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Author: John Scott

7 great SharePoint intranet site examples

Posted on by John Scott

1. The balanced intranet homepage

2. The knowledge collection intranet homepage

3. The daily work intranet homepage

4. The social hub intranet homepage

5. The subject hub intranet homepage or landing page

6. The GTD (Getting Things Done) intranet homepage

7. The News Centre intranet homepage

Intranets are highly flexible, scalable and valuable. They support a wide variety of use cases and processes and have multiple areas of value, including supporting communications, productivity, task completion, engagement and knowledge sharing. Inevitably different organisations will have different needs and priorities and the role of the intranet and its homepage often reflects this; an intranet for a global tax consultancy might look quite different to a small media company, for example. One size does not fit all.

The good news is that SharePoint intranets (and their homepages) are extremely flexible so organisations can invariably build an intranet that reflects their particular needs. One of the reasons for this is the sheer number of web parts that are available within SharePoint Online, straight out of the box.

Web parts are essentially building blocks with different functionality and features that can be combined together into multiple ways to build an intranet homepage. However, SharePoint does not have enough web parts to meet all modern intranet needs, which is why we built Lightspeed365, a set of additional web parts and features that enable you to build an even richer experience and wider variety of different homepages. You can achieve the intranet that your organisation needs, and that your users want.

We’re often asked about the kind of SharePoint intranet homepage experiences that be built using both SharePoint Online web parts and Lightspeed365. With so many different possibilities, there are a very wide variety of intranets to suit every need.

In this post we’re going to show you seven real world examples of very different SharePoint homepages that we have built and have a particular function or focus. You can use this post to help you get thinking about what your perfect homepage might look like.

Here’s seven SharePoint intranet site homepages that use both web parts and Lightspeed365 features.

1. The balanced intranet homepage

Intranets perform a huge variety of different functions and support multiple processes. A balanced intranet homepage provides an overview to reflect these multiple activities with a different web parts and features – supporting internal communications, improving productivity, driving collaboration and helping employees complete tasks. Large, global and complex businesses tend to adopt this kind of balanced homepage, helping a diverse workforce to stay informed, get things done, be engaged and find what they need.

In this example:

  • A personalised greeting helps make the intranet feel less corporate, and also indicates it is a personalised experience.
  • The news is displayed prominently to support internal communications, with an alert at the top for immediate operational or urgent messages.
  • The My Apps area provides a personalised launch pad to key apps and tools, to help employees complete their day-to-day work and drive productivity.
  • Tasks are highlighted in the dashboard section to help employees get things done, in this case leveraging the Viva Connection dashboard feature.
  • A middle panel provides a personalised overview of key tasks that employees need to complete, including relating to individual and team learning, as well as policies that must be read. Typically a feature like this could involve integrations with SharePoint-based solutions including policy management software such as Xoralia, or a Learning Management System like Learn365 from Zensai.
  • A “My news” area presents personalised news relevant to the individual, which is important for intranet adoption and valuable in highly diverse workforces.
  • Collaboration, discussion and dialogue is supported by the “Engage” panel which highlights activity within Viva Engage groups.

2. The knowledge collection intranet homepage

Intranets have proved to be adept at housing valuable reference information, the “one source of truth”.  This means intranets are often a key channel in supporting knowledge management and can act as an effective knowledge base for corporate or organisational knowledge. Typically, this kind of approach might be adopted by a professional services, consulting or engineering firm.  A knowledge collection intranet homepage encourages findability through search but also in encouraging links to resources.

In this example:

  • A prominent search box allows and encourages users to search for documents and through knowledge collections, with the potential ability to filter items on areas such as project type and country, using metadata based on the company’s taxonomy. There’s a link to a more advanced search for convenience.
  • A “go to” section provides links to key knowledge collections or resources by topic, providing an opportunity to discover knowledge items or to find what someone needs through browsing.
  • A significant proportion of the homepage is dedicated to personalised access to knowledge, including collections of knowledge, previous searches, personalised recommendations of knowledge (potentially based on role, preferences and previous searches), as well as curated sets of resources.
  • Calls to action encourage users to add knowledge to the collection as well as share useful feedback for improvement.

