SharePoint – out of the box and customisation

Posted on 8 January 20241 March 2024 by Joe Perry

One question that we get often get asked is what the best option for a SharePoint intranet is. Should I go out of the box just using SharePoint Online as it comes? Is it better to use customisation to deliver the intranet that meets all my specific requirements? Should I use a particular product in conjunction with SharePoint Online? Of course, the answer to these questions is “it depends”, with several different factors to consider in making any decision. There’s also no right answer as every organisation has different needs, priorities and budget but it’s certainly a question that needs to be carefully thought through.

In this post we’re going to explore some of the factors that need to be considered and the pros and cons of going straight out of the box, customising or using a product. Bear in mind though that while this article will introduce you to some of the headline issues, in reality this needs careful consideration.

What are some the main options in delivering a SharePoint intranet?

At a high level there are essentially four different options for delivering a SharePoint intranet:

Straight out of the box just using SharePoint Online
Customising SharePoint Online, either creating custom web parts, designs or integrations
Using an in-a-box product, usually a complete intranet software package that works alongside SharePoint, such as LiveTiles
Using a more targeted intranet product that delivers specific web parts that are missing from SharePoint, such as Lightspeed365.

It’s worth noting that:

even the above is a simplification, and actually there are more options to consider.
a SharePoint intranet might involve more than one of the above approaches, for example we have worked with clients where they use a combination of SharePoint Online and Lightspeed365 web parts, but also have a couple of custom web parts too.

What are some of the factors that will impact going out of a box, custom or product?

Of course, there are variety of different factors that will impact the choice of how to deliver your SharePoint intranet. Major inputs include:

Cost: The budget available to deliver your intranet both relating to upfront costs, but also ongoing annual costs too.
Speed to market: How quickly you need to implement your intranet.
Requirements: This is obviously the big one – what features do you need on your intranet both that are core or nice to have – and taking into account the content and features that need to be migrated from your previous solution.
Ongoing management: How is the intranet going to be managed going forward, both from a technical but also business perspective; this can have a major impact on any decision you make around customisation and purchasing an additional product.
Stakeholder preferences: Business support departments including IT, Communications and HR may have existing views and policies that will impact any decision, especially around customisation.

There are also usually specific requirements around security and compliance; usually to tick most of the boxes, most teams want to ensure that any data kept on your intranet stays within your Microsoft 365 tenant. The good news is that all of the options we describe in this article can keep your data within your tenant, although note that is not true for every in-a-box product.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different options?

Each of the four main options mentioned above have both advantages and disadvantages which we explore below.

1. Straight out the box

Going straight out the box is often a tempting proposition, that is particularly advocated by IT departments. There is clearly a cost advantage in terms of it all being paid for within your Microsoft 365 subscription, and helps to ensure you maximising your investment in Microsoft 365. However, its also worth considering whether there will be extra costs involved; for example, you may need to get external advice in how to set it up, which is not as straightforward as it might seem.

There’s also some advantage in a quicker speed to market, without the need to procure and set-up another solution, although again actually you may find there are some pitfalls as preparing content may take longer.

It will also clearly tick the box in terms of having no customisation (generally the strong preference of IT teams) and also in terms of ease of management, from at least a technical perspective.

However, the main disadvantage of going straight out of the box is that is unlikely to meet all the requirements of an enterprise intranet with:

Gaps in functionality some of which are key, for example a personalised app launcher on the home page or walk-throughs to introduce new features.
A lack of template and content management features that make it hard to sustain a decentralised publishing model with governance baked-in.
The flexibility around design and branding that most digital workplace teams want.
Features desired by internal communicators to present news and target communications to different audiences in an impactful way.

Added up, going straight out of the box can often mean making concessions with your requirements, having to compensate with more resource in the central intranet team to compensate, or ending up acquiring an intranet product to fill the gaps.

2. Customisation

Many teams want to limit the need for customisation as much as possible, and with good reason. Customising SharePoint involves:

Additional cost, which can be expensive.
Technical debt which can result in additional cost going forward.
More effort and testing required around upgrades.
Added go-to-market times.
More risk around unexpected issues.
You end up paying for functionality which Microsoft then releases later down the line.

More ongoing cost and effort also can lead to unexpected costs that haven’t been budgeted for.

That’s the negative side, but there can be some positives which make customisation – particularly if it is limited to what is absolutely necessary – well worth it. For example, you may have a:

Specific business process that is not met by SharePoint out of the box.
A specific branding or design need.
A system you want to integrate so people can complete tasks or view data via the intranet, but there is no out-of-the-box connector.
A customised feature on your old intranet that you need to reproduce on a new one.

Some of the above points can prove to be particularly important for both the adoption of your new intranet, but also the business value it generates. It’s also worth considering that although a customisation may be required, it might only actually be quite limited in terms of needing to deliver what you need. For example, you might use over twenty out-of-the-box web parts and only two custom ones.

3. In-a-box intranet product

Given some of the gaps in SharePoint, there is the option to buy an in-a-box intranet product that works alongside SharePoint or is even dependent on SharePoint. It’s a mature market with a lot of choice. An in-a-box product like LiveTiles can bring a lot of value by:

filling some of the gaps in functionality and features in SharePoint
better supporting the needs of internal communicators via templates and targeting
usually have more flexible branding options
have in-built governance and content lifecycle management features to maintain content quality across a decentralised group of publishers.

With an in-a-box product you are more likely to be able to meet your core requirements and probably most of your nice-to-haves too.

The chief stumbling block for many teams is the associated cost. In-a-box products cover a wide range of price points and can end up being pretty expensive; sometimes it does also mean technically you are paying for the same functionality twice. This is one of the reasons we’ve found our Lightspeed365 solution is so popular; it’s a more targeted list of essential web parts that improves SharePoint but is considerably cheaper than a fully blown in-a-box product.

Using an in-a-product can negatively impact your speed to market particularly if you need to procure a new solution. However, you may also gain time in terms of having ready-to-go templates that your content contributors can work upon, and encountering less unexpected technical bumps in the road that can derail your project milestones.

4. Additional targeted web parts

An additional option is the purchasing a series of targeted web parts that fill all the major gaps in SharePoint to support a world-class intranet and bring virtually all the advantages of an in-a-box intranet but comes at far more reasonable cost. This is the aim of our Lightspeed365 product.

Using a product like Lightspeed365 incurs less cost than a full in-a-box platform because:

You are not paying for the same functionality twice as there is no duplication across SharePoint and the web parts that are part of Lightspeed365.
Our flexible packing and pricing options means you are far less likely to pay for features that you don’t really want to use.

Our selection of Lightspeed365 also means:

There are more features that will appeal to internal communicators than SharePoint out of the box.
There are some major intranet features missing from SharePoint that are now available, giving everything you need to deliver a leading intranet.
There are more flexible design and branding options.

As Lightspeed365 is also a fully supported product, it also means you can avoid customisation and ensure a rapid speed-to-market.

What is the right model for you?

Every organisation has different requirements, needs, priorities, timelines, dependencies and budgets when it comes to deploying a SharePoint intranet. One size does not fit all and there is no right or wrong way to do it, with each option having advantages and disadvantages.

If you’d like to discuss the best way to achieve the SharePoint intranet that meets your needs, get in touch!

How do you deliver your intranet in MS Teams?

Posted on 3 January 202417 April 2024 by Dan Hawtrey

For decades, the main way to access an intranet has been through your web browser; in fact, in many organisations the intranet automatically loads as the default page when you launch your browser. But in recent years, the ability to access your intranet through Microsoft Teams has become increasingly popular, particularly in organisations with high levels of Teams usage. Past blogs on this topic have also proved to be some of our most-read articles.

We often get asked what the best way to deliver an intranet through Microsoft Teams is and how to make it happen. In this article we’re going to cover both the benefits and disadvantages of viewing the intranet through Microsoft Teams, how you can use Microsoft Viva Connections to arrange for your SharePoint intranet to be viewed through Teams, and some other related tactics to deliver SharePoint updates in the Teams environment.

What are the advantages of delivering your intranet in Microsoft Teams?

There are multiple advantages of making your intranet accessible through Microsoft Teams.

Access the intranet in the flow of work

For many of us, Microsoft Teams is where we do much of our daily work. We have calls, participate in meetings, access documents, have discussions, and access updates, all from within Teams. It makes sense that we can also access the intranet there too – for example, to find out a piece of information or perform a quick task, all without having to boot up or switch to your browser. Ultimately, accessing the intranet and its content in our daily flow of work is highly convenient.

Reduce context switching

For somebody working within Microsoft Teams, accessing the intranet there also helps reduce the impact of “context switching” which occurs when switching between applications, and negatively impacts both efficiency and focus. Overall, it means there is one place less to go for employees to get work done.

Increase intranet adoption in organisations and departments with heavy Teams usage

We don’t need to tell you how phenomenally successful Microsoft Teams has been over the past three of four years, and in some organisations adoption has sky-rocketed. Microsoft has also continued to invest to make it a central hub for any digital workplace. Some business functions are also likely to be heavier users than others; for example, IT departments tend to be keen Teams users. In places where everyone is in Teams all day, accessing the intranet there will help to drive intranet adoption and should be regarded as a “must have”.

Cater for personal preferences to support a better digital employee experience

Digital employee experience (DEX) is a concept which helps digital workplaces team to focus on a more employee-centric, holistic and consistent digital workplace experience. This can also involve catering for the needs of a diverse workforce with a range of different preferences for where they want to access and consume their information. One size definitely does not fit all. Providing intranet access through Microsoft Teams means that you provide the option for users who prefer to use Teams over the browser to access the intranet.

