yield results while simultaneously showing that you are committed to improving your workforce’s experience.

6 Support hybrid and remote working

Hybrid working and how best to support it was a huge issue during 2020 and 2021, and will continue to be throughout 2022, especially as organisations start to encourage the return to the office and are figuring out the longer-term future of hybrid working.

As core channels in the digital workplace, modern intranets play a major role in supporting hybrid working, for example, through providing content on the best tools to use for new ways of working. Integrations can help with the return to the office, co-ordinating communication between those on site and those working remotely. Intranets also provide a forum for employees to air their opinions about hybrid working, which is crucial while it’s still a fast-moving area where listening is critical. We think hybrid work support will be a strong priority for any modern intranet this year.

7 Continually improve

Continual improvement is a concept that many intranet teams aspire to, but which can be hard to put into practice. Committing or recommitting to continual improvement in 2022 (and following through with it) will certainly reap value in terms of adoption, impact and perceptions of value.

Continual improvement is usually underpinned by multiple approaches, including:

Using measurement to inform changes, and then re-measuring to ascertain the relative impact
Using agile methodologies and sprints to drive a series of iterative improvements
Committing to a roadmap of new features and content areas
Seeking employee feedback and acting on it; this often means creating feedback loops to drive changes across your intranet
Driving a mindset of continual improvement in the core intranet team, but also across wider intranet roles and your content community.

Improving your intranet in 2022

Modern intranets have an important role to play in 2022, driving strategic value for your organisation and assisting employees in their day-to-day work. If you need help meeting your intranet objectives in 2022, or deciding what those priorities should be, then get in touch!

Modern intranets are never complete. There’s always more to do to improve the user experience, drive adoption, make the content better, add new features, drive integrations and make it more accessible. One of the reasons for this is that modern intranets perform such a wide variety of functions and incorporate many features – there is always more you can achieve.

It is also because intranets continue to evolve, ready to absorb new technology advances such as generative AI or the latest tools that have been released across Microsoft 365. Intranets also change over time as employee needs and expectations change too, and new organisational requirements emerge such as supporting hybrid working, or dealing with changes triggered by mergers and restructures.

But with so many potential options to improve an intranet, often the question for intranet teams is “where should I start?” In this post we’re going to explore some common objectives to improve your modern intranet that we commonly find our customers and industry contacts want to achieve.

Modern intranets are alive and kicking

Before we dive into the objectives, it’s important to bust some of the myths around modern intranets. There are some doubters who say that intranets are no longer relevant or that they are even “dead”. Occasionally it’s something you find in marketing material from vendors wanting to sell alternative solutions, but also unfortunately sometimes you hear it from stakeholders inside organisations. Believe us, it is nonsense and is often because a stakeholder has an outdated and uninformed view of intranets as just static repositories of content, that is about fifteen years out of date.

Intranets are very much alive and kicking, despite being on part of the workplace technology landscape for over 25 years. Virtually every large organisation has an intranet, some having invested millions of dollars over the years. Microsoft continues to position SharePoint as “your mobile, intelligent intranet.” And intranets continue to outlive every predicted technology wave that threatens to kill them off for good such as social networking tools, Microsoft Teams and mobile employee apps. One of the reasons they have survived is because they continue to absorb new features and capabilities, and have provide flexible, scalable and adaptable to both employee and organisational needs.

At the same time, its important to acknowledge that many intranets are not great and are generally not a solution that employees love. So, let’s explore some objectives to aim for to make your intranet better in 2024.

Modern intranets are alive and kicking

1. Refresh your strategy and deliver on new goals

Many teams develop a strategy when they are first creating a new intranet. This is (hopefully) based on user research and engagement so that the intranet is created based on a thorough understanding of employees, their needs and their pain points. While that initially helps deliver a user-centric intranet, the strategy is not always refreshed to reflect new and emerging needs. This means that a strategy can become less relevant as it ages.