3. The daily work intranet homepage

Intranets can act as a central point for employees to keep on top of all their daily work and support them in their role. In this “daily work” intranet, the homepage acts more as a dashboard, providing access to project sites and workspaces where employees carry out their day-to-day, as well as helping employees keeping on top of their priority tasks.  In this way, the intranet becomes a dynamic channel that supports employee productivity.

In this example:

  • There is a custom-built system status web part giving RAG (Red Amber Green) status updates on key software platforms, with the ability to drill into more detail.
  • A personalised feed from Viva Engage surfaces the latest conversations that are going across different working groups or communities.

A personalised “My Workspaces” area links through to the SharePoint team sites or even Microsoft Teams spaces where collaborative work is carried out on different projects.

4. The social hub intranet homepage

Some “social” intranets are more focused on supporting community and connection between employees, facilitating conversations, dialogue, interaction and even collaboration. A social intranet hub homepage helps to surface both internal and external conversations, bringing together discussions, updates. and events.  It also seeks to help employees feel more connected to a brand. Typically, a social hub intranet might be used by companies where employee engagement is high on the agenda, for example in a media or retail company.

In this example:

  • The intranet page has a distinctive look and feel and uses highly attractive imagery, aligning with the organisation’s brand and helping employees to connect to it.
  • Events are also prominently displayed, encouraging registrations, and again stressing participation.
  • News and promoted content is presented in an eye-catching way in the hero.
  • Internal conversations from Viva Engage, the company’s social collaboration platform of choice, are highlighted within the “Conversations” section. The feed can be targeted to different groups for relevance.
  • Updates from the company’s external social channels are also relayed, providing information on how the organisation goes to market and interacts with customers.
  • Press and media updates are also given, again providing a balance to internal and external social media feeds.

5. The subject hub intranet homepage or landing page

In practice intranets tend to be made up of a number of different sites, often maintained by the relevant teams and groups within an organisation, all tied together by an overall homepage, navigation and search. Sometimes sites within a wide intranet can be dedicated to a particular department and team, while others act as a place to access resources on a particular topic. This screenshot shows a potential subject or topic hub – in this case about patient wellbeing.

In this example:

  • A visually striking carousel links through to headline content, prominent reference information and major updates about the subject in question.
  • Featured resources including story updates and knowledge collections on the topic, with indicators of the number of likes and comments to reflect their popularity.
  • A noticeboard feature presents the latest subject-specific quick updates, aggregated from different sites across the intranet. The most viewed and downloaded items are also displayed, to drive engagement.

“Show more” and “View more” buttons allow the user to view more content, ensuring the initial homepage experience remains focused and uncluttered.

6. The GTD (Getting Things Done) intranet homepage

A key function of a good intranet is to help employees get things done efficiently and in the right way, supporting productivity and saving time. The GTD intranet homepage focuses on task completion, making the intranet the go-to place to complete simple tasks, and also a valuable asset that supports increased productivity.

In this example:

  • A welcome bar at the top includes a link to an intranet tour which automatically loads when an employee first visits the intranet, and walks users through the main intranet features and the information that can be found.
  • The homepage leverages the Viva Connections dashboard to deliver a common tasks panel to highlight common tasks such as logging an IT ticket, and to highlight key activity; integrations with common enterprise systems often means that employees don’t actually need to visit these applications if just needed to view data or perform simple transactions.
  • A searchable database of “How Do I” information provides succinct information on how to get things done across a wide variety of topics, helping to streamline and standardise processes and supporting productivity.
  • “How Do I” information is also targeted based on an employee’s profile, so for example a person sees the right process information based on their location.
  • Personalised links to relevant pages also mean employees can reach the apps, sites or pages they frequently need to access or refer to in getting things done.
  • A handy people search allows a quick search of employee profiles to help contact the right person which is often necessary for task completion.
  • Other features such as news and events also ensure the intranet continues to keep people informed and supports engagement too.

7. The News Centre intranet homepage

Keeping employees informed and supporting internal communications is one of the most important roles for an intranet; in fact, many intranets are owned by the internal comms function. The News Centre intranet homepage keeps employees informed by providing news updates from right across the organisation – often personalised to different groups. The News Centre intranet has particular value in larger global businesses with multiple locations and diverse workforces.

