Category: Modern Intranet

The Modern Intranet – Part 3: The Publishing Portal

< Part 2 – The role of SharePoint

Introduction

In this article, I will describe the information architecture and design phases of a SharePoint Online publishing portal. I will adopt an agile approach and provide simple and realistic guidelines based on my real-world experience as a Microsoft technologies consultant. For those interested in delving into the theoretical aspects, I recommend referring to the official documentation available on the Microsoft website.

Information Architecture

Information Architecture in SharePoint Online involves the deliberate organisation of sites, navigation, and content to ensure that users can easily find, access, and interact with information. It aims to create a logical and intuitive structure that aligns with the organisation’s goals and user needs. Let’s take a concise look at how to structure the high-level architecture and explore the best practices for the following aspects:

  • the portal’s site structure
  • the navigation
  • the content

The Sites Structure

One of the main differences between SharePoint Online and its on-premise predecessors is the fact that now the subsites have been pretty much deprecated. Rather than having a hierarchy of sites and subsites, in SharePoint Online it’s prereable to have a flat site structure.

There are several reasons why Microsoft has pushed for a flat site structure in SharePoint Online. Firstly, it promotes simplicity and ease of use by minimising complexity and reducing the number of clicks required to access information. Secondly, it enhances content discoverability and searchability.

On the other hand, the administration is somewhat affected when using a flat structure, as each site would have its own set of permissions, and the concept of permissions inheritance is no longer applicable. However, this is not necessarily a disadvantage.

The Home Site

The Home Site acts as the main gateway to the publishing portal, offering employees a personalized and captivating experience for accessing news, resources, and crucial information. Its structure can be seen in the diagram provided below at a very high level:

In one of the upcoming articles in this series, we will explore how to enhance and reinforce the concept of intranet’s home, using Microsoft Viva. However, for now, let’s keep it simple and let’s just assume that our entry point is the SharePoint Online Home Site.

To learn more

The Hub Sites

A hub site serves as a tool for organising and connecting related sites, bringing together content, navigation, and search. By creating a hub site, we can establish a unified experience, share common resources, and promote collaboration among teams or departments.

The simplest scenario is an organisation having only one hub consisting of the Home Site plus a few departmental sites. More complex scenarios may involve multiple hubs (e.g., one per department) and/or hubs for publishing content based on areas, topics, or teams.

To learn more

The Navigation

Navigation plays a crucial role in guiding users to relevant content and navigating the site structure ensuring a seamless user experience. From an information architecture perspective, a SharePoint Online intranet employs three key navigation elements: Global navigation, Hub navigation, and Local navigation.

Global navigation

Global navigation serves as the primary navigation mechanism across the entire Intranet. It helps users quickly navigate to important areas, such as the organisation’s Home site, team sites, or specific departments. It ensures consistent access to critical resources and delivers a sense of unity throughout the platform.

Hub navigation

Hub navigation serves as a secondary navigation layer specific to the hub. It facilitates navigation within the hub and provides contextually relevant links to associated sites, enabling users to seamlessly navigate between different sites within the hub’s ecosystem.

Local navigation

Local navigation focuses on providing navigation elements within individual sites. It helps users explore the content and structure of a specific site, allowing users to navigate between different sections, libraries, lists, or pages within the site. Local navigation enhances discoverability and enables users to find and access content within the context of their current location.

The Content Architecture

When designing the content architecture, several considerations can ensure an organised and efficient structure. Firstly, it is important to grasp the content requirements and the intended purpose of the intranet area that is going to host it. This understanding will guide the creation of a logical and intuitive structure. Begin by identifying the major content categories or topics and create top-level hubs or sites accordingly. Within each hub or site, further break down the content into sites, document libraries, lists, and pages based on their specific characteristics or usage patterns.

To enhance discoverability and navigation, implement metadata to tag and classify the content. This allows users to filter, sort, and search for information more effectively. Take advantage of content types to enforce consistency and standardisation across similar types of content, ensuring that the appropriate metadata fields are associated with each content type.

Consider implementing a content approval flow to govern the publishing process and ensure content quality and accuracy. This flow can involve multiple stakeholders and include various stages such as creation, review, approval, and publishing. Additionally, leverage version control to track changes and enable easy rollbacks if needed.

Last but not least, regularly assess the content structure to ensure it aligns with evolving business needs.

Roles in Content Architecture

Content creators – Content creators are responsible for keeping content updated and publishing news.

