TL;DR – Quick Take
- There’s no single “best” intranet approach. The right choice depends on your team size, skills, timeline, and tools.
- Building on SharePoint out of the box gives you maximum flexibility, but it also means more time, effort, and ongoing ownership.
- Buying a standalone intranet platform can work well if you’re not heavily invested in Microsoft 365, but integrations and governance need careful planning.
- Configuring a SharePoint intranet accelerator sits in the middle: faster to launch, easier to manage, and still flexible enough to feel tailored.
- For many small to mid-sized organisations already using Microsoft 365, configuring an accelerator is the most practical balance of speed, capability, and long-term sustainability.
- The best intranet is the one your team will use. And that you can realistically support over time.
Intranets have come a long way since the early 2000s. You may remember the old ones. Static pages. Outdated PDFs. A homepage that only changed when something broke.
Today, a modern intranet can be the digital heart of your workplace. It’s where people find news, access policies, collaborate on projects, and get work done. It acts as the source of truth for Copilot and other AI tools.
When it’s set up well, it supports engagement, productivity, and a better employee experience across the board.
We’ve come to know the intranet as an essential organisational infrastructure
For small and mid-sized organisations, this matters even more. You’re facing the same communication and collaboration challenges as large enterprises, just without the luxury of endless IT resources or spare time. Getting the right approach from the start can save you months of frustration.
The real question isn’t whether you need an intranet.
It’s how you should get one.
Most organisations choose one of three paths:
- Build on SharePoint using out-of-the-box tools
- Buy a standalone intranet platform
- Configure a SharePoint intranet accelerator, sometimes called an “intranet-in-a-box” like Injio.
Each approach has its place. Let’s unpack what they mean.
Option 1: Build with SharePoint (Out of the Box)
Building with SharePoint out of the box means using the native tools included in Microsoft 365 and creating your intranet from scratch.
Think of it like building a house on an empty block of land.
Sharepoint has the materials: sites, pages, web parts. But you design the layout. You decide how rooms connect. You choose how everything functions day to day.
The upside is flexibility and a scalable budget. You can get a simple intranet up and running quickly and at low cost. If you have the right skills in-house, you can tailor it precisely to your needs, though this comes with higher effort and ongoing maintenance for custom builds
The trade-off is responsibility.
A DIY SharePoint build usually involves:
- Designing the information architecture
- Creating page layouts and navigation structures
- Setting up permissions and governance
- Filling functional gaps, sometimes with custom development
- Testing, refining, and maintaining it long term
If you have complex requirements and an experienced SharePoint team with time available, this can work well.
But for many small and mid-sized organisations, it becomes a heavy lift. Custom builds often take months to design and refine. Once it’s live, your team owns everything. Updates. Enhancements. Fixes. Adjustments when Microsoft 365 evolves.
It’s powerful. It’s flexible. But you’re wearing the architect, builder, and maintenance hats all at once.
That’s manageable if you’re set up for it or if you have help from a consultancy. Challenging if you don’t.
Option 2: Configure a SharePoint Intranet Accelerator
The configure approach sits neatly between build and buy.
This is where SharePoint intranet accelerators, like Injio, come in.
Rather than starting with raw SharePoint and designing everything yourself, an accelerator gives you enhanced features and a considered design layer on top of SharePoint. So you don’t need to invest in a costly custom build to get a polished, feature rich intranet.
A helpful way to think about it is this: instead of hiring an architect to design every detail from an empty shell, you’re choosing premium, architect-specified fixtures and joinery that are made to work together.
You still decide the overall structure, brand, content, priorities, and how your sites are organised, but you’re not stitching basic building blocks together yourself. You start with a suite of proven components and patterns that fit neatly, which is why teams can often launch in weeks, not months.
From there, you focus on what matters most. Branding it, adding the features you want, shaping the content, and tailoring it to how your organisation works.
With an accelerator like Injio, you’re not just getting page templates. You’re getting capability uplift out of the box, including things like:
- Enhanced intranet features that go beyond standard SharePoint
- A modern, consistent design system that doesn’t require custom UX work
- Pre-configured functionality for common and enhanced intranet needs
- Deep, native integration with Microsoft 365 tools like SharePoint and Teams
- Built-in patterns that reduce the need for custom development or complex workarounds
Because so much of the heavy lifting is already done, organisations can often launch in weeks rather than months. Instead of spending time fussing with complex custom build, you can focus on adoption, content quality, and refining the intranet for your people.
This approach works particularly well for small to mid-sized organisations because:
- You’re building on technology you already own in Microsoft 365
- You get enterprise-grade features without paying for a bespoke build
- The design and structure are based on proven intranet best practice
- There’s typically a product roadmap, support, and a customer success team behind you
There are trade-offs. Accelerators usually come with a licensing cost, and major feature changes follow the product roadmap rather than being entirely bespoke.
That said, strong accelerators are designed to be configurable, not restrictive. You can adjust branding, navigation, structure, and modules without writing code, and without locking yourself into a fragile custom solution.
For many organisations, this becomes the practical sweet spot: faster to launch, easier to manage, and flexible enough to feel purpose-built. Without the stress and resourcing complexity of a custom intranet.