In this example:

  • The header displays local weather, the stock price but also the local time across a number of key locations – this is not only useful in helping contact colleagues in a different time zone, but also makes the page feel a little like a global newsroom where there is always something happening.
  • There is major news from across markets with also a primary news item. In the layout on this page there are more news items than on homepages which tend to be dominated by a carousel, and where items can sometimes get lost.
  • Engagement data such as views, comments and reactions indicate the most popular items.
  • A separate feed of London news is personalised to the location of the user based on their profile or their preferences – this could potentially say New York, Frankfurt, Mumbai or elsewhere.
  • A special area for operational announcements is also shown under the news – again this might be for an item such as an unexpected IT outage and could be targeted, for example saying that there will be fire alarm for a particular office.
  • The news centre is also balanced by more “How to” and operational-related content in the lower half of the homepage, including a database of “I need to” information on how to complete key tasks, as well as links to apps and resources.

Building the right intranet homepage for you 

We hope these examples have given you a bit of inspiration! The combination of SharePoint web parts available out of the box and additional Lightspeed365 web parts means that you can build the right homepage that meets your organisational needs and culture, and highlights the main functions of your intranet. 

If you’d like to discuss your intranet project or how Lightspeed365 intranet could add value to your intranet, then get in touch!

Optimize your intranet with 6 SharePoint templates

Posted on by John Scott

One of the most powerful qualities of SharePoint is its sheer flexibility, especially when it comes to creating intranets. You can more or less build any page by assembling different combinations of web parts together it means you can achieve a SharePoint page design to suit almost every different business need – from your intranet homepage to a departmental landing page to a community page to a highly engaging news article.

However, because the design possibilities are so wide sometimes teams struggle to know which is the best SharePoint layout for their specific need. This is particularly true when devolved publishing is in place and there are content owners who are not trained communicators or are less used to using SharePoint. Left to their own devices they can come up with a SharePoint page design that isn’t focused on the user or meet the required publishing standards.

One of ways to tackle this issue is to leverage SharePoint templates. These are pre-set SharePoint site and page designs that reflect good practices and common business needs. SharePoint templates provide an excellent starting point to creating user-focused intranet sites and pages that deliver value.

In this post we’re going to do a deep dive into SharePoint templates covering what they are, why they’re so valuable and the common templates that get used for intranets. We’ll also show you five of our favourite templates to give you some inspiration, covering both SharePoint site templates and SharePoint page templates.

What is a SharePoint template?

A SharePoint template is essentially a pre-determined SharePoint layout for a page or site than be used as the starting point for creating a part of your page or site on your intranet.

SharePoint templates come in two main types:

  • SharePoint site templates that provide a shape of an overall site (a collection of pages that sit within your broader intranet)
  • SharePoint page templates that deliver a specific SharePoint page design.

There are number of different SharePoint templates that can be deployed directly from Microsoft that are explored in the Microsoft SharePoint look book.  However, you can also create your own SharePoint templates to use internally within your organisation, for example across your publishing or content creator community.

What are the benefits of SharePoint site templates and SharePoint page templates?

SharePoint templates deliver value in a number of different ways. 

Saving time

A SharePoint site or page template provides a significant starting point for creating a page or site, providing the right layout and web parts which can then be edited as appropriate. This can save large amounts of time and support the productivity of busy site editors and authors.

Inspiring ideas

SharePoint’s flexibility is a strength but having that much creativity can mean it is hard to know just exactly where to start, particularly for less experienced publishers. SharePoint templates provide an excellent source of inspiration for both seasoned intranet professionals and less confident users to achieve the ideal SharePoint layout.

Supporting your publishers

Using templates helps do some of the heavy lifting around SharePoint page design for your site admins, publishers and content creator who may not be professional communicators and are infrequent users of SharePoint. It gives them a starting point that also reflects your publishing standards and best practices. 

As part of our user adoption and change management support we provide a site with SharePoint template examples that also come preloaded with guidance for your publishing community. This has always proved to be popular with intranet teams and publishers.

Establishing consistency and content standards

Using SharePoint templates helps to enforce publishing and content standards across your intranet, establishing consistency in the look and feel and ensuring everything is on-brand. It also provides a consistency in layout across different sites and content types making it easier for users to find what they are looking for on a particular page.