Content consumers – Content consumers are not represented in the counts as anyone who is using and viewing content throughout the three levels of navigation.

Owners – Intranet owners, departmental business owners, hub owners, and site owners should regularly engage with content consumer to ensure the right content is findable and usable. Content creators partner with site owners during the implementation and management stages.

Design

After defining the information architecture, attention turns to design. This encompasses the following elements:

  • Visual design: selecting appropriate themes, colour schemes, and layouts that align with the organisation’s branding and create a cohesive user interface.
  • Functionality and features: during the Design phase, it is important to gain an understanding of the available off-the-shelf building blocks (site templates, site designs, themes, web parts, page templates) to determine if and what level of customisation will be required.

To learn more

Site Templates and Site Designs

Sometimes, people tend to confuse the two terms. Therefore, let’s provide their definitions:

  • Site Template: in its most basic form, site templates are the key to the different types of sites you can create in SharePoint Online. Excluding the old backward compatible site templates (a.k.a. “Classic” site templates), there are only two site templates in SharePoint Online: “Team Sites” and “Communication Sites”. At a high level, the Communication Site is the preferred site template for publishing portals, while the Team Site template is more suitable for collaboration scenarios.
  • Site Design: a predefined set of actions that can be used to create new sites in SharePoint Online. A Site Design runs on top of an existing Site Template to create a new site or re-design an existing site.

Designing the Home Site

Microsoft have provided the SharePoint Lookbook which is an amazing resource with a variety of site designs to choose from. These include:

  • Organization
  • Department
  • Team
  • Community
  • Solutions
  • Schools

My advice here is always to go for an off-the-shelf solution. Therefore, simply choose one of the “Organization” site designs as a starting point for the intranet’s homepage.

The second step is to customize the site design to change the site logo and align the theme’s colors according to the company’s branding.

Next, implement the content architecture amending the home page’s layout and creating any other necessary pages, libraries and lists. Then, define the site’s Local Navigation.

The Modern Intranet – Part 2: The role of SharePoint

< Part 1 – Unleashing Collaboration and Productivity

Introduction

The role of SharePoint in Microsoft 365 has evolved compared to its previous role in the “on-premises era.” In the past, SharePoint on-premises served as a comprehensive platform for content management, intranet portals, application development, search centres, collaboration, and community management.

Teams and Viva taking the lead

Nowadays, Microsoft Teams has taken over as the primary collaboration platform, while SharePoint has transitioned into a Content Storage provider role. A SharePoint team created within a Microsoft Teams team can be used as-is without modifying its structure or making customisations. Documents stored in SharePoint can be accessed from Microsoft Teams, eliminating the need to access SharePoint directly in most cases.

Microsoft Viva Engage has assumed the role of the community management platform. It seamlessly integrates with Microsoft Teams, requiring minimal interaction with SharePoint.

The Power Platform has become the go-to solution for rapidly developing line-of-business applications in the Modern Workplace. It integrates various data sources, not limited to SharePoint. For more complex scenarios, developers can leverage the Teams Toolkit, where SharePoint Framework (SPFx) is just one of the available options.

The Search System is now integrated across all Microsoft 365 systems, extending beyond SharePoint.

So, what is the actual role of SharePoint in Microsoft 365?

​ Well, SharePoint in Microsoft 365 still fulfils two fundamental roles:​

  • Collaboration: SharePoint Online offers capabilities for document management, authoring and co-authoring, and sharing documents among organisational and external users.​
  • Publishing: SharePoint Online serves as the primary building block for creating a publishing portal that delivers content, news, policies and procedures, search functionality, user profiles, links, and other relevant information to a broader audience, ideally encompassing the entire organisation or specific departments. ​

Furthermore, SharePoint Online serves as a foundational layer for enhancing the capabilities of Microsoft Teams:​

  • Providing content storage and document management capabilities within Microsoft Teams.​
  • Allowing for the integration of the Modern Intranet within Microsoft Teams through Microsoft Viva.

​Coming up next

The next blog post in the series will focus on SharePoint Online as the foundation for creating a publishing portal.

Part 3 – The Publishing Portal >

The Modern Intranet – Part 1: Unleashing Collaboration and Productivity

Let’s dive into the world of modern workplace intranets and explore how they empower organisations to harness the full potential of their workforce, data and business processes, regardless of their location.