If you haven’t checked in with your users and stakeholders recently its worth doing so in order to refresh your strategy and define your specific objectives. Undertaking some user research – even if it relatively modest – can help you to keep your intranet relevant and user-centric.

2. Make your content better by establishing the right governance

Having good quality content is essential for every modern intranet, supporting adoption, value and trust. Every piece of content should be:

Purposeful
Accurate
Timely
Engaging
Findable
On-brand
In accordance with publishing standards.

Virtually every modern intranet has room for improvement when it comes to its content, particularly when there is a decentralised publishing model when it can be hard to maintain standards.

Having an objective to improve your content and then introducing governance to help keep it that way brings tangible benefits to your intranet with everything from renewed trust to improved findability.

Typical activities to improve content and introduce governance include:

Having a content audit and removing any old, out-of-date content.
Introducing content and site review processes using automation where possible so authors review the pages they are responsible for on a regular basis.
Introducing and defining new publishing standards.
Retraining content contributors to improve their content.
Creating a self-serve resource to support editors and authors.
Revisiting intranet site templates to support good standards.
And more!

3. Evolve towards being an ‘everything intranet’

Here at Content Formula we’ve recently been talking about the “everything intranet”, a new concept for intranets that guarantees adoption, engagement and value, and an intranet that employees final love.

The everything intranet is a vision for how the modern intranet should now be built. It provides everything an employee needs for their working day – finding information and completing tasks through a consistent, easy-to-use and hyper-personalized experience.

There are various different ways to move towards being an everything intranet, but one of them is to deliver meaningful integrations with leading enterprise systems so that employees can view data and complete simple transactions, without leaving the intranet. It can also involve deploying solutions based on Microsoft 365 such as LMS365 (a learning platform) and Xoralia (a policy management solution) that integrate seamlessly with the intranet to be effectively one experience.

Webinar

The everything intranet

4. Improve your findability

Perhaps the most repeated complaint about the intranet is that they can’t find what they need. A modern intranet should aways help find the content, people, apps, document, information and answers they need to help them get things done and carry out their role. This saves time but also reduces frustration – there’s nothing worse than not being able to find what you need.

Employees find that they need through search, navigation and also browsing particular areas. Even in the most advanced intranets there are always improvements that can be made to improve findability. The good news is that there a myriad of practices that will make findability better, some of which are actually more to do with your content rather than say your search.

Tactics to improve findability on your intanet during 2024 could encompass one or more of the following:

Revisiting your information architecture and navigation so it is more user-centred, for example based around tasks, using terms familiar to your employees.
Removing old and irrelevant content so it does not clutter the search.
Training your content authors to better tag their content to aid filtering and improved search results.
Gathering search feedback and analysing search metrics to make iterative improvements.
Using best bets (promoted results) for common search terms.
Making some custom changes to improve the search experience or integrating results from other repositories.
Creating structured collections of knowledge so people can find what they need, for example creating a central policy library using a solution like Xoralia.

5. Support productivity and efficiency

One of the jobs of a good intranet is to improve productivity and support efficiency by helping employees get things done and complete tasks quickly and efficiently. However, not all intranets do this as well as they could do and there are usually certain improvements that can be made to help aid task completion.

Aiming to optimise the intranet to improve productivity can be done in several different ways.

One way is to provide “how to” self-service content to help employees complete tasks without having to ask different support functions questions, relieving pressure on busy help desks. A popular format for this is to create a library of “How Do I” pages that provides one source of truth for informative, process-led content in areas such as HR and IT. Providing resources on different resource hubs that also points users to the right contact can also make a big difference.

Another way is to use integrations to help employees complete simple transactions without even leaving the intranet – see more detail above on this in our point about the “everything intranet”. This can raise productivity not only by saving time but by reducing context switching which is inefficient and impacts user focus.

Using an app launcher web part where employees can easily reach all the other tools and apps they need across the wider digital workplace can also be very useful, while improving the findability will always save time in helping employees get things done.

Finally, there are also opportunities to improve specific processes using workflow, automation and more, again all delivered via the intranet. Collectively all these approaches will positively impact both efficiency, productivity and even costs.