Six essential SharePoint page templates for your intranet

At Content Formula we help our clients to create SharePoint templates that make a difference. Below are six essential templates for an intranet. For a change, we haven’t included homepage designs – you can view these in a companion article about SharePoint design. Note that these templates include both out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts but also some Lightspeed365 features.

1. News page template

News will inevitably be one of the most used SharePoint page templates within your intranet. This SharePoint template can bring some consistency to news items across different areas of the intranet. It encourages the use of headlines to break up a story, as well as eye-catching elements such as images and quotes to make a news item more engaging and inviting.

2. How do I page template

This How Do I page SharePoint template provides instructions for employees on how to complete a task and get things done. A task can be simple or have multiple steps. Typically, the How Do I template is used to explain how to log an IT support ticket or claim expenses, or something more complex like applying for paternity leave.  

This SharePoint page design makes it easy for employees to follow each of the steps and adds further detail with embedded documents, process diagrams and even forms to trigger workflow. The SharePoint layout also includes a prominent contact display for users to get in touch if they have questions about the task or process.  

3. Region or location template

Most intranets have information about different locations. This Region or location template provides information and news about a particular region, country or office and can either be aimed at people based in that location, or the rest of the business and be about that location. (It’s usually not best to mix both these use cases.)

To a certain extent this versatile SharePoint page template provides a route to more detailed pages or sections, but also provides news as well as links. There are also key contacts.

4. Contact information template

Intranets often help connect people to each other. The Contact information template is an attractive and useful way to introduce members of a team or department to a wider audience, helping encourage the right person to contact. This SharePoint template ensures people can view team details divided appropriately into different areas with contact details prominent, as we well as the ability to click through to individual profiles. The search box supports findability while additional links to other resources on the right also provide additional context about the team.

The Contact information template could be part of a wider SharePoint site template for a department or team section of the intranet.

5. Triage template

The Triage SharePoint page template is another versatile page for your intranet. Some pages act as places to guide users to other important pieces of content based on their needs. The Triage template presents options to different pages in an attractive way with images for each resource. These can then be arranged under different headings. At the bottom of the page there is an opportunity to place an option for people who haven’t found what they are looking for.

The Triage SharePoint page design can be used for initiatives, information resources on areas such as strategy, service hubs for HR or IT and more.

6. Knowledge base template

Intranets are go-to places of knowledge providing a single source of the truth. The Knowledge base SharePoint site template is an excellent way to present a collection of knowledge such as a policy library, list of “how to” details or even brand assets. While the top section provides details and context about the collection and also can highlight specific items within it, it’s the A-to-Z listing and search facility which often provides the most value. Note that the Knowledge base template uses Lightspeed365’s powerful handbook feature which is not available out of the box with SharePoint.

The power of the SharePoint template

SharePoint page templates and site templates help to ensure your site is consistent, on-brand, attractive, usable and accessible.  If you want more information on SharePoint templates or improving your SharePoint layout and design right across your intranet, then get in touch!

15 essential SharePoint web parts that every intranet needs

Posted on by John Scott

A key strength of a SharePoint intranet is its flexibility and versatility to craft experiences to meet the needs of your business and your employees. It’s possible to configure each individual site and even page to a highly granular level, while also still remaining on-brand and delivering a consistent look and feel. This is achieved through SharePoint web parts – the “building bricks” of SharePoint that can be assembled together at the page level to create a world-class intranet.

We often get asked which are the must-have SharePoint web parts that an intranet needs. While every intranet is different, there are some SharePoint web parts that deliver essential intranet features and capabilities. In this article we’re going to explore fifteen of the most essential web parts, illustrated with screenshots.

What are SharePoint web parts?

SharePoint web parts are building blocks which can be assembled together to deliver a SharePoint page. Each web part does something slightly different. It might deliver a block of text, display an image, or add a SharePoint capability such as a document library, set of links or even integrate feeds from other Microsoft tools like Viva Engage.

An editor can choose from a wide range of different SharePoint web parts to add to their page, rearrange them and then even configure each web part separately. From this detail they can then build up an engaging and useful intranet page.