The intranet can be accessed through the Teams mobile app

A major benefit of being able to access the intranet through Teams is the ability to view it through the mobile Teams app. One key advantage of this is that your frontline workers who may already have the Teams app installed can then access the intranet on their mobile device; this is highly likely to be their main way of accessing intranet content. It also means busy intranet teams don’t have to roll out and support a separate mobile app.

With Viva Connections you can access extra capabilities

The majority of organisations making their intranet available through Teams will use Viva Connections to make it happen. This actually opens up additional web parts and web parts that can be deployed back into your SharePoint intranet including the feed – featuring AI-driven content across SharePoint and Viva Engage personalised to each individual. There’s also a SharePoint web part for the Viva Connections dashboard; this focuses on useful cards that display information, or where you can perform simple transactions.

What are the disadvantages?

There are some downsides to accessing the intranet through Microsoft Teams, chiefly where the user experience is not quite as good as it is in the browser. We cover these below and they are important to consider and be aware of, but in our view this does not mean you should not offer the intranet through Microsoft Teams. If the browser is still offered as an option, it means you have the best of both worlds, and users can visit the browser, perhaps where their needs are more complex and they need a longer intranet session. Let’s explore some of these issues below.

You can’t have multiple tabs open

One of the key advantages of accessing the intranet through a browser is you can have multiple tabs open, meaning you can switch more easily between multiple pages on the intranet as well as other browser-based applications you have open. If you are accessing information or completing a transaction where this is necessary, then the browser is likely to be your friend. Doing the same through Microsoft Teams is harder because you have no easy way to switch between different screens, with Teams only really delivering one experience at a time, unless it opens in a new Teams window as it does when you are on a call, for example.

There is an inconsistent user experience

Most teams strive to achieve a consistent intranet experience as far as possible, to avoid confusing users and to drive an optimal user experience. Unfortunately using Microsoft Teams to browse a SharePoint intranet does not provide a wholly consistent user experience with using a browser, for example particularly in aspects of search and findability – read on for more details about this. Similarly, the Teams mobile app also has some inconsistencies, although this may be more expected.

There’s an extra click to reach the intranet homepage

When you use a browser to access the intranet, you can reach the homepage via one click via the top-level navigation. Within Teams, it requires two as now clicking to access Viva Connections will take you to the default landing page for the Microsoft Viva suite. (Note that we are working on a Lightspeed365 feature that can allow you to circumvent this and view the intranet directly via one click on an icon.). Alternatively, you need to click once to expand the navigation in order to reach the homepage. This one click may sound minor, but any increased effort for employees to reach what they need can negatively impact adoption and usage.

Intranet search is confusing within Microsoft Teams

One of the real issues with Microsoft Teams is that the search is confusing. You might be looking through the intranet and want to activate a search, but the search within Teams is still the standard Teams search. It’s also possible that they will have more than one search box within the overall experience – your intranet search and your Teams search. The search experience within the browser is more straightforward, although this can also be confusing in its own right.

Microsoft Teams can be overwhelming

The experience of Microsoft Teams can itself be quite overwhelming, with the number of Teams and respective channels proliferating. It can be particularly difficult to keep up with updates, for example. If Teams is the only way to get access to the intranet then this might be adding to information overload, if this is already an issue for users.

How can you deliver your intranet in Teams?

In our view the pluses definitely outweigh the minuses, and it makes sense to make your SharePoint intranet and its content available via Microsoft Teams. The standard way and most convenient is using Microsoft Viva Connections, but there are also other options which we explore below.

1. Use Viva Connections

By far the most straightforward way to display your SharePoint intranet in Microsoft Teams is using Viva Connections, which will be included as part of your Microsoft 365 license. This means you can view the homepage, the navigation and the different pages via the Connections Resources feature, by linking Viva Connections to your designated SharePoint home site. The overlap between what is in the intranet and what is in Viva Connections also starts to blur, as you can view the Viva Connections Feed and the Viva Connections dashboard within your intranet using the appropriate SharePoint web parts.

You can also use Viva Connections so that the intranet can be viewed through the mobile Teams app; this is often a useful option for frontline employees to access the intranet via their mobile device.

2. Integrate specific pages within specific Teams

One possibility is also to link to specific intranet pages – or even the homepage – within specific Teams or channels, usually as a tab. You can also link to other relevant Microsoft 365 resources such as a Viva Engage group.

3. Link to the intranet via Viva Connections dashboard and feed

The Viva Connections dashboard is a versatile feature that presents attractive cards that can link to key content or systems, and even allow users to complete simple transactions. The dashboard is the principal feature that links users to content using Viva Connections in the Teams mobile app; moreover, Viva Connections defaults to the dashboard as the homepage.

It’s perfectly possible to put a link to the intranet homepage here or even add cards to individual intranet pages. A few weeks ago an update on Viva Connections also revealed a new news card that will allow communicators to push SharePoint news from the intranet that would also appear as a Viva Connections dashboard item.

Additionally, it is also possible to include intranet news in the Viva Connections feed, particularly with SharePoint-based news that can receive a “boost” from communicators.

4. Deliver intranet-based updates and notifications within Teams

Another useful way to deliver the intranet within Teams is to ensure that SharePoint intranet notifications can also be received through Microsoft Teams. There are different ways to do this:

Microsoft has revealed a new Announcements in Viva Connections capability that allows communicators to issue more urgent messages and tailored announcements to different groups (which could be intranet news) delivered through push notifications to the homepage of Microsoft Teams and on mobile devices via the Teams app. This should launch in early 2024.
You could use Power Automate to create specific workflows so that a notification can appear within a particular Team or associated channel; this approach provides flexibility to allow you to define different types of notification based on metadata, and then also specify particular channels.
If you are using our Lightspeed365 features to enhance and extend the power of SharePoint, one of the Lightspeed365 web parts also allows you to view intranet updates via one of the channels in Teams.

The best of both worlds

Viewing a SharePoint intranet through the browser is often the best user experience, but making it available within Teams is also very useful. We recommend using Viva Connections to enable access via browser, Teams and the Teams app, then you have the very best of both worlds.

If you’d like to discuss Viva Connections or accessing your intranet through Microsoft Teams, then get in touch!

I need an intranet for Office 365! What are my options?

Posted on 29 December 202323 May 2024 by John Scott

Many organisations have made the move to implement a Microsoft 365 digital workplace, and as part of that they decide to also launch an intranet based on SharePoint Online. However, there are various different options around building a SharePoint intranet. Should I just use SharePoint Online straight out of the box? Should I launch an intranet that is accessed via Microsoft Teams? Should I also use an in-a-box product? In this post we’re going to explore all the main options to consider when you introduce an intranet as part of your Microsoft 365 digital workplace.

What are the advantages of launching a SharePoint intranet with Microsoft 365?

There are multiple reasons why many organisations with Microsoft 365 implement an intranet based on SharePoint Online:

SharePoint Online is included within the Microsoft 365 license and organisations are keen to fully capitalise on their 365 investment.
SharePoint Online is a highly flexible, scalable and versatile tool to base your intranet on in its own right and its been the most popular base technology for intranets for two decades.
SharePoint Online integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 tools to deliver a cohesive, integrated digital workplace experience.
A SharePoint intranet can also be accessed via Microsoft Teams, allowing users to access content and information in the flow of work.
As an organisation already has access to SharePoint as part of Microsoft 365, it considerably speeds up the time to market in creating the new intranet.
The SharePoint intranet can act as the convenient front door to the wider Microsoft 365 digital workplace.
A SharePoint intranet can also help support adoption of different 365 tools including Viva Engage.
Using SharePoint for your intranet usually means you can ensure all your data is kept within your Microsoft tenant, leveraging any existing security, compliance and governance policies.
A SharePoint intranet will use Microsoft Entra ID credentials and Microsoft 365 groups to support single sign-on, personalisation, audience targeting and fit in with your identity management set-up.
A SharePoint intranet can be accessed via the Microsoft Teams app which can be a good way to provide mobile access, for example for frontline employees.

What are my options for my SharePoint intranet?

There are a number of options for delivering a SharePoint intranet.

1. SharePoint Online out of the box

An option is to deliver your intranet just using SharePoint Online straight out of the box with no additional web parts, customisation or even integration with other 365 tools. This is attractive because it has the lowest upfront costs and presents easy ongoing maintenance and day-to-day management. IT teams are particularly keen on this option as on paper it seems optimal from an implementation and cost perspective, while also being a solid choice for an MVP intranet.

However, there are several disadvantages to this approach including gaps in SharePoint, harder governance and management for intranet teams, less support for internal communicators, no access via Microsoft Teams and more. In the long run you may find this option does not cover enterprise needs and you may end up spending more money to get the intranet that you really need.

2. SharePoint Online out of the box with 365 integrations

Another option is to use SharePoint Online out of the box, but also integrate other 365 tools within it using out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts. For example, here, Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) is a popular tool to support communities and discussions. In practice, many teams who choose just to go out of the box also integrate other 365 tools to fully leverage their investment in Microsoft 365, supporting the wider adoption of the Microsoft 365 platform.

3. SharePoint Online plus an in-a-box product

Only using SharePoint One straight out of the box has some disadvantages:

There are some key gaps in functionality.
There are less options around branding and design.
There is less support and fewer features for internal communicators.
There are less governance and content lifecycle features that make it harder to manage the intranet.

Often to bridge these gaps, teams choose to purchase an additional in-a-box product such as LiveTiles that sits on top of SharePoint and fills many of the gaps listed above. In the longer run an in-a-box product can prove to be a good option to create a more sustainable intranet that is easier to manage and has all the features you need, and usually requires less technical assistance.

However, an in-a-box product comes at an additional price that is sometimes prohibitive, and it is not always easy to present the business case as you may be paying for the same features twice – once in SharePoint and once in the in-a-box product.