6. Drive continual improvement by bridging feature gaps

Intranets are never finished and those that thrive are often driven by continual improvement through a series of incremental additions dictated by ongoing user feedback. One of the great things about SharePoint is that it is straightforward to add new web parts, so you can extend the features of your intranet. There are some excellent web parts that are available out of the box with SharePoint Online. However, there are also some significant feature gaps too.

Our Lightspeed365 intranet product expands the web parts available for your SharePoint intranet. You can drive the improvement required for your intranet to support adoption, value and more through adding a wide variety of different web parts.

Lightspeed365

Lightspeed365 makes it easy to create a beautiful and powerful employee intranet in SharePoint and Teams.

7. Open up intranet access through Microsoft Teams

Many employees spend their day in Microsoft Teams and it can be very useful for them to be able to access a SharePoint intranet through Teams, meaning intranet content is available more directly in the flow of work. Frontline employees can also view the intranet through the mobile Teams app.

Delivering the intranet through Microsoft Teams is a great way to add value to any modern intranet. This is usually achieved using Viva Connections, which is bundled free with your Microsoft 365 subscription.

Improving your intranet during 2024

There are multiple ways to improve your intranet during 2024. We’ve provided some popular suggestions for high-level objectives that we know can make a difference, but there are many others. The main point is to do something. Technology, organisations and employees never stand still. Inevitably this means that if your intranet stands still it will start to decline in value.

If you’d like to discuss how you can refresh your intranet in 2024 then get in touch!

Using LMS365, Dynamics 365 and an additional integration with the Moodle learning platform

Posted on 26 February 202413 May 2024 by Kelly Chan

National Institute of Teachers

Using LMS365, Dynamics 365 and an additional integration with the Moodle learning platform

The National Institute of Teachers (NIoT) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to boosting the quality of teaching and school leadership in the UK through research and professional development programmes.

NIoT is trusted by the UK government to deliver a range of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) to teachers at different stages of their career.

These programmes aim to deliver better teaching standards within schools, ultimately improving the education of thousands of students across the UK year after year.

Engaging learners while streamlining processes

The NIoT was seeking a way to roll out e-learning in an engaging and efficient way to thousands of teachers, with one place to go for learners to see their required courses and also access related material where relevant.

The team was also keen to streamline and automate processes around onboarding, course enrolment and more, hugely reducing the manual effort for busy learning administrators.

Using LMS365 to deliver professional development

The NIoT has close ties to the Harris Federation, a not-for-profit academy trust that runs a network of over 50 secondary schools throughout the UK.

Aware of Content Formula’s work in successfully implementing LMS365 at the Harris Federation and the School-Led Network to support their own NPQ programme, NIoT approached Content Formula to look into how they could use LMS365 in a similar way.

A solution for thousands of learners that’s also loved by admins

The NIoT team were impressed how the Harris Federation had successfully used LMS365 to enable remote professional development learning for teachers, while also providing a highly intuitive experience for learning administrators who find it easy to add course details and learning content.

Following discussions with the Content Formula team, NIoT agreed to acquire over 10,000 licenses to use LMS365 to help deliver their own NPQ programme, supporting an excellent learning experience for busy teaching staff.

Driving efficiency through automation and self-service

NIoT use Dynamics 365 as the basis for their digital workplace. Leveraging LMS365’s seamless integration with the Microsoft stack and Microsoft Entra ID, the NIoT team has also successfully streamlined the NPQ onboarding and learning registration process.

The new system uses automation and a self-service approach where possible. Teachers register using Dynamics via an intuitive interface and find themselves automatically enrolled into the right courses within LMS365, removing the need for hours and hours of manual admin effort.

Combined with the ease of use of LMS365, the new system has been welcomed by learning admins with open arms.

Integration with Moodle

NIoT also uses Moodle, a popular open-source learning platform popular within the education sector, to house some of its courses.

