From intranet portals to business apps with Microsoft 365
Why SharePoint still matters
SharePoint Online powers knowledge, collaboration, and lightweight business apps inside Microsoft 365. Tight integration with Teams, OneDrive, and Microsoft Search makes it the natural home for documents, pages, lists, and governed workflows.
When your goal is a single source of truth—policies, SOPs, project wikis, request forms—SharePoint provides structure, permissions, and lifecycle tools that generic file shares or ad‑hoc wikis struggle to match.
How easy is modern SharePoint?
Very, if you stay inside the modern toolset:
- Sites & pages: Create communication or team sites in minutes using design templates and web parts.
- Lists: Replace spreadsheets with lists that have validation, views, and rules.
- Power Automate: Build flows for approvals, reminders, and data sync without code.
- Power Apps: Compose forms and lightweight apps over SharePoint lists.
- SPFx: For deeper customization, SharePoint Framework lets you build React‑based web parts with enterprise security.
The ‘necessary’ part—governance and information architecture
Ease without guardrails creates sprawl. Make SharePoint ‘necessary’ by turning it into your governed knowledge backbone.
Information architecture: Define hubs (e.g., Corporate, Functions, Business Units), content types, metadata, and retention labels.
Permissions: Prefer groups over individuals; separate owners, members, visitors. Avoid unique permissions unless required.
Lifecycle: Auto‑archive stale content; use retention and sensitivity labels via Purview; enforce naming conventions.
Common solutions you can ship in weeks
Intranet & news hub with audience targeting
Project workspaces with templates (raids, risks, decisions)
Quality management system (QMS) with versioned SOPs and read‑receipts
Service request portals (IT, HR, Facilities) with approvals
Partner/extranet sites with guest access and scoped permissions
Design principles for adoption
Start with user journeys, not site maps. Keep navigation shallow. Use search‑first design.
Make pages scannable: hero web part, section headings, quick links, highlights.
Measure: Page analytics, search queries, and heatmaps; iterate monthly.
Integration patterns that pay off
Surface SharePoint in Teams tabs; push approvals into Teams; sync document libraries to OneDrive for offline access.
Use Graph connectors to index third‑party systems; build Viva Connections dashboards for frontline workers.
Migration and change management
Inventory current sources (file shares, legacy portals), map to sites/libraries; migrate in waves using tools like Mover or Migration Manager.
Run enablement: site owner training, governance guide, and ‘office hours’. Celebrate early wins with before/after examples.