4. A custom SharePoint Online intranet

Sometimes businesses have particular custom or bespoke intranet requirements that can’t be met by out-of-the-box SharePoint Online or an in-a-box product. Usually, these fall into one or more of the following categories:

A particular business process that is specific to the organisation.
Integration with another application or legacy system that is not covered by out-of-the-box connectors, or where existing connectors don’t deliver particular requirements.
Where there are design and branding options again not covered by out-of-the-box SharePoint.
Where the previous intranet was customised and those customisations also need to appear in the new intranet.

Customisations incur extra cost and risk technical debt; however, sometimes they are absolutely worth the investment as they are critical to adoption and the value the intranet generates.

It’s also worth pointing out that a customised intranet doesn’t mean the whole intranet is customised. It might just be a handful of web parts when actually the majority of functionality uses SharePoint Online as it comes.

5. A SharePoint Online intranet with additional web parts via Lightspeed365 features

Teams that require additional flexibility and features above SharePoint Online out of the box may not feel they want to pay for a whole in-a-box product, and also may want to avoid customisation. There is another option which is to invest in additional web parts that deliver all the features and functionality you need, but don’t incur the full costs of an in-a-box product or the technical debt and additional cost of customisation.

Our Lightspeed365 features product provides a package of core web parts that deliver much of what intranet teams and communicators need to deliver for a truly world-class intranet, but doesn’t duplicate any SharePoint features; we also provide a flexible package to add specific, individual web parts on top our core package. Among the over twenty web parts covered in Lightspeed365 features includes an app launcher with personalisation, a page tour feature, a way to extend branding options, classified adverts, a people search web part that can be deployed anywhere on a page, an accordion web part and many more!

6. SharePoint Online intranet with additional web parts and customisation

Of course, an intranet may prove actually to be a mix and match or hybrid of some of the above options. For example, you could have a SharePoint Online intranet that relies on both SharePoint Online and Lightspeed365 features, but also integrates Viva Engage, and also needs two or three additional customised web parts. With intranets there is no one size fits all; the good news is there are options to meet every need and budget.

7. Providing access via Microsoft Teams by using Viva Connections

Many organisations have very high usage of Microsoft Teams, so find it a real advantage to arrange to provide access to the intranet through Teams. This helps adoption, drives efficiency, allows the intranet to be accessed in the flow of work and provide choice for users.

It is now straightforward to enable your SharePoint intranet to be accessed through Teams via Viva Connections, which comes free with your Microsoft 365 subscription. We think it’s always good to do this, although its still important to provide access through the browser too, where aspects of the user experience are still superior to Teams.

8. Mobile access using the Microsoft Teams app and Viva Connections

One advantage of enabling Viva Connections is that staff can access the intranet through the Teams mobile app. The user experience through this centres on the Viva Connections dashboard, but it is also possible to view the wider intranet content. This often proves a good and practical way to roll out your intranet to frontline staff – as long as they have a Microsoft 365 identity – who will rely on mobile to access the information.

9. Mobile access using an additional employee app for disconnected staff

Unfortunately, not all frontline employees have Microsoft 365 licenses. If this is the case it might be that you need to roll out your SharePoint Online intranat, but also get an additional employee mobile app, such as the Reach app from LiveTiles which also allows for non-Microsoft users to be added.

Need help with your Microsoft 365 intranet? Get in touch!

It absolutely makes sense to launch a SharePoint intranet as part of your Microsoft 365 digital workplace, but there are actually quite a few different options. If you’d like to discuss your Microsoft 365 intranet project and which option is right for you, then get in touch!

Transforming employee experience with a global intranet solution

Posted on 21 December 202317 April 2024 by Dan Hawtrey

Baringa

Transforming employee experience with a global intranet solution

Baringa is a leading global consulting firm serving Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Consultants provide strategic advice to businesses across a number of key industry sectors including energy, utilities and financial services.

Employing around 2000 people, the business has a distinct, people-first culture and has been recognised as a great place to work.

A new global intranet to serve every region

In order to drive ongoing employee engagement and support the delivery of client projects across all three regions, Baringa was looking to create a new global intranet that could help busy consultants stay informed and find the resources they need to get things done and provide the very best advice to clients.

Recognising Content Formula’s expertise and experience in both SharePoint and intranets, the IT team at Baringa engaged us to deliver the new intranet.

Using SharePoint Online plus Lightspeed365 features to deliver the best possible intranet

First, we carried out an extensive discovery exercise, carrying out user and stakeholder interviews across all regions, as well as number of user workshops.

Gaining a good understanding of employee needs and Baringa’s requirements to streamline and globalise work, we recommended the creation of a new global intranet based on SharePoint that also used Lightspeed365 Features to extend the options and branding for the new intranet. We also suggested some custom work to meet Baringa’s particular search requirements.

With the approach greenlighted by the client, we started to build the new intranet.

An attractive and welcoming intranet homepage

The new intranet, branded as Light House, includes several Lightspeed365 features, some of which are deployed on an attractive homepage. These include the Lightspeed365 Welcome feature that provides a personal greeting to each person and a summary of the local weather, helping employees to feel welcome and emphasising the personalisation inherent in the intranet.

The Lightspeed365 News feed feature is then used to deliver a personalised feed of news, mixing both global and regional updates.

A one stop shop for getting things done

A number of Lightspeed365 features on the homepage are also designed to drive efficiency and help employees complete tasks.

The Lightspeed365 app launcher presents a series of prominently placed, convenient links to the critical tools and apps that employees use every day. The Lightspeed365’s People search feature delivers a search box for employees to find colleague profiles, while the Lightspeed365 Card links connects employees to useful “How Do I” pages that explain how to carry out key tasks and processes.

Baringa use Condeco as their desk-booking solution, supporting hybrid work. To enable desk booking directly from the new intranet homepage, we used the Lightspeed Viva Connections connector to leverage Viva Connection’s own links to Condeco. Now employees can view any upcoming desk bookings they have and also make a new booking, right from the homepage, and without having to enter Codneco.

Improving findability to connect employees to experts and resources

Having an excellent search experience to connect employees to the resources and people they need to carry out their work was identified by the client as a key priority.

To support findability, we created a new customised search experience that displays persistent filters unique to Baringa that are always presented to employees, driving a consistent and enhanced search experience.

Employees can narrow down the search, either for people & CVs or collateral, as well as topics based on Baringa’s own enterprise taxonomy, for example by industry sector. With a view to further enhancing the search, more filters are planned for a future release.

Finding people and CVs

Another key requirement for the new intranet was to help consultants find and connect with their peers, in particular locating subject matter experts across different regions.

Baringa has a database of consultant CVs that they wished to access through the employee directory. We modified the Lightspeed365 People directory feature to be able to access CVs both through profiles and within a people search box (accessible via type-ahead) which is also embedded on the intranet homepage. This enhancement to the Lightspeed365 feature reflects our commitment to base the product roadmap on requests from our clients.

We also customised the standard SharePoint search so that people cards returned in the search also include a link to CVs.

Helping employees to get the best out of the new intranet

The Light House intranet has advanced capabilities that are new to employees. We used the Lightspeed365 Page tour feature to walk employees through these new elements, including the use of the vertical SharePoint app bar that means employees can access the new intranet from any SharePoint site.

Additionally, to help employees get used to the new search facility, we also deployed the Lightspeed365 Page tour feature to introduce the new search features for employees accessing it for the first time.

To further support the use of the new intranet we also used the Lightspeed365 Handbook feature to create a comprehensive intranet “help centre” with guides and recordings of webinars.

Supporting distributed content owners to create useful and engaging sites

An intranet is only as good as its content. To enable the network of distributed content owners throughout Baringa to create high value and engaging content, we used the Lightspeed365 Handbook feature to also create a resource site for content owners. This provides access to relevant guides and videos grouped into different themes, all accessed through an intuitive and logically structured landing page.

An intranet that brings Baringa’s regions together and supports employees with their everyday work

Today Light House, the new global Baringa intranet. has launched to all employees. With one single intranet to serve all regions, improved findability to find people and resources, and useful features like the app launcher and integrated desk booking, the intranet is rapidly becoming an essential resource to support everyday work.

Digital workplace trends for 2024

Posted on 19 December 202317 April 2024 by Dan Hawtrey

The digital workplace doesn’t keep still and continues to be a fast-moving and fascinating space to work in. Even the traditional intranet which isn’t usually associated with being particularly cutting-edge continues to evolve. The end of the year is usually a time when we think about priorities and plans for the coming year; to a certain extent these are influenced by the wider trends that are going on, the new products that are released, and the working practices digital workplace teams put in place.

For the last five years or so, I’ve made some predictions for what I will think the major digital workplace trends will be for the upcoming twelve months. You can see what I predicted for 2023 – of course, I didn’t perhaps quite anticipate the influence of ChatGPT and OpenAI, but at least I mentioned artificial intelligence! 2024 is going to be another exciting year; here’s what I think some of the headline trends are going to be.

1. Knowledge management continues it resurgence…thanks to AI.

If you’re reading this predictions post, you’re likely to have read others. Most of them are going to say something along the lines of “get ready for generative AI during 2024”. Of course, it is going to be a prevalent theme next year and it will be impacting the digital workplace, in the short-, medium- and long-term.

However, my gut feel is that the impact on the digital workplace during 2024 will not be as profound as many think it will be. Yes, digital workplace teams will start to pick the low-hanging fruit and introduce it, while products like Copilot (see below) will also become available, but those waiting for a dramatic transformation will be disappointed.

Where I think it will make a difference is really in the area of knowledge management (KM) where there are so many use cases where generative AI can make a difference. Expertise finders. Answering questions. Creating, checking and analysing model documents such as contracts. Automated tagging and metadata for content items. Spotting anomalies and conflicts in policies and procedures. Analysing external industry news and events that may pose a risk to an organisation. Making client-specific documents more shareable by stripping out confidential information. Building dynamic topic pages that bring in details of documents, conversations and experts and more.