Introduction

In today’s evolving work landscape, where hybrid and remote working have become the new normal, effective collaboration, information sharing and communication are key to fostering productivity and innovation. Organisations today are seeking robust and secure solutions to thrive in this evolving work landscape, to connect their teams, streamline business processes and cultivate a collaborative work culture, at the same time making sure their company data are secure and properly governed. In this blog post, we will dive into the world of modern workplace intranets and explore how they empower organisations to harness the full potential of their workforce, data and business processes, regardless of their location.

Key features and benefits of a Modern Intranet powered by Microsoft 365 suite of products

Seamless Communication and Collaboration

A Modern Intranet serves as a centralised hub for employees, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration. Integrating together Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Viva, employees can easily connect with colleagues, share content, access company’s news and information, and collaborate together on projects in real-time. Whether in the office or working remotely, the Modern Intranet brings everyone together in a digital workplace, fostering a sense of unity. With shared calendars, task management, and instant messaging capabilities, teams can collaborate efficiently, breaking down silos and improving cross-functional communication.

Efficient Document Management

Document management lies at the heart of a Modern Intranet. Microsoft 365 provides robust document storage and sharing capabilities through SharePoint Online, allowing users to collaborate on documents simultaneously and share them internally in the organisation as well as externally. Version control and granular access controls ensure that information is managed securely and is always up to date. Additionally, powerful search functionalities and metadata tagging make it easy to locate documents quickly, enhancing productivity and reducing time wasted searching for critical information.

Personalised and Targeted Content

A Modern Intranet should not only serve as a repository of information but also provide personalized and targeted content to its users. Microsoft 365 leverages AI and machine learning to deliver relevant content to employees based on their roles, departments, or interests, enhancing productivity and reducing time spent searching for resources:

  • SharePoint Online can deliver personalised news feeds and powerful search capabilities.
  • SharePoint Syntex automatically processes and extracts information from documents, allowing users to classify, organise, and find relevant content more efficiently. It streamlines content management and improves the search experience.
  • Viva Topics creates a knowledge graph that connects and surfaces relevant information across various sources, using AI to identify topics, establish relationships, and generate topic pages that consolidate related content, providing users with a comprehensive understanding of a subject.

Business Process Optimisation

Microsoft 365 leverages the powerful combination of Power Platform, Microsoft Teams, and Dataverse to streamline and enhance organisational workflows:

  • The Power Platform empowers users to create custom applications, automate repetitive tasks, and gain valuable insights through data visualisation.
  • Microsoft Teams serves as a centralized communication hub, fostering seamless collaboration and real-time interaction among team members.
  • Additionally, Dataverse serves as a secure and scalable data storage platform, ensuring data integrity and facilitating integration across various Microsoft 365 applications.

By leveraging these tools, businesses can optimise their processes, improve productivity, and achieve enhanced operational efficiency.

Data Governance & Control

Maintaining the security of sensitive company information is crucial, especially when working in a hybrid or remote setting. SharePoint Online offers secure file sharing and content storage capabilities. With its granular permissions and access controls, organisations can ensure that only authorized personnel can view, edit, or share sensitive documents, mitigating the risk of data breaches. With Microsoft Purview, organisations can gain comprehensive insights into their data landscape, enabling them to discover, classify, and monitor data across various sources. Microsoft 365 labels further enhance data governance by allowing administrators to define policies and rules for data classification, retention, and protection. This integrated approach empowers businesses to establish a structured and compliant environment, ensuring data is appropriately governed, secured, and leveraged to drive informed decision-making.

Employee Engagement and Company Culture

Maintaining a strong company culture and employee engagement is vital, even more in a hybrid or remote work environment. A Modern Intranet fosters employee engagement through various features. Viva Engage, the enterprise social networking platform, enables employees to connect, share ideas, and celebrate achievements. It also serves as a platform to recognize employee contributions, share company updates, and promote internal events, creating a sense of belonging and unity among team members.

Conclusions

The Modern Intranet is a game-changer for organisations looking to enhance internal collaboration, streamline business processes, and drive employee engagement. As the world continues to embrace remote and mobile work, a modern workplace intranet equips organizations with the necessary infrastructure to adapt and thrive in the modern business landscape.

Coming up next

In the upcoming posts of this series, I will walk you through the entire process of building a Modern Intranet using the Microsoft suite of products. We’ll start from the conceptual and architectural phases and progress to the implementation and roll-out stages. Throughout this series, we will utilise the suite of tools mentioned in this post, while also drawing upon real-world examples and case studies based on my extensive experience as a Microsoft technologies consultant.

Part 2 – The role of SharePoint >