Out-of-the-box SharePoint web parts vs additional web parts every intranet needs

Microsoft provide a wide range of modern SharePoint web parts that are available straight out of the box and ready to deploy. These are very useful, but they can only go so far. They fall short of all the web parts an intranet needs to be truly world-class, and meet the needs of employees, internal communicators, business functions and more.  These “missing” web parts limit an intranet’s design options and key capabilities.

Recognising that SharePoint out of the box is not enough we built Lightspeed365 to add a whole new set of additional SharePoint web parts that complement what already exists in SharePoint and give you all the features and design flexibility you need to deliver an excellent SharePoint intranet. These web parts all delivered within the same editing experience so content owners and admins can edit their page in the same way, but just have a greatly expanded set of web parts to choose from.

15 must-have SharePoint web parts

Let’s dive into our must-have web parts that every intranet needs. Below we explore both modern SharePoint out-of-the-box web parts and Lightspeed365 web parts.

1. Hero area

Intranets need to look modern, progressive and attractive to drive adoption. The Hero area is a pleasing web part available out of the box that is usually used at the top of a homepage or landing page to highlight key content. It does this in a highly visual way with the use of images, but it can also display videos. You can include up to five items in the Hero area, with different configuration and layout options.

2. News feed

News is an essential part of any intranet and is usually highlighted not only on the homepage but also within departmental or topic-based sites, for example displaying HR news. SharePoint does have out-of-the-box web parts that display news but these often fall short of what internal communication teams require. We built a News feed web part for Lightspeed365 that includes additional attractive ways and configuration options to present news, and also makes it easier to target news to different audiences, ticking the box for internal comms.

3. Card links

Intranets help users find the results they need, often providing links to both internal and external resources, Subsequently the Quick links web part is one of the most used on any intranet. However, for such a ubiquitous web part the display options are limited. The Lightspeed365 Card links web part provides a range of templates and configuration options to display your links in a clear and eye-catching way. It’s also possible to target links to different audiences.

4. Document library

Intranets are used as the one source of truth for reference content, while SharePoint is often used a document management solution in its own right. The Document library web part allows a site or page to display a SharePoint document library allowing users to share particular documents with users across the business. Different permissions can be applied to restrict access to particular files.

5. Events

The events web part enables communicators and different business teams to display information about upcoming events with all the information about each individual event that employees need. This useful web part can cover enterprise-wide events like town halls or more targeted events like a wellbeing session.

6. Highlighted content

The Highlighted content web part is one of the most useful out-of-the-box web parts in SharePoint Online because it allows you to highlight different types of content in a variety of different ways and is highly configurable. This means you can dynamically display the latest news, documents, videos, pages and more based on highly flexible criteria, or highlight fixed or single items if you prefer. It consistently proves to be a very useful way to guide users to the resources they need.

7. List

We love SharePoint lists! They are an excellent way store and display information that is frequently updated and needs to act as one source of truth.  You can also do sophisticated things with a list such as apply workflow, permissions and formatting to different parts of it. A List web part allows you to embed a List in a page meaning you could display information such as a list of offices, approved suppliers, external sources or internal first aiders, for example.

8. People directory

The People directory is always one of the most used parts of any intranet. The Lightspeed365 People directory web part provides a very useful way for users to search through the directory on any page that is deployed, with results linking through to Microsoft 365 profiles that display within the web part itself. This helps to drive a more consistent and uninterrupted user experience where an employee can search but stay on the page.

9. Microsoft Viva Engage

One of the strengths of a SharePoint intranet is its ability to seamlessly integrate other Microsoft 365 tools. The Viva Engage webpart allows you to embed a Viva Engage feed, meaning you can feature topic or community discussions in context with other related content and resources – for example for an employee resource group or Community of Practice. You can also embed a Viva Engage feed on your homepage, perhaps relaying personalised updates from an all-company group.

10. Page tour

A great way to support users and drive adoption is by providing a custom “page tour” that walks a user through key intranet functionality or a particular feature, ensuring it has context relating to your organisation and intranet. This is usually triggered when a new user logs in for the first time but it can also be made available on-demand. This highly useful and popular feature is not available out of the box, so we created a special web part within Lightspeed365.

11. App launcher

Modern Intranets play an essential role as the entry point into the wider digital workplace and the multitude of apps that employees need to access in the working week. Providing a list of personalised icons on the intranet homepage where employees can reach all the apps they use is consistently one of the most popular user features and helps drive adoption. Surprisingly this is not available out of the box. Our Lightspeed365 App launcher web part delivers allows employees to configure the apps that matter to them and drive productivity.