The NIoT team asked us to create a custom integration between LMS365 and Moodle so users can view all their learning in one platform. Having completed the integration, teachers now have a more holistic and convenient view of the required learning related to their qualification.

Improving the quality of education of students

We’re continuing to work with NIoT who have an ongoing LMS365 support package with us.

We’re excited to see how NIoT will continue to use LMS365 to support the professional development of teachers, making a difference to the quality of education for pupils across UK schools.

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!

Copilot 2024 Update: Transforming Digital Workspaces

Posted on 12 February 202417 April 2024 by Joe Perry

Ever since ChatGPT dropped in late 2022, the potential for generative AI to transform the digital workplace has been an intriguing possibility for digital workplace professionals. We’re now at the stage where many organisations are investing in generative AI solutions and starting to roll them out, although we still have a long way to go in terms of driving adoption, making them effective and managing risks.

One of the key ways that the power of generative AI will be reach users is through the launch of Microsoft Copilot, the overarching brand for generative AI features and solutions that are based on OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLM).

Microsoft is investing heavily in Copilot and in marketing it too. Copilot dominated the announcements at the 2023 Ignite event, and one of our key digital workplace themes of 2024 is that “Copilot will start to embed across 2024.” Moreover, the solution is still evolving at a rapid pace with new versions of Copilot appearing within different Microsoft tools and apps, and even new features still being announced.

Unsurprisingly Microsoft are going to ensure that everybody is going to be hear about Copilot and experience it in some way, and have now made an announcement that extends Copilot in some form or other to more businesses and users, and also launches new functionality.

In this post we’re going to cover what’s in the announcement and what it means for Copilot.

Copilot Pro is launching for non-business users

Microsoft have announced that they are launching “Copilot Pro” – a new licensing tier aimed at individuals and home users, who principally already have personal or family 365 subscriptions. It’s priced at $20 per month per user, so it’s going to be a premium add-on to any home subscription.

Copilot Pro provides access to Copilot across Office 365 tools – Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote – and also access to the ChatGPT 4 model, although notably only at “peak times”. Image generation is also provided via Image Creator from Designer, which was formerly Bing Image Creator. Individuals will also be able to build their own “Copilot GPT” available via the Copilot GPT Builder, which is covered in more detail below.

While Copilot Pro will be of little interest to digital workplace teams, its certainly a way to extend awareness of the Copilot brand and also get more individuals to experience its advantages, who then might advocate or ask for the service in their workplace.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now more widely available

The new Microsfot announcement also enables smaller organisations to introduce Copilot for Microsoft 365 and extends subscriptions:

Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now generally available for smaller businesses that have a Microsoft 365 Business Premium or Business Standard license, with the possibility of buying up to 300 seats.
For Microsoft 365 commercial plans, there is no longer a 300-seat minimum seat purchase for Copilot for Microsoft 365; this might encourage medium-sized businesses to try it in particular teams or specialist functions, for example.
Copilot will also now be available for purchase to all Office 365 E3 and E5 customers.
Commercial customers can now purchase Copilot for Microsoft 365 through Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners.
Staff working in the education sector such as schools, colleges and universities and students over 18 are also eligible for Copilot for Microsoft 365.

The cost for Copilot is still considerable though at $30 per user per month, and it remains to be seen if Microsoft will lower this, for example if take-up is not as extensive as they have hoped.

Copilot GPT and the Copilot mobile app

The new update also includes some new Copilot features. The first is the launch of Copilot GPT, a feature that allows Copilot Pro users to customise their Copilot experience around different themes. Further down the line there will be also the launch of Copilot GPT Builder which will allow individuals to create their own Copilot GPT experiences, although there is little extra detail about this.

While again this feature may be of less interest to digital workplace teams as it effectively applies to non-work accounts, there’s an interesting principle at play here where individuals can customise and configure their own Copilot experiences. This may start to be a dynamic and emphasis we see more in work-related Copilot offerings.

Microsoft has also announced that the Copilot mobile app is now available for both iOS and Android devices, and can be downloaded from the public app stores and matches the capabilities available from the desktop. Copilot is also being added to the Microsoft 365 mobile app.

