SharePoint Intranet: Guide to Successful Business Intranet Portal

SharePoint was launched by Microsoft in the year 2001. It was primarily launched as a document management system. But with the growing complexities of the market, Microsoft has transformed SharePoint into SharePoint intranet, a platform with high capabilities for collaboration. This platform comprises comprehensive functionalities for centralization, collaboration, engagement, and communication. 

Depending upon the distinct versions released by Microsoft, SharePoint can be developed in 4 ways.

1. SharePoint intranet on-premise solution is a corporate portal that can be built using any version of the SharePoint server. Businesses implement it using their own architecture and take complete responsibility for its customization, management, and support.
2. SharePoint Online (stand-alone) is a portal based on SharePoint’s cloud version. The ownership of Microsoft determines the scope of personalization and updates that the subscribers can apply to their platforms.
3. SharePoint Online (Part of Office 365), is commonly known as Office 365 intranet. Even in this case SharePoint online serves as the intranet core. While using it, if the organization buys the subscription of Office 365, they can use it to develop a wider ecosystem where SharePoint is clubbed with other Microsoft tools like Yammer, Sway, Outlook Online, Stream, etc.
4. SharePoint Online (Part of Microsoft 365), also a SharePoint intranet which is a default application in Business & Enterprise plans. It offers a comprehensive package of Windows 10 licenses, Office 365 capabilities, as well as device management and security tools. Broadly, Microsoft 365 has opened SharePoint intranet capabilities for all sizes and the nature of businesses.

With the multi-dimensional functionalities and features of the SharePoint intranet, you need to analyze your requirements before implementing the solution. With disparate applications, you can’t deem the application where one size fits all. You need to determine and chalk out the plan according to your specific work corporate environment. The blog further explains the benefits of the deployment of the SharePoint intranet in the corporate.

1. It enables the creation of Websites using single architecture, further enhancing the capabilities of document sharing with colleagues, project management with partners, and broadcast the information to customers.
2. It delivers innovative collaboration tools and its management using a single platform. This enables the users to share information with their coworkers easily and allows them to work the way they want.
3. SharePoint intranet portal is capable of providing ease of mobile operations with its cloud capabilities. The users can operate the portal using the web, mobile devices, and sync the entire data to any local hard drive, allowing any time & anywhere access.
4. With the advanced search capabilities of SharePoint, you can easily look for the desired piece of information or contact for getting a job done. It works on the combination of relevance, refinements, and social cues for quickly generating accurate results.
5. It provides quick access to important business information stored in databases, reports, and business applications, thereby furnishing practical business analytics and insights.
6. SharePoint establishes “backdoor” compliance measures including features like document type, automatic content sorting, and retention policies. Once the measures and policies are geared up, the employees can naturally use the portal.
7. Its offers components and tools for developing codeless solutions spontaneously and for quickly responding to new and evolving business requirements.
8. It allows the establishment of three different work environments for the employees using Communities. The three zones help them to coordinate and manage their individual activities (using My Sites), group tasks and projects (Team/Community sites), and enterprise-wide collaboration.

Moreover, Microsoft also allows you to migrate your existing SharePoint intranet to a different version of SharePoint, for example, migration of SharePoint on-premise to Office 365.