12. Handbook

The Lightspeed365 Handbook feature is another handy web part that allows content owners to present pages within their site as a searchable index. This is perfect for presenting information such as a Handbook or a series of “How to” content together to help employees find what they need successfully and quickly.

13. Welcome bar

An engaging intranet provides a highly personalised experience for users to drive relevancy and make it feel like it is built for employees rather than just being a corporate tool. The Welcome bar web part is another popular Lightspeed365 feature. This delivers a personalised message but also additional local details like the weather. This not only signals the intranet is personalised to the individual, but also makes it more welcoming.

14. External social feeds

Many intranet teams choose to add their company’s external social feeds into their intranet homepage to help drive awareness of how they are going to market ad provide a more rounded view of communications. The External social feed feature in Lightspeed365 is a web part that allows you to integrate updates from major platforms like X and LinkedIn. It uses a third-party service called Juicer.

15. Accordion

One of the aims of additional Lightspeed365 web parts is to extend the options to present information in SharePoint in a useful and engaging way. The Accordion feature is yet another web part that enables intranet teams to present information such as FAQs in an efficient way via expandable and collapsable sections. This means you can present the content employees need to reference while ensuring a page stays tidy and is not overwhelming.

The essential SharePoint web parts for your intranet

Every intranet is different but there are some web parts that prove to be essential for the majority. If you’ d like to discuss SharePoint web parts or how Lightspeed365 features can extend the power of your SharePoint intranet, then get in touch!

What is Lightspeed365 and what value can it deliver?

Posted on by John Scott

Content Formula continues to deliver a range of different services in the intranet, SharePoint, Microsoft 365 and digital workplace space. We deliver consulting, discovery, implementation, development, change management, training and more. But we also manage two highly versatile products; Xoralia is our dedicated policy management solution based on SharePoint, while Lightspeed365 is our package of features that extends the power of SharePoint Online to deliver a world-class intranet, but at less than the price of a leading in-a-box product. We’re excited to announce we now have a new dedicated website for Lightspeed365.

In this post we’re going to explore what Lightspeed365 and Lightspeed365 features are. We cover the value it delivers, what some of the specific capabilities are, and how much it costs. IF you want to explore Lightspeed365 in more depth, you can look at the new website, get in touch for a chat or arrange a demo.

What is Lightpeed365?

Lightspeed365 is both a product and service that helps organisations to quickly implement a world-class SharePoint intranet with additional features and functionality.

The Lightspeed365 features product is a bundle of additional features that adds important functionality and flexibility to native SharePoint features.

The additional Lightspeed365 intranet service is a build and implementation package where we will help you to create, deliver and launch your SharePoint and Lightspeed365 features intranet. It comes in three tiers depending on the complexity of your needs:

  • Intranet starter: an entry-level point where we help start you off
  • Advanced intranet package: covers a broad range of features
  • Enterprise intranet package: our gold service which is more bespoke and consultative for your needs.

What is Lightspeed365 features?

SharePoint Online has a number of “web parts” or components that can be used to build sites and pages for your intranet. These are a little like “Lego” bricks; for example, there are dedicated web parts to display news, documents, list of contacts, a feed from Viva Engage and so on. However, the web parts that come out of the box with SharePoint Online rarely meet all the needs that intranet teams and internal communicators want to deliver in attractive, on-brand and intuitive intranet that improved productivity. There are gaps in functionality and limits to the ability to customise SharePoint to reflect your brand.

This is where Lightspeed365 Features comes in. It provides organisations with a package of additional web parts that fill the major gaps in SharePoint so you have all the major features you need to deliver an excellent intranet, without having to resort to either customisation or buying a more comprehensive (and expensive) in-a-box intranet product. It also extends the design options in SharePoint that many teams find limiting, allowing your intranet to better reflect your brand and improve your user experience. Lightspeed365 features also comes in different packages to suit different needs and budgets.

What value does Lightspeed365 features deliver?

Lightspeed365 features delivers real value across a number of different fronts.