Option 3: Buy a Non-SharePoint Intranet Platform
The third path is to purchase a standalone intranet platform that operates outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
This is like setting up in a different neighbourhood altogether.
These platforms often provide all-in-one environments with built-in content management, social features, directories, and search. If you’re not heavily invested in Microsoft 365, this can be a strong option. Many are highly polished and engagement-focused.
If you are using Microsoft 365, though, integration becomes the key consideration.
You’ll likely need connectors to sync documents, calendars, user accounts, and collaboration tools. Without careful planning, this can lead to fragmentation. Content lives in multiple systems so governance can become complex.
Some organisations manage this beautifully and use the intranet as a clean hub that pulls everything together. Others find that it becomes an additional platform to support and maintain.
It’s not inherently better or worse. It simply requires clarity around integration, ownership, and long-term management.
A Side-by-Side View
Here’s a simplified way to compare the three:
| Factor | Build on SharePoint | SharePoint + Accelerator | Non-SharePoint Platform |
| Microsoft 365 integration | Strong | Strong | Varies |
| Design & UX out of the box | Limited | Strong | Strong |
| Social & engagement features | Basic | Strong | Strong |
| Governance & analytics | Requires configuration | Built in | Varies |
| Upfront cost | Varies on capabilities | Moderate | Higher licensing |
| Time to deploy | Longer | Shorter | Varies |
No single column “wins” across every row. It depends on your priorities.
So, Which One Is Right?
For many small to mid-sized organisations already using Microsoft 365 in Australia and New Zealand, configuring a SharePoint intranet accelerator strikes a practical balance.
You avoid reinventing the wheel.
You don’t wait months for a fully custom build.
You still end up with an intranet that feels branded, structured, and genuinely useful.
But there’s no universal answer.
- If your needs are highly specialised, and you have the budget and commitment to ongoing ownership, you may lean towards a custom SharePoint build. Or a robust, highly configurable accelerator that can be extended without starting from scratch.
- If you’re not on Microsoft 365 or want a completely separate digital environment, a standalone platform could be right.
- If you want speed, structure, and flexibility without a drawn-out IT project, configuring an accelerator is often the most balanced path.
The best choice is the one that aligns with your capacity, your budget, and your long-term ownership model.
FAQs
Do I really need an intranet if we already use Teams?
Yes. And this is a common question.
Teams is great for conversations and collaboration, but it’s not designed to be a long-term source of truth. An intranet gives you structure: policies, news, resources, and content that needs to be easy to find later (including by Copilot).
Think of Teams as the conversations and the intranet as the bookshelf.
What does “SharePoint out of the box” actually mean?
It means using the standard tools that come with SharePoint Online. No third-party products, no pre-built frameworks.
You’re starting with a blank canvas. That’s powerful, but it also means you’re responsible for design, structure, governance, and ongoing maintenance.
Is a SharePoint intranet accelerator the same as a custom build?
Not quite.
An accelerator gives you a pre-built foundation (templates, layouts, and features that follow best practice) and lets you configure it to suit your organisation.
You’re not starting from scratch, but you’re not locked into a rigid system either.
Will an accelerator limit what we can customise?
Not usually.
Good intranet accelerators are designed to be configurable, not restrictive. You can usually adjust branding, navigation, page structure, and modules without writing code.
What are the hidden risks of a standalone intranet platform?
The biggest one is fragmentation.
If documents, conversations, and user accounts still live in Microsoft 365, you’ll need integrations to keep everything connected. Without clear ownership and governance, content can end up spread across systems, which makes life harder for users and Copilot alike.
Which option is cheapest?
It depends on how you measure cost.
- Building on SharePoint has no licensing costs, but higher internal effort and ongoing maintenance.
- Standalone platforms often have higher per-user licensing.
- Accelerators usually sit in the middle, trading some licensing cost for faster delivery and lower internal overhead.
Time, effort, and long-term ownership matter just as much as line items on a budget.
Which option works best for Copilot?
Copilot relies on well-structured, governed content.
SharePoint-based approaches (whether built or configured) generally provide stronger alignment with Microsoft 365 permissions, search, and content models, which makes them a more natural fit for Copilot.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn – Plan an intelligent SharePoint intranet
Official Microsoft guidance on designing, governing, and scaling a modern SharePoint intranet.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/plan-intranet - Microsoft Learn – Intelligent intranet overview
How SharePoint and Microsoft 365 support modern intranet experiences and employee engagement.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/intelligent-intranet-overview - Digital Workplace Group – Measuring the success of your intranet
Independent research on intranet effectiveness, metrics, and long‑term value.
https://digitalworkplacegroup.com/measuring-the-success-of-your-intranet-benchmarks-and-metrics/ - Gallup – Employee Experience research
Ongoing research into employee engagement, experience, and workplace productivity.
https://www.gallup.com/topic/employee-experience.aspx - Intranet Reviews – Intranet platforms for Microsoft 365
Overview of different intranet platform approaches and how they integrate with Microsoft 365.
https://intranetreviews.com/intranet-platforms-for-microsoft-365/ - Microsoft Tech Community – SharePoint intranet accelerators
Microsoft perspective on extending SharePoint with ready‑made intranet solutions.
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/spblog/enhancing-sharepoint-with-ready-to-use-intranet-apps—accelerator-365—sharepo/4469293
