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Are you looking for a powerful and secure solution to create your company intranet? SharePoint, Microsoft’s collaboration, communication, and content management platform, is probably the tool you need.

Thanks to this application integrated into the Microsoft 365 suite, you can indeed design a custom intranet, ideal for facilitating document sharing, building a knowledge base, promoting effective communication, strengthening your internal users’ engagement, and streamlining teamwork.

Still hesitating? In this article, Mozzaik explains everything you need to know about the SharePoint intranet and why you should choose this intranet solution to set up your digital workplace. Here's what you'll find:

What is a SharePoint intranet?
The advantages and limitations of a SharePoint intranet
The different intranet solutions on SharePoint
The key features of a SharePoint intranet
How to create an intranet on SharePoint?

What is a SharePoint intranet?

SharePoint is the intranet creation tool in the Microsoft 365 suite. But what exactly is it? Explanation.

SharePoint: what is it?

SharePoint is a set of software that allows companies to create intranet sites, that is, computer networks similar to the internet, reserved for their employees. This communication, collaboration, and document management tool is available in a web version and as a mobile application.

The SharePoint solution exists in two versions:

SharePoint Online, the cloud version of SharePoint, which is hosted on Microsoft’s secure servers, is updated automatically, and offers the most features.
SharePoint On-Premises, the on-site version of SharePoint, hosted on your company’s servers and highly customizable.

In detail, SharePoint allows the creation of communication sites that facilitate information sharing (HR processes, internal events, industry news, etc.). With SharePoint, you can also set up a collaborative intranet bringing together documents, the application catalog, calendars, task lists, and communication channels that a department or project team needs to work.

With its many features and integrations, SharePoint is the ideal solution for creating a rich, attractive, and efficient intranet. Its customizable design enables you to build a communication and/or collaboration intranet tailored to your employees’ expectations and your organization’s constraints.

Microsoft Environment

SharePoint is an intranet solution integrated into the Microsoft 365 environment, which allows you to create an efficient and perfectly secure intranet.

With a SharePoint intranet, you can navigate between your intranet and your Microsoft applications (Teams, Outlook, Planner, etc.) and even build automated workflows using Power Automate.

Finally, thanks to the integration of applications such as PowerPoint, Word, or Excel, you can co-edit documents without leaving your SharePoint team site.

SharePoint Intranet: Advantages and limitations

Creating your intranet with SharePoint offers many benefits. However, this intranet solution also has some functional and visual limitations that you can overcome with extensions such as Mozzaik365.

The advantages of the SharePoint intranet

The main strengths of the SharePoint intranet solution are:

Its integration with other Microsoft 365 suite tools (Word, Excel, Planner, Outlook, Teams, etc.), which facilitates teamwork, even remotely, and boosts individual productivity. Employees can, for example, simultaneously edit a PowerPoint presentation without leaving their collaborative intranet.
Its accessibility from anywhere and any device. Users of a SharePoint Online-based intranet can log into their workspace and access company information from their computer, smartphone, or tablet, thanks to the mobile app.
Its flexibility: thanks to its many features and customization options, SharePoint allows you to implement a personalized intranet tailored to your company’s needs. When creating a new intranet (team site or communication site) on SharePoint, you can choose from over 50 languages and different themes (templates). You can also customize graphic elements (colors, fonts, background image, etc.). Lastly, SharePoint lets you use components (web parts) to add functionalities to your intranet (app or document libraries, image galleries, links, lists, etc.).
The security it guarantees for your organization. A SharePoint Online intranet is hosted on Microsoft servers and automatically updated to meet the latest security and compliance standards. Choosing SharePoint for your intranet project also allows you to benefit from advanced security features (multi-factor authentication, antivirus protection, data encryption, etc.).

The limitations of SharePoint

SharePoint is a very powerful intranet solution. Nevertheless, it has some limitations that must be addressed to create an intelligent and attractive intranet:

SharePoint is not 100% customizable. Some features are missing to create a collaboration and internal communication tool that meets all your organization’s needs (social media wall, advanced search, etc.).
SharePoint's visual design lacks modernity. An extension is often necessary to create an appealing platform that reflects your company’s image (integration of your brand identity, etc.).
SharePoint suffers from sometimes unintuitive ergonomics and a suboptimal user experience, especially regarding the mobile version.
Creating an intranet on SharePoint may require development skills, particularly if your company wants a fully customized intranet.

What are the different intranet solutions on SharePoint?

Depending on your company’s needs and resources, you can choose different strategies to create your intranet on SharePoint:

Custom development

You can first develop a custom intranet. This is by far the most expensive option and the one requiring the most technical skills, but it allows you to have an intranet 100% tailored to your organization’s and employees’ needs.

Microsoft-integrated solutions

If you want to obtain an attractive and efficient intranet without complexity and on a reasonable budget, you can use a Microsoft-integrated platform such as Mozzaik365.