What other Copilot developments can we expect?

It’s going to be a very active year with Copilot and we can expect regular announcements through the year, as different flavours of Copilot launch across the whole of the Microsoft suite of products. Many of these have already been announced, with a high number of reveals relating to Copilot at Microsoft’s 2023 Ignite event, including further details around Copilots for Microsoft 365, 365 Admin, Teams, Microsoft Viva (and individual modules) and more. Across all these offerings we can expect future enhancements and extra features and given the usual pace of Microsoft product updates, it’s going to be a very active product roadmap.

There is also considerable support for developers with the launch of Copilot Studio, where enterprises can design, test and manage custom Copilots, while a new sandbox also encourages organisations and Microsoft partners to develop more Copilot plug-ins.

But perhaps where there is going to be most day-to-day change for digital workplace teams is internally, as organisations deploy Copilot across their organisation and grapple with change management, use cases, minimising risks and more. There is going to be a lot of work to do.

Keeping an eye on Copilot

We think digital workplace teams will have their work cut out helping to implement Copilot this year and getting value out of it. Copilot will also continue to rapidly evolve and it’s valuable to keep an eye on the latest updates from Microsoft. We’ll be revisiting Copilot throughout the year with key updates on this blog.

If you have any questions about Copilot or want to discuss the best way to deploy it across your digital workplace, then get in touch!

The everything intranet: people, learning and human success webinar

Posted on 2 February 202417 April 2024 by Kelly Chan

Webinar recording

The everything intranet:

people, learning and human success

About the session:

There’s a quiet revolution happening in workplaces around the world. Slowly but surely, old, dysfunctional intranets, unloved and unused by employees, are being cast out and replaced with an intranet that guarantees adoption and engagement. This transformative session is presented by Content Formula, featuring guest panellists from LMS365. Explore groundbreaking strategies that will revolutionise your intranet and reshape the way you think about intranets, learning, and organisational success.

Panel of experts:

Dan is an intranet thought leader – he blogs and speaks publicly on a regular basis. Dan gets involved with all projects and provides clients with strategic advice to ensure their intranets launch successfully, are widely adopted by users and have a high return on investment.

John has worked across both design and technical disciplines – a rare combination that allow him to build a bridge between the user experience and technical teams. This means that feasibility, usability, delivery and ease of maintenance are baked-into all of our solutions.

Robin is the Chief Business and Product Officer at LMS365. Robin is a 3 x CMO with more than 20 years experience in marketing and growth leadership roles at Salesforce, Box, LinkedIn, Matterport, and WeWork. He’s done 2.5 IPOs, acquisitions, and led companies through hyper-growth to become epic.

Travis Damgaard Campbell is the visionary UK Sales Director and an honorary Chief Human Success Officer at LMS365. With precision and passion, Travis leads the charge in reshaping corporate learning, elevating employee engagement, and amplifying team performance within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

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.

SharePoint intranet case studies

At Content Formula, we've helped some of the world’s leading brands create their company SharePoint intranet. Browse our case studies for some great SharePoint intranet examples.

8 great examples of intranet homepage design

Intranet homepage design is important. In this article we look at ideas for intranet designs and some of the factors to consider when designing your homepage.

6 great SharePoint examples with screenshots for 2022

In this article we look at some high impact examples of how you can use SharePoint, illustrated with screenshots from some of the work we have delivered to clients.

What is Lightspeed365 and what value can it deliver?

Posted on 25 January 202417 April 2024 by John Scott

Content Formula continues to deliver a range of different services in the intranet, SharePoint, Microsoft 365 and digital workplace space. We deliver consulting, discovery, implementation, development, change management, training and more. But we also manage two highly versatile products; Xoralia is our dedicated policy management solution based on SharePoint, while Lightspeed365 intranet is our package of web parts that extends the power of SharePoint Online to deliver a world-class intranet, but at less than the price of a leading in-a-box product. We’re excited to announce we now have a new dedicated website for Lightspeed365.

