Microsoft 365 Intranet: The Complete Guide for UK Organisations

A Microsoft 365 intranet is not a single product. It is a set of tools you already pay for, configured and governed so they work together as one place for news, policies and documents. SharePoint Online provides the intranet itself (news, department sites and document libraries), Microsoft Teams handles day-to-day collaboration, and Viva Connections puts a personalised version of the intranet inside Teams.

What is a Microsoft 365 intranet?

If you already have Microsoft 365, there is usually no separate intranet platform to buy. SharePoint and Teams are part of the Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans, and Viva Connections is available to users on enterprise plans. Built this way, the intranet replaces legacy intranet platforms without a separate SaaS subscription to manage and without your content leaving your Microsoft 365 tenant.

ThinkShare has built Microsoft 365 intranets for public sector bodies, charities, housing associations, financial services and professional services firms. We design to your brand, govern to your policies and train your team to look after the platform themselves once it has gone live.

How does a Microsoft 365 intranet project run?

We follow the same four stages on every intranet project:

• Discovery: a workshop to agree what the intranet is for, map requirements and understand how your employees work.
• Design: information architecture, navigation, wireframes and visual design, all agreed before a single SharePoint page is created.
• Build: we configure SharePoint, build the pages to the approved designs and set up Teams and Viva Connections.
• Go live: final testing, content editor training, an adoption and change pack, and launch support.

Weekly project calls and a clear milestone plan keep the project on track. You get two rounds of design revisions as standard, so the finished intranet reflects your organisation's brand and the way your people work rather than looking like a generic SharePoint template.

What is included in your Microsoft 365 licence?

A well configured Microsoft 365 intranet uses tools already in your subscription. SharePoint Online covers department pages, news, events and document management. Viva Connections brings news, tasks and quick links into Microsoft Teams so employees have one place to start their day. Microsoft Purview adds retention labels and policies for organisations with tighter compliance requirements, and Microsoft Syntex, billed pay-as-you-go through Azure, adds automated document processing if you need it.

If you want a structured intranet with governance features already in place, ThinkShare also offers an out-of-the-box SharePoint intranet that shortens delivery while staying entirely within Microsoft 365. It suits mid-sized organisations that want a professional intranet without paying for a fully bespoke build. If you need more than SharePoint gives you out of the box, such as multi-channel publishing and detailed communications governance, we also implement Omnia, which runs on top of SharePoint.

How do you keep a Microsoft 365 intranet up to date?

A Microsoft 365 intranet is only as good as its governance. Without clear ownership, content goes out of date quickly and people stop trusting what they find. ThinkShare builds governance into every intranet project, agreeing content owners, publishing workflows, review cycles and naming conventions before launch.

We set up an Intranet Guardians framework that gives each section of the intranet a named owner, a clear escalation path and a scheduled review calendar, so the intranet stays accurate and in use long after launch. For organisations that want ongoing help with SharePoint governance, Orchestry can automate site provisioning, lifecycle management and compliance reporting across the tenant.

What results have clients seen?

March, a group of manufacturing and engineering businesses formed from three brands, had employees working across disparate systems and disorganised document management. We ran discovery workshops with their key stakeholders, produced wireframes and a mock-up of the homepage, and built a SharePoint intranet with a custom Training Academy, using Microsoft Forms to connect employees with the right training resources, and a wellbeing area. Every employee, whether on site, off site, in the office or remote, now has one platform for the information they need to do their job. You can read more in the March case study.

Shelter's Internal Communications team told us: "We are extremely pleased with the result, an intranet that supports our colleagues doing their vital work, a site we can easily maintain and a clear content strategy to last us for years to come." When Cobalt Housing launched their intranet, 93% of colleagues accessed it in the first week, and they told us "colleagues have shared their praise for the design, structure, and capability of the Intranet."

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Microsoft 365 intranet cost?

ThinkShare's pre-built SharePoint intranet costs £12,500 for up to 100 users and £17,500 for up to 500 users, with larger organisations quoted individually. A fully bespoke design costs more and depends on the number of page types, integrations and how much content needs moving. The SharePoint and Teams licences are usually already covered by your Microsoft 365 subscription.

Do I need to buy extra licences for a SharePoint intranet?

Usually not. SharePoint Online and Teams come with Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans, and Viva Connections is available to users on enterprise plans. You only need additional licences for optional extras such as Viva premium features, Microsoft Syntex or a third-party intranet product like Omnia.

How long does it take to launch a Microsoft 365 intranet?

A pre-built intranet can be ready in around a month. We delivered a new out-of-the-box SharePoint intranet for Youth Futures Foundation within one month. A bespoke intranet with user research, custom design and a large content migration takes longer, and the content is normally what sets the timeline.

What is the difference between SharePoint and Viva Connections?

SharePoint is where the intranet lives: the sites, pages, news and documents. Viva Connections is an app in Microsoft Teams that surfaces that SharePoint content, along with a dashboard of cards and a news feed, so employees can use the intranet without leaving Teams.

Should we use plain SharePoint or an intranet product?

Plain SharePoint works well for organisations that want a clean, branded intranet and have a small team to run it. Products such as Omnia add features like audience targeting across channels, communications planning and stronger governance, which suit larger or multi-country organisations. We implement both and will recommend whichever fits the size of your team and what you need the intranet to do.

Getting started

If you are planning a new intranet or replacing an old one, talk to us about your requirements, or read more about our SharePoint intranet services.