Mozzaik365 is a natural extension of SharePoint. This solution allows you to easily create a well-designed, functional, and engaging digital workspace. With its 60 additional features, Mozzaik365 enables you to effortlessly design a modern intranet tailored to your internal needs.

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The key features of a SharePoint intranet

To streamline internal communication, foster collaboration among employees, boost individual productivity, improve knowledge management, and provide an optimal user experience, your SharePoint intranet must include several essential features:

Design Features

To be useful to your employees, your company intranet must be engaging and intuitive. Navigation between its different sections should be smooth and pleasant. This workspace should also be visually appealing. Users should enjoy logging in and find elements that reflect your organization’s identity.

Features that allow you to modify SharePoint’s default design are therefore essential (highlighting call-to-action buttons, adding title separators, etc.).

Communication Features

A corporate intranet is a tool for internal communication and information management. To fulfill this role, your intranet platform must include key features such as:

A contribution help center allowing employees to create consistent intranet content (blog posts, wikis, posts, etc.) using templates;
A social media wall allowing your employees to view and react to your LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram posts with a single click;
A news gallery to highlight your industry news to targeted internal audiences and enable them to interact easily;
An “events” component to promote your seminars, meetings, or informational sessions to the relevant employees;
A “my subscriptions” feature that allows each user to subscribe to topics of interest and receive relevant intranet content.
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A "Newsletter" feature that allows you to use content available on the intranet (articles, news, events), powered by AI and targeted according to your Entra ID groups.

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AI Features

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools now allow you to create a smart intranet that boosts your employees’ productivity and improves their user experience. Several AI features are thus essential:

Content creation assistance enabling employees to easily write, translate, proofread, summarize, or format their emails, reports, and meeting notes;
Precise, contextualized information search that allows employees to quickly get answers based on your company’s data;
Action management to help users prepare for and follow up on meetings and appointments in just a few clicks;
Task and meeting reminders to notify employees of important deadlines and help them stay on track;
Personalized AI assistants integrated into your Digital Workplace that answer employees' questions (HR, IT, etc.) based on your internal data.

Collaboration Features

To make your new intranet an effective collaborative tool, facilitating teamwork and information sharing between team or department members, some features must be included in your intranet platform. In particular:

Document libraries and electronic document management (EDM) to share, store, and organize the resources your teams need and your company’s knowledge;
The staff directory, which allows each employee to quickly find their colleagues’ contact details and identify internal experts;
Teams integration in SharePoint, enabling employees to follow their Teams conversations and use their tools without leaving the workspace;
An Outlook email shortcut allowing users to view their latest emails and access them with a single click from the intranet;
Real-time co-editing tool integration like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to work collaboratively on documents and always access the latest version;
Integration of project management tools like Planner, ToDo, or Project to coordinate team members and ensure everyone knows what they need to do;
The personal Dashboard where each employee can find all the tools, resources, discussions, information, and contacts they need to work.

How to create an intranet on SharePoint?

To create a global, attractive, and efficient intranet, you need to carefully plan your intranet project. With that in mind, follow these steps:

Write your specifications using a template

The first step in an intranet project is writing a specifications document. This document is essential as it formalizes:

End-user needs and your company’s objectives;
The architecture and required features to meet those needs;
The budget allocated to your intranet project;
The timeline of your intranet project.

To help you draft this key document, feel free to use a sample intranet specification document.

Choose the right SharePoint intranet solution

Once your SharePoint intranet specifications are written, you need to choose a solution that matches them:

If you have the necessary financial and technical resources and need a fully customized intranet, you can opt for custom development.
For faster deployment, simplified management, and controlled costs, choose an integrated platform that you can easily customize, such as the Mozzaik365 extension for SharePoint.

Draft the intranet project framework

The third step to successfully carrying out a SharePoint intranet project is drafting a framework document. This outlines:

The context, objectives, and scope of the project;
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The project stakeholders, their roles, and responsibilities;
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Project phases, timelines, deliverables, controls, and success indicators;
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Communication methods among project team members.

Communicate, support, and train

If you have entrusted the design, development, customization, deployment, and configuration of your intranet solution to SharePoint specialists (SharePoint consultant, SharePoint developer, etc.), all that’s left is to ensure your employees adopt the tool. To do so, you can:

Communicate about the launch of your SharePoint intranet by highlighting it through various communication actions (newsletters, conferences, on-site posters, etc.);
Organize training sessions for users and administrators to present the tool, its functionality, security rules, etc.;
Provide resources such as guides and video tutorials to help employees take ownership of their new intranet in a fun way;
Set up a peer mentoring program with user ambassadors responsible for helping their colleagues adopt the tool.

Why create an intranet on SharePoint? Conclusion.

SharePoint is an intranet site creation solution that offers numerous possibilities. Perfectly integrated into the Microsoft environment, it allows you to create a complete, unified, and secure collaborative workspace.

However, SharePoint has some visual and functional limitations that may hinder user adoption. To address this and create an attractive and effective corporate intranet, use an extension like Mozzaik365.

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