In this post we’re going to explore what Lightspeed365 intranet is. We cover the value it delivers, what some of the specific capabilities are, and how much it costs. If you want to explore Lightspeed365 in more depth, you can look at the new website, get in touch for a chat or arrange a demo.

What is Lightspeed365 intranet?

SharePoint Online has a number of “web parts” or components that can be used to build sites and pages for your intranet. These are a little like “Lego” bricks; for example, there are dedicated web parts to display news, documents, list of contacts, a feed from Viva Engage and so on. However, the web parts that come out of the box with SharePoint Online rarely meet all the needs that intranet teams and internal communicators want to deliver in attractive, on-brand and intuitive intranet that improved productivity. There are gaps in functionality and limits to the ability to customise SharePoint to reflect your brand.

This is where Lightspeed365 intranet comes in. It provides organisations with a package of additional web parts that fill the major gaps in SharePoint so you have all the major features you need to deliver an excellent intranet, without having to resort to either customisation or buying a more comprehensive (and expensive) in-a-box intranet product. It also extends the design options in SharePoint that many teams find limiting, allowing your intranet to better reflect your brand and improve your user experience. Lightspeed365 also comes in different packages to suit different needs and budgets.

What value does Lightspeed365 intranet deliver?

Lightspeed365 delivers real value across a number of different fronts.

Reduced costs

Lightspeed365 intranet provides a way to deliver a fully featured SharePoint intranet with a wide range of capabilities, in a significantly cheaper way than having to buy a full in-a-box product or resorting to creating custom web parts. When you use Lightspeed365 you’re not paying for the same functionality twice, which can be the case with in-a-box products.

Speed-to-market

We called our product Lightspeed365 for a reason – it significantly reduces the time taken to build and launch your intranet as everything you need is already included and super easy to deploy, again with no need for any customisation.

A better user experience

Lightspeed365 intranet contributes to an improved user experience with enhanced personalisation, for example in how essential knowledge-related content is presented to users.

Plugs the gaps in SharePoint

Lightspeed365 delivers some essential functionality that is missing from SharePoint Online, such as personalised App Launcher web part that allows users to configure their own links to key tools and apps. We’ve designed Lightspeed365 with close attention to the SharePoint roadmap so there is no duplication of functionality.

Extends design options

Lighstpeed365 intranet extend the branding and design options within SharePoint, including the ability to add a custom font, for example.

Seamless integration

Lightspeed365 integrates seamlessly with your SharePoint intranet and all data is kept within your Microsoft 365 tenant, making it a popular option with IT teams.

Loved by internal comms

SharePoint Online alone doesn’t always tick all the boxes for internal communicators, but Lightspeed365 adds specific features, for example to support better display of news.

Continuous improvement

Content Formula continues to invest in Lightspeed365 introducing new web parts and improving existing ones; we also listen to customers who heavily influence our roadmap.

Builds on SharePoint rather than replacing it

Some SharePoint in-a-box intranet products have a different design and UI which means you can’t actually deploy SharePoint and their web parts on the same page: Lightspeed365 just adds to the range of web parts available, meaning you can use the existing SharePoint web parts and Lightspeed365 web parts together for the best possible combination.

Minimises disruption

Lightspeed365 web parts are ready-to-go and easy to implement, minimising disruption for users, but also for content contributors who just add Lightspeed365 web parts to their pages using the same existing SharePoint editing interface, so there is little to no additional training required.

Lightspeed365

Lightspeed365 makes it easy to create a beautiful and powerful employee intranet in SharePoint and Teams.

What are some of the key features included?

