The Problem: An Intranet Too Simple for the Group’s Scale
The previous intranet had been online for a few years and had reached the natural moment for a refresh, the kind that any platform periodically requires. But the real need went beyond simple maintenance.
The group needed a more complete intranet, capable of adapting to a large organisation distributed across the world. A document repository was no longer enough: what was needed was a space graphically aligned with the group’s identity, with new content and a solution designed specifically for it, not simply installed.
What made the project more complex was the presence of multiple stakeholders at the same time: besides the client and our team, an external graphic agency tasked with creating the portal mockups, and a consultant who followed the project from a point of view, before it went live on the platform. Migrating content from the old intranet also required constant discussion with the client, to jointly decide what to bring to the new platform and what to leave behind.
Home page of an industrial group's intranet
Our Solution: Building Custom Components
The goal shared with the client was clear: create a truly international portal, accessible to everyone in the group, with useful content organised clearly.
To achieve this, the project did not stop at activating intranet.ai’s standard features, but also included the development of custom web parts, designed from the mockups created by the client’s graphic agency and then adapted together with our team to SharePoint’s technical requirements.
Among the components used in this project are the Hover Buttons, the Highlights, the News Archive, as well as Upcoming Events, the web part for upcoming events, designed for a compact, mobile-friendly display. Features such as Key Initiatives, Welcome Box and Company Locations were also updated and adapted to the specific needs of this project.
On the engagement side, the group chose to move on from an older internal communication tool, comparable to a corporate social network, migrating to integration with Microsoft Viva Connections, now a native part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
The portal is now available in English, the common working language across all the group’s countries.
Customised features in the intranet.ai intranet
The Results: A Living Portal, and Components That Became Product
Considering the number of stakeholders involved, from the client to the graphic agency to strategic consulting, the entire project required about one year of overall work, between design, development and refinement of the components.
The result is a portal used actively every day.
The platform’s analytics record around 2,000 unique users per day, with an average of 10,000 daily visits and an average time on page of about 3 minutes, a sign of genuine, non-superficial use of the tool.
The most original outcome, however, concerns the customisation of the components developed specifically for this client. Born out of the project’s specific needs, some of them later became part of intranet.ai’s official catalogue.
Telling stories and initiatives in the SharePoint intranet
What’s Next?
After a significant period of use, a portal revamp is now under consideration, to update its look and take advantage of the features SharePoint has made available in the meantime.
Among the future developments already discussed with the client is also the introduction of additional local languages, alongside the English currently used as the common working language.
At the same time, the group has also chosen to invest in adopting Copilot with Copilot Circle, a separate but complementary path to the intranet one, a sign of a digital transformation journey that keeps expanding.
When a customisation project is born from the exchange between multiple minds, purpose-built solutions can enrich the entire platform.
Are you considering a highly customised intranet project for an international group? Book a demo and find out how intranet.ai can support you from custom design all the way to launch.