Why Intranets are more relevant than ever before

What is an intranet? Once you cut through the jargon and common answers such as “a single source for all documents in our business”, a valuable intranet platform should provide the right information to the right people at the right time, ultimately integrating applications to serve a single view for employees.

Is an Intranet important, or is it an outdated technology? Hopefully in the next few minutes you’ll understand why I believe it’s not only important, but more relevant than ever before.

Looking into the future, your SharePoint intranet won’t be a stand-alone application, but rather it will bring together the best of the Microsoft Productivity offering and other cloud-based technologies for all staff.

Staff have access to more technology than ever before – Microsoft Teams, Yammer, SharePoint, OneDrive and Skype for Business alone within the Microsoft Productivity stack. But think about all the other SaaS applications and legacy on-premise systems in addition. No wonder there’s confusion about which tools to use and when (assuming that staff know how to find them!). All have a place (albeit with pro’s vs. con’s), but what that place is and how they fit into a technology ecosystem, that’s a more difficult question to answer.

This is where a SharePoint intranet can wrap together services and applications, creating a universal toolkit to empower staff to become more productive with their limited time – a CEOs most valuable asset.

My advice: go away and play around with Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Planner, Delve, etc. You need to know what these tools are and how they can add value to your organisation. However, like me, what I guarantee you will find is that there are too many options; too many tools for staff to digest and apply effectively.

A well designed and maintained SharePoint-based Intranet is only becoming more relevant. Arguably, not because of advancements in SharePoint itself (although some new announcements out of Ignite recently are very exciting), but because of the advancements outside of SharePoint in the Microsoft productivity stack and beyond with other SaaS applications.

If you’re struggling to understand how to take advantage of all the tools as part of Office 365 and beyond, I’m keen to hear from you. Know this – you’re not alone and there is a better way!

Good luck!