Six Reasons to be Excited about Using SharePoint for Your Intranet
By James Koppenal,
Senior Managing Director
February 16, 2021
In the past, Internal Communicators often felt compelled to apologize when acknowledging SharePoint was their intranet platform. Limited capabilities and a lackluster user experience made SharePoint a less than ideal choice. However, through innovation and improvement, SharePoint has made great strides in changing that perception. And when SharePoint is fully integrated with the Office 365 suite of products, its benefits are amplified.
Based on our experience, here are six reasons why internal communicators should be excited about using SharePoint for their intranet:
1. It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft tools
A key goal for most communicators is to drive employees to a single destination for all their needs. When integrated with Microsoft Teams, Yammer, One Drive, and other applications, SharePoint provides more than an intranet solution. It becomes a digital workplace that offers employees a one-stop-shop for news, information and resources while also providing channels for employee engagement, collaboration, and knowledge sharing.
2. It provides a user experience that matches employees’ expectations
SharePoint modern sites have the contemporary look and feel employees are accustomed to seeing on consumer/public websites. They are also mobile-ready, providing a comparable user experience for office workers, non-desk workers and remote employees.
SharePoint intranets also deliver on employees’ increasing demand for personalized content. The platform’s integration with Active Directory allows communicators to target content to employees by division, location, function, or seniority level. In addition, by incorporating personalized web parts on SharePoint pages, employees can be served links, news, resources, and documents that are curated for them.
3. It gives employees a voice
Remote work and turbulent world events have made it even more critical for employees to have a platform where they can express their concerns and engage with colleagues and leadership on both a professional and personal level. Microsoft’s Yammer, Teams, and Office 365 Groups can be integrated to facilitate employee engagement and collaboration. SharePoint’s survey and polling features also make the intranet a viable channel for employees to voice their opinions and provide upward feedback.
4. It facilitates better document management
The primary purpose of any intranet is to give employees quick access to current, accurate information. SharePoint document libraries provide a means of document retention and version control. When these libraries are pulled through to an intranet, they allow employees access to documents via multiple paths and the site search.
5. It is customizable and works with other business-critical applications
SharePoint provides an “out-of-the-box” intranet solution but can be customized to meet specific business requirements and scalability for long-term growth. Customization can be achieved through a vast library of third-party tools and plug-ins. SharePoint is also set up to easily connect with other business critical apps like Concur for expense tracking, ADP for payroll data and Confluence for project management tracking.
6. It offers tight information security
Bundling services within the Microsoft universe of products limits the number of providers who have access to an organization’s information and so reduces risk. Microsoft offers enterprise grade security over their platform and data. Within each configuration of SharePoint, IT administrators can also control the data security for the site, documents, folders, and library permissions.
Through continued innovation and enhancements, SharePoint has evolved from a “make the best of a bad situation” platform to a customizable, reliable intranet and virtual workspace that internal communicators can leverage to facilitate collaboration and employee engagement. And that’s something to be excited about.
