Intranet Business Case: How to Build One in Five Steps

An intranet business case needs five things: what the current intranet costs and where it falls short, evidence from the people who use it, the options you looked at with prices, what you expect to get back, and a plan for getting people to use the new one. Below is how we would put each section together, based on the business cases we have helped clients write.

1. Set out what you have now and what it costs

Start with the facts about the current intranet so the board can see you understand it before you ask to replace it:

• when it was launched and what has changed in the business since
• what it costs each year in licences, hosting and the time spent maintaining it
• usage figures from the analytics, such as visitors, page views and how many people publish
• anything that is out of support, such as SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019, which went out of support in July 2026

2. Get evidence from the people who use it

Figures carry more weight with a story beside them. A short survey or a handful of interviews will tell you how long people spend looking for documents, which content they no longer trust and whether staff without a desk can get to it on a phone, and a few direct quotes alongside the numbers go a long way with a board.

3. Compare the options, with prices

Decision makers will ask what else you looked at, so compare the current intranet with at least two alternatives on:

• build cost, and licence cost per user per month where there is one
• time to launch
• mobile access and how well it works with Teams
• who looks after it once it is live

For reference, our pre-built SharePoint intranet starts at £12,500 for up to 100 users and £17,500 for up to 500, and product-based intranets such as Omnia and Involv are quoted to the size of the organisation.

4. Show what you expect to get back

Keep the return realistic and stick to things you can put a number on: time saved finding information, fewer all-staff emails, faster onboarding for new starters and the licence for the old platform that you can switch off. Case studies from the supplier help here, and ours are here.

5. Plan for adoption

A sceptical board will ask why people would use a new intranet if they do not use the current one, so show how you will launch it: who owns each section, how content gets reviewed, training for the people who publish and how you will measure use in the first six months. Our article on Microsoft 365 change management covers this in more detail.

How do you answer the usual objections?

• "We already have an intranet." Point to the costs and usage figures from section 1.
• "Nobody uses the current one, so why would they use a new one?" That is what the adoption plan in section 5 is for.
• "There is no budget." Show the cost of standing still, including the licence for the old platform and the risk of running software that is out of support.

If it would help, we can review your business case before it goes to the board. Get in touch.