Have you seen the modern portal experiences you can build with SharePoint in Microsoft 365?  If you haven’t looked lately, you might be surprised at what you can do with SharePoint Online today. It’s come a long way from the bland, text-heavy sites you may be used to in older versions of SharePoint and much of the functionality is available out of the box. Gone are the days of intensive customization to deliver a vibrant, engaging, and useful site for your staff, customers, and partners.

At the top of the list of our most requested services is the Intranet portal, aka Employee Portal, Digital Workplace, Hub, etc. As a Microsoft Gold Partner and implementer of SharePoint intranets, we help our customers deliver solutions for collaboration, communication, engagement, and knowledge sharing. Most organizations are aware that SharePoint is a great platform for this use, for many, however, there’s a big hurdle –and that is branding.  “We don’t like the look of SharePoint” or “We want something more visually appealing” or “That’s not how I remember SharePoint” are common concerns for folks who’ve not yet been exposed to what SharePoint Online in 2020 has to offer.

How to see what’s possible?  Enter the SharePoint look book!

If you are familiar with a “lookbook” in the fashion industry, you know that a lookbook is a collection of creative photographs designed to show off a brand’s style and inspire customers to imagine how they might assemble the various pieces of the collection to create a unique look that fits their vision. With the SharePoint look book, Microsoft does the same for customers seeking to explore what and how they can deliver to their users, based on their unique scenarios and uses cases. Seeking to inform and engage your staff? You’ll find examples in the look book, complete with page layouts for Organization and Department sites with news, events, resources, etc.  Collaboration is your goal? Check out the Team site examples for working with groups inside and outside of your organization. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find details on the site features, Web Parts, and content used to create the site.

Check out the SharePoint look book here

At Compass365, we believe the SharePoint intranet should be powerful and beautiful!  Once our client’s goals and vision for the intranet are clear, we provide guidance on what components are needed, best practices for utilizing them, and how to take full advantage of what SharePoint offers out–of–the–box – keeping project costs in check. We consult on how to build a solid information architecture and framework that is easily maintained and extensible as the site and its usage expand. With the SharePoint look book handy, your team can quickly get up to speed on the various template options, page layouts, features they may not have known were available, and most importantly, get inspired with beautiful designs in Modern SharePoint sites! Visuals help you help your stakeholders to better understand the organization’s vision for an intranet, fostering more input, excitement, and engagement on the project, which ultimately leads to collaborative design and successful user adoption.

Are you inspired? Ready to build or refresh your intranet portal? Contact Cathy Ashbaugh, cashbaugh@compass365.com to discuss how we can help you bring your vision to life!