Reduced costs

Lightspeed365fFeatures provides a way to deliver a fully featured SharePoint intranet with a wide range of capabilities, in a significantly cheaper way than having to buy a full in-a-box product or resorting to creating custom web parts. When you use Lightspeed365 features you’re not paying for the same functionality twice, which can be the case with in-a-box products.

Speed-to-market

We called our product Lightspeed365 for a reason – it significantly reduces the time taken to build and launch your intranet as everything you need is already included and super easy to deploy, again with no need for any customisation.

A better user experience

Lightspeed365 reatures contribute to an improved user experience with enhanced personalisation, for example in how essential knowledge-related content is presented to users.

Plugs the gaps in SharePoint

Lightspeed365 Features delivers some essential functionality that is missing from SharePoint Online, such as personalised App Launcher web part that allows users to configure their own links to key tools and apps. We’ve designed Lightspeed365 with close attention to the SharePoint roadmap so there is no duplication of functionality.

Extends design options

Lighstpeed365 Features extend the branding and design options within SharePoint, including the ability to add a custom font, for example.

Seamless integration

Lightspeed365 features integrate seamlessly with your SharePoint intranet and all data is kept within your Microsoft 365 tenant, making it a popular option with IT teams.

Loved by internal comms

SharePoint Online alone doesn’t always tick all the boxes for internal communicators, but Lightspeed365 adds specific features, for example to support better display of news.

Continuous improvement

Content Formula continues to invest in Lightspeed365 features, introducing new web parts and improving existing ones; we also listen to customers who heavily influence our roadmap.

Builds on SharePoint rather than replacing it

Some SharePoint in-a-box intranet products have a different design and UI which means you can’t actually deploy SharePoint and their web parts on the same page: Lightspeed365 just adds to the range of web parts available, meaning you can use the existing SharePoint web parts and Lightspeed365 web parts together for the best possible combination.

Minimises disruption

Lightspeed365 web parts are ready-to-go and easy to implement, minimising disruption for users, but also for content contributors who just add Lightspeed365 web parts to their pages using the same existing SharePoint editing interface, so there is little to no additional training required.

lightspeed modules
Read more about Lightspeed365 Features

What are some of the key Features included?

Lightspeed365 Features includes over twenty additional web parts that extend the power of SharePoint. Some of the most popular include:

  • The Feedback web part allows teams to collect and manage page-level feedback received about the intranet.
  • The Accordion web part facilitates the presentation of large amounts of data such as FAQs in convenient collapsable and expandable sections.
  • The News feed web part presents news in an attractive homepage layout.
  • The People directory web part delivers an eye-catching and convenient people search box that can be embedded within any page, and returns Microsoft 365 profiles without a user having to leave a page.
  • The Page tour web part allows teams to create in-page walk-throughs of different parts of the intranet, great for driving adoption and launching new intranet areas
  • The Branding customiser web part allows teams to change SharePoint themes, from adding new custom fonts to defining how icons look.
  • The Handbook web part provides a great way to present group of pages together in a user-friendly index, and is excellent for presenting employee handbooks or collections of instructional content.
  • The External social feeds web part allows teams to integrate different external social media feeds and display them on the intranet homepage.
  • The Noticeboard web part allows employees to post and search classified adverts which is always a popular feature on the intranet and good for supporting adoption.
  • The App launcher web part allows employees to personalise links to everyday apps and tools that are represented by attractive icons, while intranet teams can target default links to different groups. This is singularly one of the most popular features on any intranet.
  • The Site provisioning feature provides a structured approval workflow and automatic provisioning for employees to request team sites, Viva Engage groups or a Microsoft Team, enforcing governance and limiting site sprawl.
  • The Subscriptions web part allows employees to subscribe to different news topics that then appear on the intranet homepage.
  • And more!

How much does Lightspeed365 features cost?

Lightspeed365 features is available either alongside a three-tier installation package (mentioned above or as a separate features pack. The features pack comes in two versions – Core or Premium – with the latter including a bespoke number of Premium add-on features depending on your needs. Pricing is also determined by the number of users, and payment can be made annually or as a one-off payment for a perpetual license. For transparency and convenience, you can see the actual costs on our pricing page.

Find out more information

We’re proud of our Lightspeed365 features offering. If you want more information you can view the new website, get in touch to arrange a chat, or even organise a free demo.

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