Lightspeed365 intranet includes over twenty additional web parts that extend the power of SharePoint. Some of the most popular include:

The Feedback web part allows teams to collect and manage page-level feedback received about the intranet.
The Accordion web part facilitates the presentation of large amounts of data such as FAQs in convenient collapsible and expandable sections.
The News feed web part presents news in an attractive homepage layout.
The People directory web part delivers an eye-catching and convenient people search box that can be embedded within any page, and returns Microsoft 365 profiles without a user having to leave a page.
The Page tour web part allows teams to create in-page walk-throughs of different parts of the intranet, great for driving adoption and launching new intranet areas
The Branding customiser web part allows teams to change SharePoint themes, from adding new custom fonts to defining how icons look.
The Handbook web part provides a great way to present group of pages together in a user-friendly index, and is excellent for presenting employee handbooks or collections of instructional content.
The External social feeds web part allows teams to integrate different external social media feeds and display them on the intranet homepage.
The Noticeboard web part allows employees to post and search classified adverts which is always a popular feature on the intranet and good for supporting adoption.
The App launcher web part allows employees to personalise links to everyday apps and tools that are represented by attractive icons, while intranet teams can target default links to different groups. This is singularly one of the most popular features on any intranet.
The Site provisioning feature provides a structured approval workflow and automatic provisioning for employees to request team sites, Viva Engage groups or a Microsoft Team, enforcing governance and limiting site sprawl.
The Subscriptions web part allows employees to subscribe to different news topics that then appear on the intranet homepage.
And more!

How much does Lightspeed365 cost?

Lightspeed365 intranet is available alongside a three-tier installation package. Pricing is also determined by the number of users, and payment can be made annually or as a one-off payment for a perpetual license. For transparency and convenience, you can see the actual costs on our pricing page.

Find out more information

We’re proud of our Lightspeed365 intranet offering. If you want more information you can view the new website, get in touch to arrange a chat, or even organise a free demo.

1. Talk to your users and understand their needs

2. Think carefully about the navigation

3. Make your intranet look good

4. Prioritise killer apps and features what will make a difference to users

5. Use templates to avoid overwhelming employees

6. Improve your intranet search

7. Support high quality content with a network of content owners

8. Provide guidance for users and training for publishers

9. Make sure you have a governance plan

Who is involved in an intranet support model?

What are the elements you need to cover off?

1. Day to day stewardship

2. Strategic direction and ownership

3. Adoption and change management

4. Training publishers and site editors

5. Technology support for users

6. More complex technology support

7. Improvement via analytics and feedback

8. Change and development requests

9. Other specialist requests

From the one stop shop to the digital workplace to the everything intranet

What’s changed? Why now?

Ten characteristics of the everything intranet

What are the benefits of an everything intranet?

What does an everything intranet homepage look like?

The everything intranet is here to stay

1 Deliver on your modern intranet strategic objectives (or revisit your strategy)

2 Make your content better

3 Be the front door to your wider digital workplace

4 Improve findability

5 Support a better employee experience

6 Support hybrid and remote working

7 Continually improve

Modern intranets are alive and kicking

Modern intranets are alive and kicking

1. Refresh your strategy and deliver on new goals

2. Make your content better by establishing the right governance

3. Evolve towards being an ‘everything intranet’

Webinar

4. Improve your findability

5. Support productivity and efficiency

6. Drive continual improvement by bridging feature gaps

7. Open up intranet access through Microsoft Teams

National Institute of Teachers

Engaging learners while streamlining processes

Using LMS365 to deliver professional development

A solution for thousands of learners that’s also loved by admins

Driving efficiency through automation and self-service

Integration with Moodle

Improving the quality of education of students

1. What is SharePoint?

2. Is SharePoint an intranet?

3. Can SharePoint be used as an intranet?

4. What are the benefits of a SharePoint intranet?

5. How do I create an intranet in SharePoint?

6. How do you design a SharePoint intranet?

7. Can the look of SharePoint be customised?

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

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

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

Webinar recording

The everything intranet:

people, learning and human success

About the session:

Key topics and speakers:

1.

What is the “everything intranet”?

2.

What is “human success"?

3.

Delivering human success in your digital workplace

Why attend?

Panel of experts:

Dan Hawtrey

John Scott

Robin Daniels

Travis Damgaard Campbell

Free webinar

「

Everything

People, Learning and
Human Success

People, Learning and
Human Success