Having a robust KM practice in place in your organisation is now becoming mission critical: much of the competitive advantages from generative and predictive AI will go to those organisations that have good proprietary data and information in place. It needs to be well curated, redacted and tagged so AIs can get to work for you. If your KM and intranet is a mess – you really need to jump onto this now. Time is running out.

KM is an area that has never really gone away particularly in sectors such pharma, finance and law; in 2024 I can see Gen AI helping to power some excellent KM solutions that will have a major impact.

2. Copilot will start to embed across 2024

Microsoft has a major influence on the shape and direction of most digital workplaces with our collective reliance on Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint. Microsoft can be both great and frustrating in equal measures in what they choose to release and not release, but we do need to take into account the 365 roadmap and the general direction of travel. And whatever you think of Microsoft, it’s difficult to deny their influence and willingness to invest in new services and offerings. They are certainly not sitting still.

If you’ve been keeping up with the announcements from the recent Microsoft Ignite conference you’ll know that Microsoft’s big play for 2024 is with generative AI – specifically using OpenAI’s GPT Large Language Model (LLM) – with most deployed using the Copilot brand. Multiple Copilots are going to be introduced across Microsoft’s digital workplace tools – there is going to be Copilot for this and Copilot for that. The ability for organisations to also create their own GenAI tools and apps is also being encouraged through an expansion of Azure AI-related services and even the release of a Copilot Studio so organisations can create their own custom Copilots.

While we will see a lot of attention on Copilot I think we’ll only see it start to embed during 2024. There is often a significant time lag between when Microsoft first makes an announcement and when a release comes generally available, and then there is another lag before organisations actually adopt it, particularly when it comes at a price.

We’ve seen this pattern with Microsoft Viva, where the flurry of activity, doesn’t match the extent to which it has been deployed, bar Viva Engage which is a rebranding of Yammer and Viva Connections which is free. And while everyone will be exposed to Copilot due to the rebranding of Microsoft Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise, Copilot comes with a hefty per user price tag which may limit the uptake during 2024.

3. The “everywhere intranet” continues to emerge

Intranets have been around for over 25 years now and they’re still here, a real mainstay of the workplace technology landscape. One of the reasons they have survived so long – above being a fundamentally good idea – is that they have continued to adapt and evolve, absorbing extra features and functionality, and taking inspiration from external-facing platforms such as social media.

An intranet trend that has been around for a while but that I will expect to continue to accelerate in 2024 is the growth of the “everything intranet”. In basic terms this is an intranet that can do more or less everything an employee needs to do; the place where employees can find all the knowledge they need, complete tasks such as reading mandatory policies and completing learning courses, collaborate, communicate and more.

The “everything intranet” is essentially a window in the wider digital workplace that is both accessible from the browser or on Teams and is underpinned by a series of smart integrations. In the past, we’ve explored this concept, and referred to it as the “omnipresent intranet”, but it has been hard to achieve. However, the tight integrations facilitated by Microsoft 365 and the growing library of out-of-the-box connectors, and third-party apps, is helping to enable the “everything intranet” to be built in SharePoint. By the end of 2024 I expect more intranets will be able to earn this label and will provide real value for employees.

4. Governance becomes more important than ever

I suspect that in 2024 more of us are going to be talking about the “G word”. And I don’t mean Generative AI. I actually mean “governance” – the set of policies, standards, processes, roles, rules and controls that need to be in place for the digital workplaces to operate efficiently, eliminate risks and establish a strong and consistent user experience. Basically, governance – perhaps along with good strategy and a solid technology platform- is a fundamental foundation of a good digital workplace.

Governance is definitely not sexy, it’s actually pretty boring and it’s often painful to implement. But, it’s also extremely important and in 2024 having it in place is essential. If you want to implement generative AI in a way that is relatively risk free, you need governance. If you want to get knowledge management to work, you need governance. If you want an everything intranet, you need governance. The more complex the digital solution you are tying to implement, the more likely you will need more governance in place, and the more likely you will then get value out of it. I think (and hope) that 2024 will be the year when governance has its place in the sun.

5. Interest in the Metaverse rises again

Before generative AI came and stole all the headlines, the Metaverse was getting quite a lot of media attention. Some of this focused on what it might look like, while other coverage spotlighted Meta’s halting development of its own Metaverse environment. In reading many of these articles, there was a sense that the Metaverse had already run out of steam, was simply too far in the future to worry about now and some organisations had already dismissed it. And then in terms of media attention, generative AI has seemingly stolen the Metaverse’s thunder.

It’s a mistake to think the Metaverse is over before it has even begun; during 2024 I can see there being a resurgence of interest in the Metaverse, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, the Metaverse is increasingly used as a term to encompass all virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR) developments. VR, MR and AR are all already adding value in a number of areas including in some industrial settings, and look set to increase, especially with the spread of frameworks like Microsoft Mesh.

Secondly, Apple’s release of the Apple Vison Pro has definitely upped the game in terms of what a VR / AR headset can do. Up to now, headsets have been a little underwhelming, but the Vision Pro is far more immersive than anything up to now. I can see it being a hit in the digital workplace, especially for employees working from home.

Thirdly, generative AI could be a major step in the evolution of the metaverse. Creating immersive worlds has the potential to be extremely expensive and rely on niche expertise, but imagine if generative AI can just create a 3D world or a scene within it, within seconds? Given where we are with powerful AI image generation tools like Midjourney this seems like it could lower barriers to entry and advance the metaverse in ways that previously seemed years off.

6. Organisations continue to move away from in-a-box intranets

One observation that I’ve made in previous years is that organisations are tending to move away from in-a-box intranets, because they can achieve an increasing amount of what they need to do with bog-standard SharePoint (often confusingly known as out-of-the-box SharePoint), and combine this with Microsoft 365 tools like Viva Engage. It’s not to say that in-a-box intranets don’t add value to SharePoint – some of them are excellent – but as budgets remain under tight scrutiny and the Microsoft product roadmap continues to support intranet teams – the business case for investing in them becomes harder to justify, where essentially you’re often paying for the same capabilities twice.

I think the gradual move away from in-a-box intranet products will continue in 2024. However, an intranet wholly based on SharePoint Online does leave some gaps. This is partly why our Lightspeed365 product that offers a distinct set of SharePoint web parts is getting a lot of focus; it fills some of the feature gaps and increases the versatility and options to brand your SharePoint intranet. Lightspeed365 effectively allows you to add onto SharePoint but you’re not paying for any feature twice – it means you get the versatility of an in-a-box product at a fraction of the price.

7. The debate questioning the value of working from home will start to fizzle out

In some organisations there’s still a debate raging about the need to return to the office versus the merits of working remotely, chiefly from home. There tends to be a pattern where a CEO with strong opinions makes a call for everybody to come back to the office, with some employees not happy with a disruption to a working pattern that has generally been working well for them for nearly four years. In most cases some kind of happy medium is achieved with everyone settling into a pattern of hybrid work.

Of course, there are advantages to both working in-person and remotely, depending on the different types of work mode required, the needs of individual employees, and what is trying to be achieved. But overall, remote and hybrid work has proved remarkably resilient as a working pattern with obvious advantages relating to productivity and work-life balance. Many employees want to preserve it, most employers need to offer it to attract talent, and everybody enjoys the increased productivity. We haven’t had an office here at Content Formula for a few years now and while that has some downsides, we’ve never been more successful. Some of the arguments to date that attack remote work simply don’t stand up to much scrutiny, and I expect the debate about either/or will continue to fizzle out during 2024. We simply aren’t returning to the working patterns of 2019.

Happy New Year

And that’s a wrap for another year! Whatever happens, I think it’s going to be another fascinating and important year in the history of the digital workplace. And that just leaves me to wish you all happy holidays and new year. Hope to see you in 2024!

A custom global knowledge sharing platform to support consulting projects

Posted on 14 December 202323 May 2024 by Kelly Chan

Global Consulting Firm

A custom global knowledge sharing platform to support consulting projects

Our client is a leading global strategy consulting firm that provides a range of expert advice to organisations and institutions around the world. Headquartered in USA the company employs around 2,000 staff across three global regions – Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe.

A new global intranet based on SharePoint Online and enhanced with Lightspeed365 features

Content Formula was engaged to build a new global intranet to improve communication across regions and leverage the advanced capabilities of SharePoint intranet.

To meet client’s specific requirements and extend the power of SharePoint Online, we implemented a number of Lightspeed365 features to enable a range of additional capabilities, including an engaging news feed on the intranet homepage, a collection of global and regional policies, and more.

A knowledge sharing platform to support client projects

Once the new global intranet had been launched, the client further engaged Content Formula to create a customised platform based on SharePoint so that busy consultants could find and share knowledge to help deliver the very best advice to clients.

Previously case files, knowledge items and intellectual property had been scattered across an on-premises SharePoint environment with poor search capabilities, meaning valuable content was hard to find.

The brief was to create a new environment known as the “Solution Center” that was accessible from the new intranet and where consultants could easily find the knowledge they need.

From detailed discovery to iterating the design

To assemble a detailed set of requirements for the Solution Center, we undertook a series of user and stakeholder interviews, as well as series of workshops, to understand the needs of consultants as well as knowledge teams across all regions.

Based on this data, we established a proof of concept for the new Solution Center, creating a clickable prototype to illicit detailed feedback from users, as well as carrying out usability testing. This enabled us to iterate and improve the design, until we were ready to build a final version.

Easy access and customised search

The new Solution Center is easily accessible from the main intranet navigation as a top-level item, as well as through Microsoft Teams.

To encourage strong findability, there is a customised search experience at the top of the Solution Center homepage with type-ahead capabilities. To avoid confusion, the main intranet search is disabled when users enter the area.

