Does Office 365 work as an intranet?

Office 365 is a hot topic at many companies, where it is either ready for launch or at least being tested. Is your firm in a similar position? Then you may also be wondering whether it’s possible to set up a state-of-the-art intranet based on O365. And because so many people (us included!) are preoccupied with this topic, we have done some research and, in this article, would like to answer the question of whether O365 is suitable as a modern intranet solution. In the process, we will be taking a closer look at the O365 applications that are relevant in terms of a modern intranet platform. Yammer, Teams, SharePoint – have you lost track? Doesn’t matter. We will not only be explaining the areas of application, but also shedding light on the strengths and weaknesses of the three main tools – and even showing you how to transform cons into pros with the help of COYO. 

PS: for all those who want to read up on what exactly Office 365 is, we have the perfect article here .  

1. Yammer 

Yammer is a tool for social networks and collaboration – a bit like a Facebook news feed for companies. Feeds are often devoted to a specific topic, enabling employees to discuss, like, comment, and share files. Thanks to its social features, Yammer represents a key building block for internal communication. However, the focus is clearly on bottom-up communication among the workforce. Unfortunately, the application lacks any corporate communication capabilities; you will search in vain for options to share preprepared news items in a targeted manner (as well as content management functions). ‍♀️ SharePoint is the Microsoft product offering these features – but more on that later. Another disadvantage: the development and integration of Yammer has been sluggish to nonexistent and the program offers users barely any interfaces to other O365 tools.

2. SharePoint

SharePoint was originally devised for the storage and sharing of files and is designed to replace traditional network drives. Features such as version control, workflows, and CMS functions have been gradually added. In a digital workplace environment, SharePoint corresponds most closely to the role of a traditional intranet. Based on the modular system, so-called “Web Parts” can be used to create pages for groups and teams in different hierarchical arrangements. Unlike Yammer, however, SharePoint does not offer any social features and is therefore more focused on top-down communication. And what does that mean? SharePoint is often used as the basis for intranet projects, but considerable extra work is usually required to tailor the system to individual requirements. On account of the system’s complexity, a specialist agency is usually tasked with customization work, which, in turn, leads to significant follow-on costs.

Consistent user experience? Forget it.

Microsoft itself is seeking to make SharePoint an intranet, as revealed by the road map and the developments of recent months: multilingual site functionality, home pages, and hub sites to consolidate information, etc. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Yeah, sure! However, anyone who wishes to use these features has to switch to SharePoint Online, as they are only available with the online version. This constitutes a pretty steep hurdle for users of on-premise installations, as they may also have been customized at considerable expense. The main drawback: there is no consistent user experience for companies. Users need to jump to various tools for different purposes, causing them to be removed from their familiar environment and making it difficult for them to navigate back. What’s more, the majority of tools differ in terms of look and feel as well as concept. Microsoft’s own solution still has some catching up to do in terms of usability and offers no answers to the questions about overlapping functions. Most users will find themselves wondering which tool to use for which purpose. 🤔 

3. Teams

Teams is one of the newer O365 tools: it has a state-of-the-art user interface, offers numerous integration options, and regularly benefits from new features and updates. Terms bears a striking resemblance to Slack; fundamentally, it is a communication tool with many collaboration features. Its greatest strength lies in the many available integration options, meaning that Teams can be adapted to any scenario. The main question when introducing Office 365 and Teams is “how best to use Teams within my organization and for what purpose?” Not only does the tool overlap with Skype and Yammer, but there are also the somewhat paradoxical circumstances in which Microsoft Teams is introduced. Usually, a firm has a problem and is looking to solve it by introducing software. The options are then evaluated, with the best product selected and introduced. Here, the opposite is true: by switching to O365, companies receive an additional tool. They then have to decide how to use this tool and which problem it is supposed to solve. The purpose envisaged by Microsoft is high-speed communication between project groups and the sharing of information and documents. Teams can also easily be connected with other tools by means of integration. 

Communication within smaller teams

Here, we can once again see the tool’s key strength: communication between smaller groups for a specific purpose or within permanent departments, such as via a channel for the Internal Communication department. But we have received reports that, in practice, activity tails off after a while. Teams is not really suitable for company-wide communication or interaction between departments, locations, etc. (this is what Yammer is for). Teams becomes confusing once a certain number of users has been reached – and there is a limit of 2,500 users. For interdepartmental communication, however, you would need to know who you want to talk to and bring the relevant coworkers together in a channel. But if you have a question and it’s not clear who is best placed to help you, then Teams is no good to you.

And what does this tell us?

At first glance, Yammer, Teams, and SharePoint Online may appear ideal for use as a modern social intranet. On closer inspection, however, the difficulties become apparent:

• There is overlap in the functionality of the tools, making it unclear what is best suited for what purpose? Microsoft offers no clear overall concept, but rather isolated, stand-alone solutions.

• None of the many communication tools is suitable for achieving target group-oriented corporate communication.

• None of the tools has been developed “mobile-first” and they exclude employees without a fixed workplace. 👤

• There is no clear gateway to get employees on board.

• Some of the tools are highly complex, with costly training required.

These weaknesses are resolved by COYO for Office 365, which offers a proven social intranet solution as a gateway for a digital workplace with Office 365:

• Developed mobile-first 

• Outstanding usability

• Easy for all employees to get started due to proven concepts 🙋‍♂️

• High adoption rate thanks to flexible branding and configuration

• Targeted dissemination of company news to all employees

Thanks to integration solutions for SharePoint Online, for productivity tools such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and for communication apps such as Outlook and Microsoft Teams, COYO links both platforms to harness the strengths of each – and represents the missing piece of the jigsaw in digital workplaces using Office 365. Sound good? Then find out more about successful O365 integration with COYO here.