SharePoint intranets are still relevant in 2025 and will become even more vital as technology and the employee experience evolve. They will serve as a vital intersection point between humans and technology, playing a key role in unlocking the potential of AI and Copilot.
“An intranet isn’t just a technology project. It’s a living digital ecosystem, powered by people, process and technology. And that won’t change any time soon.”
– The Future of Intranets in 2025 – Reworked
SharePoint’s richness and pliability offers a robust framework for document management, collaboration, and communication. However, it truly comes to life with Injio, which brings these SharePoint elements to life. Injio leverages SharePoint’s capabilities to create a dynamic and engaging digital workplace, ensuring that all the powerful features of SharePoint are easily accessible and effectively utilised, delivering ROI.
As our employees become more comfortable with platforms like Teams, some organisations are starting to reassess where their information sits and how it should be accessed. People already access information through their client of choice, be it SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, M365 or Explorer.
While Teams excels as a hub for chat, video meetings and real-time collaboration, it lacks the structured content management and comprehensive intranet features that SharePoint provides for a complete digital workplace experience. We can make a comparison with social media. Just because Facebook, LinkedIn and X came along does not mean that we all ceased to use websites to store and present information in a structured way. LinkedIn is great for bite-sized messages but not helpful if you need to find specific information.
Here are 5 reasons your SharePoint intranet is still an essential part of the digital employee experience:
1. Robust document management and Copilot support
SharePoint offers advanced document management capabilities, allowing organisations to create, upload, and organise documents in a structured manner with version control. This is crucial for businesses handling even moderate volumes of data, ensuring smooth workflows and easy information retrieval. Additionally, SharePoint serves as the entry point and a key component of the Copilot ecosystem, integrating with AI tools to enhance productivity and collaboration. By leveraging SharePoint’s robust infrastructure, organisations can unlock the full potential of AI and Copilot, driving innovation and efficiency across their digital workplace.
2. Customisable branding and design
SharePoint intranets – and especially our Injio intranet accelerator – provide enhanced customisation options, allowing you to align your intranet designs with your brand identity, creating a consistent employee experience. This level of personalisation is lacking in Teams or social platforms, which have more standardised interfaces.
3. Flexible and scalable architecture
SharePoint’s flexibility and scalability make it suitable for companies of all sizes, from 100 to 100,000 employees. It supports a wide range of capabilities, including internal communication, content services, and collaboration, adapting to organisational changes and strategic priorities over time. WebVine’s SharePoint experts will work with your stakeholders to design and build the information architecture that supports how they need to work – now and in the future.
Moreover, SharePoint plays a crucial role in enhancing the employee experience, particularly when integrated with Microsoft Viva.
4. Advanced personalisation and content targeting
SharePoint intranets like Injio can effectively support personalisation and content targeting, leveraging integration with Active Directory / Entra ID profiles to deliver relevant content to groups or individuals based in their role, location or seniority. While you can achieve this level of targeted communication in Teams or social platforms, it requires you to set up and send a bunch of messages separately to each of the relevant groups or Teams and who has time for that?
“51% of internal communicators say that the intranet is the best way to communicate with employees.”
– 25 reasons why intranets are mission critical – Interact
5. Integrated digital workplace hub
SharePoint serves as a centralised digital workplace, integrating seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 tools like Power Apps, Power BI, Teams and Planner as well as third-party applications. One of the most common challenges of the modern workplace experience is the volume of apps and services we use each day. Providing a single launchpad for these, with single sign on and some usage context, can greatly reduce the cognitive load for employees.
A note on Viva
Microsoft Viva is an employee experience platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights into the flow of work. By leveraging SharePoint’s robust infrastructure, Viva can deliver personalised experiences and actionable insights, fostering a culture of engagement and continuous learning. This integration ensures that employees have access to the right information at the right time, enhancing productivity and satisfaction.
With SharePoint and Microsoft Viva, we can create a holistic digital workplace that not only supports operational needs but also prioritises employee wellbeing and development. This comprehensive approach to employee experience is essential for attracting and retaining talent in today’s competitive landscape.
The many helpful services that fall under the Viva banner – Connections, Amplify, Pulse, Engage, are elements that can enhance and extend the value of your SharePoint intranet rather than replace it.
Viva Connections for example integrates into your existing SharePoint intranet with global navigation linking directly into Teams, providing users with seamless, centralised access to key information. To maximise its benefits, your organisation should have a well-structured Intranet and global navigation already in place.
Saying Viva is a replacement for an intranet is a bit like buying an engine, a stereo, four wheels and some seats and calling it a car.
Viva Engage is a tool to improve employee performance by increasing human interaction. Your intranet provides the processes, reasons and culture behind these interactions and fulfils the need for employee engagement beyond a social network.
The Future of Intranets
As we look to the future, SharePoint intranets are poised to undergo significant transformation. The future of SharePoint intranets is promising, with emerging trends shaping more personalised, efficient, and engaging digital workplaces. At the intersection of SharePoint, Teams, Copilot, and Viva, developments are on the horizon that should have users and organisations excited.
The integration of SharePoint with Teams will continue to deepen, providing a seamless experience for users to collaborate in real-time while accessing structured content and comprehensive intranet features. Copilot, with its AI capabilities, will enhance productivity by automating routine tasks, offering intelligent insights, and facilitating more efficient workflows. Microsoft Viva will further enrich the employee experience by bringing together communications, knowledge, learning, and insights into the flow of work, all powered by SharePoint’s robust infrastructure.
The WebVine team are embracing these advancements to enhance collaboration, boost productivity, and cultivate a more connected workforce. Stay tuned for more exciting Injio road map announcements in 2025! These innovations will ensure that SharePoint remains at the forefront of digital workplace solutions, driving the next wave of transformation in how organisations operate and thrive.
