How to Customize SharePoint to Create a Powerful Intranet: Part I
Author: Mo Anwar | 3 min read | May 9, 2018
The speed-to-respond is a major factor in today’s business world. In this fast-paced environment, a strong and secure intranet is a must to support collaboration and improve security. Microsoft SharePoint technology can be used to achieve a number of benefits if it is properly customized.
A Corporate Intranet Provides a Range of Benefits
An effective corporate intranet will save time in everyday business activities by facilitating collaboration and communication, help meet regulatory requirements by enabling easier document management, and provide easy access to business data and help secure sensitive information. In order to achieve those benefits, two key areas require customization: information architecture and security.
A Short Case Study of SharePoint Customization
We recently worked with a North American Financial Advisor enterprise to improve the functionality of their SharePoint installation. The company’s initial installation was using Microsoft’s default set up, which made navigating to important information difficult. The company’s goals were to improve communication and access to information, share news and centralize information about coming events.
To assist the company, we proposed the following intranet navigation solution:
- Update the SharePoint website theme with corporate branding.
- Provide a central location for news and events.
- Design an intuitive information architecture and introduce a taxonomy to make content categorization possible.
- Architect a security and permission matrix that provide the right user the right access to the right content.
- Provide user training to increase usage and adoption.
As a result, the company had a design for their SharePoint installation that was consistent with their main website, a user interface that made it easy for employees to keep up-to-date with corporate, staff, committee and project news, along with a calendar of interesting events. The site became the gateway for communication with employees on all corporate topics, and a safe way to access corporate information sources to increase collaboration.
Datavail SharePoint Services
Datavail offers a wide range of services for SharePoint installations that will help you reduce costs, streamline operations and more.
- Migration strategy development
- Automation strategy development and implementation
- App development
- Consulting on issues such as SharePoint architecture
- Performance Tuning
- Systems monitoring
- 24×7 Support
- Administration
If you need to make your SharePoint installation work hard for you, contact us. With 20+ years of SharePoint experience you can leverage our expertise to support and streamline your operations with complete managed services.