By using the Solution Centre search employees can find a wide range of valuable resources including case material, intellectual property, primary research, research guidance and information on data and analytics, and more.

Granular filtering and increased relevance

An advanced search option allows consultants to filter their results by four main knowledge collections as well as highly granular filters covering areas such as content sub-type, sector, service line and geographical scope.

To enable more relevant searching, items are targeted to consultants based on their specialisms such as industry sector.

Finding case information and people

The new intranet also has significantly improved people search. To enable expertise location, people results are also included in the main Solution Center search. Consultants can also click on people profiles to find who has experience in particular sectors and services.

Consultants can also find relevant project or case information, with each case having a dedicated page that summarises key information including team details and also points to the relevant case files held within the Solution Center.

Navigation for improved findability

As well as searching, employees can navigate to find the resources they need. A series of attractive blocks on the Solution Center homepage leads consultants to a set of individual landing pages with information about different knowledge collections such as Market Insights. There are also links to related areas such as Communities of Practice and People directory.

Within each landing page there is a scoped search facility that allows employees to just search that knowledge collection. There are also links to related how-to resources and guidance, as well as news updates, curated resources and team contact details.

A personalized dashboard to key resources

To facilitate convenient access to knowledge, a personalised dashboard for consultants displays saved searches. It also includes links to “my Collections” where consultants can create a Pinterest-type board that links to a consultant’s favourite resources. To encourage knowledge-sharing, consultants can share their pinboard with others.

The dashboard also includes a personalised feed of recommended items that are likely to be of interest, based on a person’s profile and their recent searching behaviour. Users can toggle to see popular items if preferred.

Using AI to make tagging easier

When other SharePoint documents are submitted to the knowledge platform, AI (powered through Azure Cognitive Services) suggests tags for the items, based on cleint’s enterprise taxonomy. Additionally, case files are automatically tagged with the case details.

The item is then reviewed by a member of the Knowledge Management team to approve or modify the tagging and redact anything within the document, to enable it to be more easily reused with other clients.

As part of the project, we also worked with the client on a significant migration of content, some involving the remapping of metadata based on client’s new taxonomy.

Leveraging Lightspeed365 modules and customisation

The Solution Center is customised but also leverages Lightspeed365 features to deliver the very best experience. For example, the Lighstpeed365 handbook web part, is used to present information in a more pleasing way with additional configuration options compared to a standard SharePoint list.

Custom web parts include a special Solution Center search query web part that allows an administrator to build a scoped search box to search for specific resources defined by metadata, allowing for highly targeted and contextual searching.

A unique user-centric solution

Overall, the Solution Center provides busy consultants with a world-class knowledge platform with advanced searching capabilities and enhanced findability to support the delivery of excellent advice to clients. Meanwhile ’s the client's knowledge teams finally have a sophisticated solution to encourage knowledge sharing, with AI doing the heavy lifting on tagging.

The combination of customised features, unique structure and personalisation ensures that the Solution Center is truly employee-centric and wrapped around the way work.

Unpacking the news from Microsoft Ignite 2023: updates on Microsoft Copilot, Viva, SharePoint, Teams and more

Posted on 20 November 202317 April 2024 by Joe Perry

The current pace of change in the digital workplace remainsrelentless. There are new capabilities, tools, enhancements and options coming left, right and centre, some of which will be far reaching. Generative AI is likely to have a profound impact, in ways that are perhaps unexpected. And the sheer pace of investment and change in Microsoft tools across the digital workplace borders on the overwhelming.While it’s great that there are new possibilities and a continual stream of improvements, it can be challenging for digital workplace teams to keep on top of all that is new, let alone get round to launching and supporting it within the enterprise.Each year Microsoft unveils a range of announcements, often at key conferences, with most being reserved for the annual Ignite conference. This year’s Ignite has just wrapped up and there have been over one hundred announcements, which are listed and summarised in the traditional Ignite Book of News, which itself is a very long document, although handily divided by product. It’s hard to keep on top of everything that has been announced. Microsoft’s tendency to often rebrand existing products doesn’t help, and just as products like Yammer have been renamed to bring them under the Viva brand, existing AI-driven tools are now coming under the Copilot umbrella.In this post we’re going to feature some of the key announcements from Ignite that caught our eye and that will be of most interest to digital workplace teams. But we’re only skimming the surface here; overall, there is a lot to unpack!

1 Copilot launches everywhere

It was perhaps inevitable that generative AI and Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI was going to take centre stage in the updates from this year’s Ignite conference, and this is certainly the case. Microsoft Copilot – the brand name for the advanced AI assistant that is being embedded into the majority of Microsoft tools – is coming in multiple forms in 2024. It’s going to potentially change how we experience Microsoft products right across the digital workplace and that applies to everybody – developers, administrators, desk-based users and frontline workers.The breadth of Copliot announcements are simply too numerous and broad to mention everything here. One of the most significant moves is the rebranding of Microsoft Bing Chat and Bing Chat Enterprise to Copilot with added commercial data protection, meaning most users including eventually those on frontline F3 licenses will be able to leverage the power of generative AI everyday, for example with searching.The release of Copilot for Microsoft 365 will also be of major interest to digital workplace teams; it’s already the focus for many current pilots for organisations who are on Microsoft’s Early Access Program. Copilot for 365 automatically inherits an organisation’s security, compliance and privacy settings and embeds Copliot into Word, Excel, PowerPoint., Outlook and more. Additionally, a new Copliot Dashboard helps track effectiveness, and also helps plan deployment.Copilot for Microsoft Teams brings a range of AI-powered tools to support meetings and chats, including:

Data visualisations described by participants that can be drawn on the Whiteboard.
Notes shared with participants during the meeting that can be shaped by instructions as you go.
The ability to use Copliot without the use of transcription if required.
The ability to summarise discussion threads and compose posts in Teams chat.

Copilot for Microsoft 365 admin, will help IT admins to manage and extend Microsoft 365 with insights and suggestions.Copilot for Microsoft Viva modules is also launching, initially across the following Viva modules: Insights, Goals, Engage, Learning and Glint.Copilot for Microsoft Power Automate will also help teams to build workflows and automation. Copliot for Power Apps also launches.And it doesn’t stop there with the launch of Copilot for Azure, Copilot for Sales (formerly Viva Sales) a new Copilot for Service, aimed to support contact centre staff and even more.

2 Support for developers to extend the power of Copilot

While Copilot is primed to reach users, there are also moves to help developers and IT admins extend the power of Copilot across the digital workplace with additional plug-ins, meet the specific needs of organisations, as well as establish the right controls and governance. For example, there are new capabilities in the Microsoft 365 admin centre to discover and manage Copilot plug-ins. There is a new Copilot for Microsoft 365 developer sandbox coming to build and test plug-ins, and also extra support for Microsoft partners to develop plug-ins for Copilot.Perhaps the headline development here is the launch of a new Copilot Studio, that will enable the design, test and publishing of specific Copilots to meet the custom needs of organisations around different business applications, for example around HR or management processes. For example, this will allow teams to build sophisticated chatbots that can support users and administrators of these services, as well as customise existing Copilots such as Copilot for Microsoft 365. Note that Copilot Studio absorbs the existing capabilities of Power Virtual Agents, which is being retired as a branded offering.There are also significant updates to Azure that support the extended use of Large Language Models (LLMs), again to build new applications founded on generative AI, or extend AI into existing apps. New updates include a new model catalogue that allows users to discover and fine tune existing LLMs, an integration that allows Microsoft OneLake to be the data lake for LLM-powered apps, the launch of AI Azure Studio, a new AI service to support computer vision capabilities, extensions to the Azure OpenAI service, new services around search and video indexing, and more!

3 Introducing SharePoint Premium

Two recent habits of Microsoft are to rebrand their services and to introduce more paid-for options within some of its core products. Both these traits are evident with the launch of SharePoint Premium, which is positioned as Microsoft’s “advanced content management and experiences platform” and to a certain degree is a rebranding of SharePoint Syntex. Interestingly, it is also positioned as helping organisations to prepare their content for use in Copilot for Microsoft 365.SharePoint Premium incorporates existing Syntex services, but also adds multiple new and recently announced elements that extend advanced document management practices, some of which are available on a pay-as-you-go basis. Overall, we think the package of new features and enhancements is significant, and will appeal to organisations already using or interested in using Syntex for advanced knowledge management and document management such as managing contracts and other legal documents. It also adds more governance controls that will be necessary as generative AI adds potential risks around document creation and sharing in general.New features include:

Extending what you can do with Microsoft Office files in SharePoint’s integrated file viewer, so you can do things like add comments.
A new Business Documents app for Teams that provides insights into the lifecycle of documents such as contracts.
An AI-driven rules deviation engine and an AI-driven clause analyser to highlight changes and risks to key documents.
A new document portal to allow high value documents to be shared with external third parties.
A new SharePoint e-signature feature with Adobe Sign and DocuSign integration.
Translation for files and Stream video transcripts, as well as a new AI-powered video clean-up feature to remove pauses.
Additional changes on the roadmap for 2024 including autofill columns, PII detection, a multilabel classifier and a redaction tool.
A new Microsoft Graph API for SharePoint Premium.

There are also a new series of advanced content governance features including a Data Access Governance reporting suite for sensitive documents, the ability to trigger site access reviews with content owners, introduce restricted access policy, detect anomalies and trends such as high-volume sharing and downloads, and more. A previously announced Microsoft 365 Archive facility and a new Microsoft 365 Backup facility that partners with a number of providers complete the relevant updates.

