An Italian airport management company modernised its operational intranet on SharePoint Online — preserving the vertical navigation its leadership depended on, while gaining role-based document management and security-grade content segmentation for 400 staff across two airports.
3 key project figures
- Around 400 people covered by the platform, including operational staff on the tarmac
- 2 airports managed by the same company, with separate content and permissions for each
- 3 add-on components activated to meet specific communication and security requirements
Introduction
Sometimes the most delicate challenge in a renewal project is not technical — it is human. That was the case for an Italian company managing two airports, with around 400 people accessing the corporate intranet daily, including operational staff. Before this project the company already had an intranet, but it was outdated and visually underinvested. Despite this, the company’s leadership had a strong attachment to its structure — particularly the vertical menu navigation — and was not willing to give it up in the name of a redesign.
intranet.ai’s task was therefore not simply to build a modern intranet, but to do so while respecting a precise and non-negotiable constraint: the new platform had to resemble the previous one, at least in its navigation logic, so as not to disorient people who had used it every day for years.
A constraint that, at first glance, might seem at odds with the idea of technological renewal — but that in reality tells a valuable story about what it truly means to deliver value to a client: the best solution is not always the most innovative one, but the one the client is genuinely ready to adopt.
What the team worked on
- Faithfully replicated vertical menu — the pre-existing navigation logic reproduced through dedicated mini home pages for each business area
- Social feed without direct interaction — an integration that displays social content inside the intranet while keeping staff away from the external platform
- Security-grade content segmentation — precise targeting by employee group, especially for pages related to airport safety procedures
- Live flight display integration — an operational tool embedded for staff working on runways and in terminals
The challenge: modernising without disrupting
The starting request was almost paradoxical: upgrade the underlying technology, migrate to a more capable SharePoint Online environment with more sophisticated document management, without touching the navigation experience staff were used to.
An airport, by its nature, requires particularly rigorous document management: certifications, safety procedures, document tags essential for correctly organising operational content. It was this need — more than any desire for a visual refresh — that had led the company to consider upgrading its platform.
The vertical navigation constraint proved far from straightforward. On the old intranet the vertical menu was literally embedded inside each page: a solution difficult to replicate with components designed around a different navigation logic. Finding a satisfactory compromise required more time than the actual page-building phase, which presented no particular technical complexity.
A further specific requirement concerned the company’s social media channels. Strict internal policies prevented employees from interacting directly with content posted on institutional social networks. The company needed a way to display that content inside the intranet without exposing users to the social platform itself, removing any risk of policy-violating interaction.
The solution: two airports, one platform, two identities
The answer to the vertical menu constraint came through a balanced compromise: a concise navigation menu on the home page, linking to full mini home pages dedicated to the main business areas — such as HR. Inside each mini home page, a button panel reproduces exactly the same entries that appeared in the old intranet’s vertical menu, allowing users to navigate with the same logic they had always relied on, whether from the main menu or directly from the home page.
For social media, the solution came from an integration tool capable of displaying social content inside the intranet — including some statistical data — without the user ever actually being on the external platform. This preserved internal policies while maintaining the freshness of social content, which is updated far more frequently than traditional corporate news.
Given the strongly operational nature of the company, every page of the intranet was organised with precise targeting by company departments: only specific employee groups can view certain content, especially pages related to airport security. Some pages also include direct links to live flight display boards — a highly practical operational tool for tarmac and terminal staff.
Since the company manages two distinct airports, an additional layer of complexity involved separating content and permissions between the two. Even an apparently simple operation — such as connecting the right groups in the people directory to show the right information to the right people — required meticulous work, given the security standards required in an airport environment.
Add-on components activated
- Page navigation menu — essential for replicating the pre-existing vertical navigation logic
- RSS feeds — activated to automatically aggregate communications from the company’s external public website, maintaining consistency between public and internal content
- Organisational chart — already planned to replace the version currently available only as a PDF
Intelligent intranet search is among the tools being evaluated for upcoming development phases.
The results: change accepted, not imposed
The project was delivered with full success, despite a series of delays driven by internal organisational dynamics rather than technical difficulties. Both operational stakeholders and the company leadership declared strong satisfaction with the final outcome — a result that is particularly significant given how sensitive the starting constraint around navigation continuity had been.
The platform stands as a concrete example of how it is possible to modernise a corporate tool without betraying the habits of those who use it daily. A balance achieved through careful listening to the real needs of leadership, rather than imposing design choices dictated solely by aesthetic logic or generic best practices.
Modernising an intranet does not always mean overhauling it: sometimes the greatest value lies in knowing how to listen to the habits of those who use it every day, and building change around those habits — not against them.
Next steps
The definitive platform launch has been temporarily placed within a broader internal update pipeline, but the project is technically ready to go live. Once launched, the next phases will focus on:
- a content enrichment phase
- a more in-depth evaluation of AI tool integration, such as intelligent search or virtual assistants
Managing separate content for two airports will continue to require ongoing attention — but the governance structure built into the platform from day one provides a solid foundation to grow on without revisiting the fundamentals.
Need to modernise your operational intranet without disrupting the workflows your teams rely on? Book a demo and discover how intranet.ai can guide your organisation through this transition.