4 New Microsoft Planner

Up to now task management within the Microsoft suite of tools has been divided between Microsoft Planner, Microsoft To Do and Microsoft Project, with considerable overlap across all three. Now Microsoft have announced that they are simplifying the tool landscape by incorporating all three into a new Microsoft Planner experience, initially with a Planner app for Teams to launch in Spring 2024, followed by a web version later in the year. All three existing apps will be renamed and integrated, with To Do and Planner the first to go, and Project after that.This is likely to simplify and streamline task management and provides a single interface for both individuals and teams to create tasks. Inevitably Copilot will also be added, and start to involve suggestions for tasks and the ability to create more ambitious plans. The announcement makes sense and perhaps will increase adoption of the use of the task functionality across the Microsoft suite.

5 Updates to Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams remains at the centre of Microsoft’s vision for the digital workplace and a place where much of the Microsoft 365 suite can be experienced. Inevitably, there are some announcements relating to Microsoft Teams, of which perhaps the most interesting relate to the meetings experience.Immersive spaces in Microsoft Teams that leverages Microsoft Mesh is already in preview, but will be generally available in January 2024. This packs features such as avatars, 3D environments, spatial audio, live reactions and even some interactive games. Microsoft Mesh, the framework that helps teams to create 3D events, is also being rolled out for general availability.A useful feature is a new AI-powered voice isolation tool that will be able to pick out one person’s voice in Teams calls and meetings to just filter what they are saying. We can see this being useful for presenters in the meeting without the need for everyone else to go on mute. This is being rolled out for general use in 2024.One announcement that is getting a lot of coverage is the introduction is a new AI-powered “decorate my background” feature for video calls on Teams, that automatically tidies up your background and even adds plants. This is a fun feature but only really “nice to have” and will only be available via Teams Premium.There are also a number of updates to Teams chats and channels including the ability to set default reaction emojis and the ability to forward chat, as well as announcements relating to the Teams web experience including new keyboard shortcuts.

6 Modest updates to the Viva suite

The upgrades and changes to Microsoft Viva over the past two years has been extensive, with the launch of several new apps, with the latest being Viva Amplify. The evolution across Viva since the inaugural four apps has been extensive. In recent months, the focus of Microsoft’s development efforts has clearly been on Copilot, and so the number of announcements relating to Viva in this year’s Ignite are relatively modest.Given that most digital workplace teams are still at a fairly early stage with Viva (with the exception of Viva Engage), we don’t think having a pause in the schedule will particularly be unwelcome. However, there are some changes announced, principally for Viva Engage, including:

The ability to publish from Viva Amplify into Viva Engage, which was a glaring gap from the Amplify product.
An integration between Viva Goals and Viva Engage, meaning that company goals and OKRs can be referenced better within community discussions, better supporting change management efforts.
The ability to pin more than one conversation to the top of a Viva Engage community.
The ability to create longer form articles within Viva Engage as a standard content type – a step already announced but coming in early 2024 that will open up Viva Engage to more communications, and allow it as an effective blogging platform.
The ability to send leadership communications and announcements with Viva Engage across multiple tenants, a useful feature for complex organisations perhaps built up though acquisition that find themselves with multiple 365 tenants but need to communicate as one.
The extension of Microsoft Purview to cover Viva Engage, so users can report conversations.
Additional AI services being added into Answers in Viva and the ability to use Answers within Viva Engage communities.
Additional network and conversation analytics brought to the Viva suite that add sentiment analysis, for example.
And, inevitably, the launch of Copilot for a number of Viva modules, already noted above.

2024 is going to be a busy year!Phew! There is a lot going on in the Microsoft world, much of it bringing generative AI into the digital workplace. Throughout 2024 we’ll be revisiting many of the features and functionality covered in the updates above in this blog. If you’d like to discuss any of these updates and what they meanyou’re your business, then get in touch!

Creating a unified SharePoint Online intranet with a unique design and custom web parts

Posted on 10 November 202313 May 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Motor racing team

Creating a unified SharePoint Online intranet with a unique design and custom web parts

Our client is a motor racing team with three different operating companies, all located on the same campus. Each company had its own individual intranet.

The client was seeking a new unified SharePoint intranet to support a unified employee experience and foster a sense of connection with the overall brand, while also increasing productivity for key processes across all three individual operating companies.

A new unified SharePoint intranet

The client engaged us to work on the new project, recognising Content Formula’s expertise in creating world-class SharePoint intranets.

Working in partnership with the Communications & Marketing and IT functions, we held a number of online and in-person workshops across the business to identify requirements and detail user journeys.

We mocked up wireframes to further refine user journeys and iterate designs based on further user and stakeholder feedback. Once the final designs were agreed, we started to build the new solution.

Preserving unique branding

Our client wanted the new intranet to strongly reflect their highly distinctive corporate branding, helping to foster employee engagement and a sense of community at the group level.

We implemented a custom design that closely aligns with the client’s exciting brand identity and values, but without compromising on usability or core SharePoint features.

Keeping everything secure

The client had a complex set of security requirements, with the need to restrict access to some sensitive data and intellectual property across each operating company. However, we didn’t want to compromise on an overall attractive user experience and useful search facility.

Using a strict set of permissions and applying security trimming to search, the new intranet ensures only the right people can see appropriate content, while maintaining the overall simplicity and openness of the intranet and related search.

Customisations to deliver the perfect intranet

In order to meet highly specific needs across the different operating companies, we designed and built a number of custom web parts that focus on clear communications and improving processes.

These include an announcement web part that provides updates and notices across the overall client campus. Another custom web part details when the next racing event will be, as well as a countdown clock to generate excitement.

Searching for spare parts

The engineering side of the business has an enormous catalogue of small parts that users need to regularly access information on, but this data is stored in a separate system.

To increase the value of the intranet, we created a special parts finder web part, based on an integration with the client’s parts database. Now employees can easily search for parts information right from the intranet homepage, saving time and helping to drive adoption of the new intranet.

Increasing efficiency and supporting operations

In order to further increase efficiency and support employee productivity, we also implemented a custom web part that assigns a task list to certain roles such as engineers which can be viewed right from the homepage.

We also leveraged our existing library of Lightspeed components that complement and improve existing native SharePoint web parts to enable essential intranet features, including How Do I information to support operational know-how, and a People Finder tool, enabling connection right across the group.

A unique personalized experience

With a highly diverse workforce across different operating companies, the new intranet uses personalization and audience targeting to ensure there is a highly relevant experience based on the unique needs of each individual.

Users find updates and news relevant to them based on their profile; these are further refined with content recommendations based on the content they are visiting on the intranet. Users also leverage the Lightspeed App Launcher web part to get personalised and easy access to the tools they use every day.

Impact

The new intranet has been well received across the company. It delivers relevant information across group-level support departments as well as campus updates, while also supporting the unique needs of each operating company.

The new intranet is also proving to be a springboard to developing stronger employe engagement, providing a compelling platform for digital communications that strengthens employee connection with the distinctive group brand and across the separate operating companies.

How to make your intranet more interactive and engaging

Posted on 1 November 202317 April 2024 by Dan Hawtrey

Intranets are highly versatile channels that carry out various roles within an organisation. These include keeping employees informed through communications and messaging, as well as ensuring everyone can get things done more efficiently by finding the right information more quickly. A third key role is to support employee engagement, and the wider employee experience.

Employee engagement is a term that has perhaps some baggage; it used to produce a lot of debate about exactly what it is. Many teams now prefer to talk about employee experience, which is a more holistic term that takes in more aspects and touchpoints between employee and employer. Even if you regard employee engagement as a subset of employee experience, most intranets encompass content and features that are engaging, and often interactive. The advantage of this type of content is it not only supports employee engagement and the employee experience, but also helps with intranet adoption.

In this post we’re going to explore how to make your intranet more interactive and engaging. We cover how an intranet supports employee experience, some of the key approaches to ensure your intranet is an engaging place to visit, and finally some specific content ideas.

How does an intranet engage employees and support employee experience?

An intranet engages employees and supports the wider employee experience in a number of different ways.

Communications and campaigns

Intranets remain the principal digital communications channel for many organisations. Senior leaders and Internal comms functions use intranets to distribute messages and execute campaigns which help to engage and inform employees, highlighting awareness of the company’s purpose, success and people, as well as key initiatives in areas such as learning, wellbeing and DE&I.

Supporting community and connection

Intranets support a strong sense of community and connection by helping connect employees with each other through features such as the employee directory, but also through different communities, and social tools. Content can also highlight the contributions of different parts of the organisation. Intranets can also help foster a sense of pride with a company, through reporting on initiatives such as supporting volunteering and giving back to an external community.

Reflecting the culture

Modern intranets should be lively and dynamic channels that reflect but also nurture the positive elements of organisational culture and its people. Generally, there has been more focus on how to support culture using digital channels since the pandemic and the scaling up of remote work.

By establishing dialogue and listening

Intranets are two-way channels that provide excellent opportunities for dialogue, offering the chance for senior leaders to listen to employees. When employees are able to express themselves and provide feedback and input that influences decision-making, and they feel that their voice is being heard, it can have a significant impact on engagement.

By lightening everyone’s day

Sometimes intranets can include content and interactions that make a stressful day that little bit lighter. This might be a people success story, a fun item or even access to a community dedicated to a non-work area. You might even be able to find cat videos! Intranets don’t need to just be about completing tasks and reading news.

What are some of the essential approaches to creating an engaging intranet?

There are several approaches that are essential to create an engaging, modern intranet.

Personalisation

Personalization is a critical element of any modern Internet. It is particularly necessary for any complex and global organisation with a highly diverse workforce, spread across different locations, countries, divisions and roles. Personalisation ensures that content and experiences are more targeted and relevant to an individual user.

Interactivity

Interactivity is another key feature of an engaging intranet, ensuring users can contribute and interact with content and features, for example through commenting, discussions and other social tools. This not only elevates the experience for the user, but also increases the value of the intranet, for example allowing leadership to engage with a dialogue with employees. More interactivity usually ensures the intranet gets more adoption.

Engaging content

Another ingredient of an engaging intranet is having content that is well written and structured, and focuses on topics that are going to be of interest to employees. Long, dreary articles with dense text and no images are less likely to engage your employees; a well-written article with engagement in mind makes all the difference.

User-generated content

Having user-generated content from different sections of the workforce also ensures the intranet is not just viewed as a corporate top-down channel, but is regarded as a wider, more engaging channel that mirrors the diversity of the people in the organisation. Seeing contributions from users also encourages participation and adoption.

Good user experience

Any engaging intranet must have a good user experience to be engaging. Usability is very important and having a poor and outdated interface can drag content and features down, impacting engagement and adoption.

Surface engaging elements

Intranets have many roles to fulfil and include a lot of features and content. To make your intranet support employee engagement and an interesting place to visit, it pays to ensure the more engaging features are prominent and easy to find. Surfacing some of the more popular elements on your homepage is a tactic that many intranet teams follow.

Ten intranet content ideas to make your intranet more engaging

There are many different types of content that can really help lift your intranet. Here are ten popular content types that are often deployed on leading intranets. Some of these are dependent on particular features.

1.Personalised greetings

Creating a personalised greeting in the header of your intranet carries out the basic function of allowing a person to know that the intranet recognises who they are and they are logged in. However, it can also help create a less formal and corporate tone for the intranet too, even if it just says something as simple as “Hello Alex”. Some organisations have chosen to vary the greeting, for example depending on the time of day and even reflecting events and holidays.

2.Embedded communities
One of the most valuable social tools are communities where groups of people come together to have discussions and share content around a common theme or purpose. Communities can be based around a professional community of practice, a common interest such as sustainability, a working group, an employee affinity group and even non-work-related hobbies and interests. Some organisations also have company-wide groups with a comms or engagement focus.

Embedding discussion threads from communities into your intranet experience is an excellent way to make your intranet more engaging and bring it to life with user-generated content and social updates. For SharePoint intranets, it is very easy to embed Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) threads as a web part into your homepage.

3.Polls and surveys
Snap polls and surveys are a great interactive feature to include on an intranet homepage to gain a snapshot of employee opinion or a pulse check on how they are feeling. They can be used for both light, engaging topics that are more fun, or more serious subjects. As with most online polls, employees should be able to view the results so far after they vote.

4.Blogs and vlogs
Blogging and video blogging (“vlogs”) remains one of the most popular formats for adding content that is more personal, authentic and engaging. It’s a good vehicle for more informal leadership communications but also for subject matter experts to support knowledge-sharing, as well as for people to share more personal, inspiring stories. Blogs and vlogs provide a good counterpoint to more formal, internal-comms focused content.

5.Photos
Asking employees to contribute photos is a good way to build up user-generated content that is also popular and reflects the diversity of the workforce. Some intranets have a photo of the day or photo of the week, while other teams have held photo competitions on a theme, or encouraged contributions which are used as brand assets on internal and external channels.

6.People-focused stories and items
Having news or content items that focus on people and what they have achieved or are doing can often have better numbers than drier news items. For example, there might be a news item about teams volunteering or a story about a person who has done something interesting outside work, such as appeared on a TV talent show. Some comms teams have content formats that also profile senior leaders, new starters or random people across the business, helping people get to know the person behind the job title.

7.Opportunities to contribute
An intranet is a channel for dialogue, so a good intranet should offer opportunities for employees to contribute their thoughts and ideas. This can come in various different forms including ideation platforms, invitations to feedback about strategic initiatives and more. The important element here is that employees feel they are being listened to, and leaders are able to leverage the valuable insights of the workforce.

8.Peer to peer recognition
Peer-to-peer recognition feature provide opportunities to offer praise, thankyous and shout-outs to their peers for great examples of work. This helps to create a sense of community, highlights company values and provides a feel-good feed that celebrates success. Sometimes recognition is categorised by company values or specific areas such as employee milestones or example of great customer service. Some intranets provide this recognition feed on the homepage and also offer opportunities for other employees to add comments to each item.

9.Benefits and offers
Intranets often feature HR information available on a self-service basis to relieve pressure on busy HR support desks. One area where HR teams are often keen to drive awareness is the benefits and offers that are available to staff. This is something that employees want to know about, so adding information about shopping and hotel discounts, or how to get your gym membership, can also work to support engagement.

10.Classifieds
Classified advertisements from employees with items for sale and related requests is another feature for intranet that supports healthy adoption.

11.Gamification and competitions
Competitions are also a popular way to drive engagement and make the intranet more attractive to visit. Some intranet teams choose to use a treasure hunt format when launching an intranet to encourage teams to explore the content. Contests can also involve initiatives involving gamification; for example, a fitness challenge with teams occurring points with a leadership board available to view on the intranet. All these are things which help support wellbeing, culture and adoption.

Making your intranet more engaging

There are many things that teams can do to ensure their intranet continues to support employee experience and is also well adopted. At the heart of this is taking a people-centric approach that ensures content is both engaging and interactive and mirros your organisational culture.

If you’d like to discuss how to make your intranet more engaging, then why not get in touch?

The ultimate guide to making the business case for a new intranet

Posted on 25 October 202317 April 2024 by Hannah Barltrop

Making the business case for a new intranet is something that most intranet teams need to go through from time to time. Sometimes it can be easy and straightforward, with an obvious need and stakeholders who buy into the idea. However, at other times it can be an uphill struggle, with stakeholders either not fully convinced or aware of the business value an intranet can bring.

One of the reasons why it can be difficult is that there are still a lot of misconceptions about modern intranets and what they do – some still think they are the static and stale repositories of the past, which is absolutely not the case – or even believe in the myth that “intranets are dead”. Other stakeholders see the value but might not see a new intranet as a priority, particularly as the benefits of an intranet are often intangible; so this can be relegated when everybody is being told to save money or increase revenue from customers.

In this long read we’re going to take a deep dive into making an intranet business case. We’re going to cover the timing for the business case and key approaches for success. We’ll explore some of the key intranet benefits to highlight and we’ll also look at specifically what to include, and options for a format.

Why do we need a business case for an intranet?

Intranets are reliant on software, and there are a variety of different products out there to support it. Like any business software in an organisation or enterprise, you’ll likely need a business case.

Some intranets are based on SharePoint Online, mainly out of the box, which might already be available as part of Microsoft 365; in these cases it is tempting to think you might not actually need a business case. However, your intranet project is highly likely to need extra budget; you may need extra modules and plug-ins, or customisation. You are also may need to work with a third party on designs, user research, consulting support, technical advisory, content support and more. It’s always best to assume that you will need that business case.

What’s the process for a business case?

At a high level the process for a business case usually follows a number of key stages, which may follow sequentially, but in practice are often overlapping:

Undertaking a research and discovery phase to gather data taking in input form users and stakeholders.
Defininng an intranet strategy or aims based on the discovery exercise.
Identifying intranet requirements and the software and other related costs that will help deliver the strategy.
Drafting a business case based on the strategy.
Getting consensus from stakeholders on the business case.
Presenting the business case and getting approval.

What’s the best timing for a business case?

The timing and emphasis for an intranet business case can vary. Sometimes you might need to be making the case for investing in intranet software in general, but other business cases might focus on a specific solution. It is quite possible that a business case might effectively come in two rounds – first for arguing for budget for an intranet project, and then later for a specific solution once one has been chosen. If you are focusing on specific costs sometimes it is best to have selected a specific solution, as software costs in the intranet space can vary considerably.

In our view a business case also works best once you have formulated an intranet strategy based on user research. This focuses on what you aim to achieve, the roadmap that is going to get you there, and data that shows why this needs to happen. It’s basically the what, the when and the why – essentially all elements that you need to put into your business case.

Approaches for a successful business case

There are several approaches you can take to help deliver a successful business case.

Appeal to different stakeholders

It takes a village (and then some) to build an intranet and realistically you will need buy-in from different stakeholders including your CEO / leadership function, IT, HR, communications, frontline and support and more. Getting everyone on side will absolutely help your business case.

It can pay dividends to make sure your business case appeals to different stakeholders and includes elements that support their particular agenda. For example, IT may want to push the value and adoption of Microsoft 365 – a SharePoint intranet can help with that, for example. HR may want to relieve pressure on their busy help desk, and an intranet can support employee self-service. If the business case can tick the box of specific stakeholders, then they are more likely to be onside.

Separately you may also need to work on presenting your business case separately to different stakeholders and engaging with them early to get their specific input.

Make it data-driven by carrying out a discovery period involving user research

A convincing business case will be heavily informed by data, therefore it is often necessary to carrying out a thorough discovery exercise which involves user research and identifies some of the issues and paint points the intranet is going to solve. It is very difficult to make a convincing argument for a new intranet without taking this kind of data-driven approach. Including quantitative and qualitative data will be an important part of any business case and should show the extent and depth of problems and how a new intranet will help.

Make it credible and achievable

Sometimes it’s tempting to pack a business case with claims and statistics about the considerable impact an intranet can have. However, its important not to put in claims that are unrealistic or wholly unproveable, as this can undermine the overall credibility of your business case. For example, many try to quantify the potential cost and time savings an intranet can have. Sometimes these claims can be based on some rather far-fetched assumptions or intangible benefits, and which might be easy for your CFO to pick holes in.

Align to organisational goals and other strategic areas

An intranet is a strategic-level investment that can make a difference at the organisational level. A good business case should explicitly reference your key organisational goals, as well as other key areas of strategy – people / HR and technology for example – and show the contribution that the intranet makes. For example, perhaps your organisation is committed to becoming a great place to work – if so, show how the intranet contributes to employee experience.

Look to the short-, medium- and long-term

A business case needs to showcase not just the immediate impact of an intranet but also it’s medium and longer-term impact. A new intranet is likely to last more than five years so it’s important to show that the positive benefits will be felt for a while. Estimates of costings often also need to be expressed over three to five years too.

Be consistent with concepts and terminology

Arguing a business case and getting consensus can be a bumpy road, with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, particulary if you’re introducing new concepts about what intranets can do to stakeholders. Being consistent with the concepts and terminology used, particulary if you’ve already been working through an intranet strategy, really helps to establish clarity and not muddy the message. For example, if you’ve been taking a lot about improving employee experience in your strategy, it’s best to also reflect that in your business case.

Do the ground work

There is often considerable work that can be down to pave a smooth path for the passing of your business before it is even submitted. Part of this will be down to listening to stakeholders as part of the research, sharing your thoughts early with them, and meeting any concerns. It’s also critical to consult early with the right stakeholders – legal and compliance teams for example – sometimes get overlooked. If you do spend some time on the ground work it can mean that the by the time the business case is submitted there are no real surprises for anyone, and it will get submitted.

Get a sponsor on your side

Obviously if you can get a high-ranking business sponsor on your side then it can really help with the argument for investment.

What are some of the intranet benefits to highlight in the business case?

There are a number of key benefits that an intranet delivers that typically for part of an intranet business case. Some of these are high-level:

Improving employee experience
Supporting community and culture
Saving time to increase employee productivity
Driving process efficiency
Reducing costs
Reducing risks
Supporting key organisational process.

More specifically, there are a number of areas that business cases often focus on.

Current intranet no longer fit for purpose

Sometimes an intranet business case doesn’t need to justify the need for having an intranet as this is already accepted within the business. Instead, the business case may instead need to justify why the current intranet needs to be replaced by a new one. Therefore, focusing on deficiencies of the current solution can form part of the business case.

The sort of issues that often arise in older solutions include:

End of vendor support.
Slow performance and load times.
Poor support for the mobile experience.
The need to use a VPN to access outside the network.
Customised environment that is expensive and difficult to upgrade.
Poor or outdated user experience.
Poor support for accessibility.
Difficult to make integrations.
Does not support corporate branding.
Requires lots of manual interventions.
Difficult for content owners to add their own content.
Poor search.
Having multiple “local” intranet solutions in place.
High maintenance and licensing costs.
Missing features such as personalisation.
Cannot be accessed through Microsoft Teams.
And more!

Risks and related costs avoidance

Some business cases outline the risks of not going through with the implementation of a new intranet and the negative consequences this will have. There also might be some related cost avoidance data that can be presented based on the likely impact – for example the need to keep on spending on potential maintenance costs as the intranet continues to be very unstable.

Improving employee engagement and supporting organisational culture

Intranets can make a contribution to improving employee engagement and increasing a sense of connection and culture across an organisation. This is done in various ways – through digital communications, supporting communities and interest groups including employee affinity groups, facilitating dialogue, establishing and supporting connections, focusing on aspects of employee experience such as learning and wellbeing, and more. Often these aspects are intangible but also extremely important.

In a business case it can help to focus on where employees lack connection with their organisation and each other and an intranet could make a difference, for example if:

Remote working is seen as diluting the positive aspects of organisational culture
Where there are particular issues with the engagement of frontline employees
Where a group is trying to build a more unified company culture across different business divisions, brands or locations
Where a company often needs to rapidly onboard new acquisitions and assimilate people into the company.

Supporting internal comms

Internal communications is an essential activity to keep employees informed about strategy, operational matters and more. A modern intranet is a flexible, modern communications channel where content can be targeted to different groups. An intranet can be a highly effective engine for internal communications and deliver messaging in a way that is significantly more efficient than email.

Microsoft 365 integration

Many organisations are developing a Microsoft 365 digital workplace. A SharePoint intranet is an excellent way to deliver a more integrated digital workplace experience and encourage adoption of the wider Microsoft toolset through integrations with tools such as Viva Engage and Viva Connections. A SharePoint intranet can also be accessed through Microsoft Teams. Of course, using SharePoint Online for the intranet will also reduce the likely licensing costs for your intranet.

Reducing intranet licensing and running costs

Sometimes a new intranet replaces multiple local intranets and legacy solutions. Often having one single, global intranet solution means you can significantly reduce legacy intranet licensing and other running costs. A new intranet may also replace a more expensive, single legacy solution.

Reducing other licensing costs

Intranets have a wide range of features and capabilities, some of which may overlap with existing applications. Depending on what it is included, sometimes it means you can retire some other solutions such as an employee recognition platform, a collaboration solution or a survey tool, and make tangible reduction in solutions.

Supporting employee self-service

Intranets are an excellent tool for supporting employee self-service, particularly relating to HR and IT tasks. When employees can either find the answers to key questions through accessing content or complete simple tasks through integrations, it can help relieve the pressure on busy HR and IT helpdesks, who can focus on more value-added work. Employees can also resolve issues and get information more quickly, saving time for themselves.

Findability

One of the main jobs of an intranet is to help improve findability, allowing employees to easily find that the document, apps and people they need to carry out their daily work and complete various tasks. Poor findability is often a symptom of an intranet that is reaching end of life, so a new intranet that saves time for employees is often a good focus for a business case.

Risk management and compliance

Any business case that supports risk management and compliance processes tends to have an advantage, because it is hard to argue against. Intranets can help achieve better compliance, for example through providing access to policies and procedures, using mandatory read capabilities to ensure that policies are read, and being a key channel for compliance-related communications and campaigns.

Knowledge management

Most organisations have some kind of knowledge management (KM) needs, and intranets make a valuable contribution in supporting KM and related processes. Examples of this include:

Facilitating expert location and assembling teams through people profiles and the related people search.
Supporting knowledge sharing through social Q&A capabilities and enabling professional communities.
Providing key access to knowledge bases, for example relating to products and services for contact centre staff.

Specific process improvements

Intranets can also offer improve specific processes that save time, reduces risks, increase efficiency, reducing bottlenecks, helps standardisation and more. In particular any process that relies on email approvals (or even paper forms) can often be improved by using forms and workflow available on the intranet. Integrations can also help deliver process improvements. If there are some specific processes that are a problem, this can be a good feature for a business case.

What to include in an intranet business case

There are no hard and fast rules about what to include in an intranet business case, and some of that will also be influenced if your organisation or department uses a specific methodology or format for submitting a business case. But below are some common elements to include.

Mission and vision

Often a business case comes out of work made on developing an intranet strategy and in reality there is often a continuum between the strategy and the business case. Having an overarching mission and / or vision for your new intranet and the benefits it will bring will frame the business case in the right way.

Guiding principles

Including the guiding principles or central pillars of your intranet strategy will also help to contextualise your business case.

Current state: output from user research including problems and pain points

A business case needs to reflect the current state of the intranet, which can then be compared to potential future state.

If you’ve carried out your user research and discovery exercise, then findings and data should provide essential evidence for making the business case. This is likely to focus on issues, problems and pain points where the intranet can make a difference, for example around time wasted, processes that aren’t working, low engagement, low adoption and more.

It’s often best to include both quantitative and qualitative data. Having numbers only tells half the story and including anecdotes or even better some anonymised quotes can often resonate more with stakeholders,and illustrate the pain points more clearly.

Risk information

Risks are a standard element to include inside a business case and can focus on the risks of not carrying out the implementation, as well as ensuring any proposed solutions tick any risk-related boxes.

Tangible and intangible benefits

Clearly a major part of the business case will involve detailing the tangible and intangible benefits of the investment in the new intranet solution. There are different ways to express these, but again it’s important to keep things credible, particularly in expressing benefits quantitatively.

Costings

Costings are going to be integral to your business case and how to express these could be a topic for another post. Because an intranet is a multi-year investment, it’s usually important to detail the likely costs over a three-to-five-year period. Ideally, a business case should include both direct costs (licensing etc.) and indirect costs (change management) etc.

Costings should always include the first-year implementation costs and any other dependencies including additional any additional infrastructure, licensing and software costs. Ideally, the business case should address the total cost of ownership, including any additional staff that might be required to run it.

Roadmap and operations

Detailing the planned roadmap and operational support model for the new intranet can help show how the intranet can be made a reality.

KPIs and measurement

Including details of KPIs and approach to measurement can also emphasize the intended benefits of the intranet, and again make the business case more credible.

Intranet examples and case studies

Including some intranet examples and case studies to illustrate the positive impact of an intranet can make a difference, helping to illustrate the art of the possible in a more tangible way. It can help if these are from companies in the same sector or with similar issues. Examples from competitors can resonate well – if company X is doing this with their intranet so should we. Screenshots can also be a welcome addition to a business case or at least a presentation about it.. However, as case studies primarily come from vendors, they don’t always give the full story behind intranet impact, and some stakeholders may take some claims with a grain of salt.

What’s the best format for a business case?

Most business cases follow a document format, but sometimes it might also be a PowerPoint slide deck, or even both. There is not particular one advantage over the other although slides can sometimes be more digestible and obviously can be used in presenting to stakeholders.

The format for a business case may also be dictated if your organisation or department uses a business case template. In addition there may be supplements or appendices which are in document, spreadsheet or presentation format.

Making the intranet business case

An intranet business case is an essential step towards getting a new intranet. We hope you’ve found this ultimate guide useful. If you need support with your intranet business case or want to discuss our intranet project, then get in touch!

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A SharePoint list is one of the most powerful and flexible features of SharePoint, but its potential is often overlooked. In this post we look at reasons why SharePoint lists can work better than Excel spreadsheets.

SharePoint lists: The Beginner’s Guide

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SharePoint lists have been a core feature of SharePoint for many years. But if you’re relatively new to SharePoint lists or don’t use them as much as you could do, this beginners guide will give you all the information you need to start utilising them to best effect.

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