Redesigning a SharePoint Intranet for Brand Consistency and Usability

Summary

A logistics company was dissatisfied with its SharePoint Online intranet — an unhandy interface that didn't match its brand book and a tangled document hierarchy that made search slow. INNERLUXES redesigned the intranet's high-level structure into five separate sites with dedicated department spaces, reorganized documents with metadata for fast search, applied a branded UI, and enriched the home page with practical widgets — making daily work far more convenient and keeping employees better informed and engaged.

About the Client

The Client is a European logistics company providing air, sea, and overland transportation services. With over three decades in the domain, it ships a variety of goods with care and all needed precautions, while also developing several other non-logistics service lines in diverse industries such as real estate and agriculture.

The SharePoint Intranet Had UX and UI Issues

The Client had an intranet based on SharePoint Online but was dissatisfied with it. The interface was unhandy and did not align with the Client's brand book, and a tangled hierarchy of document folders made search tricky and time-consuming for employees.

In addition, the Client needed to adjust the structure of the intranet to its new business directions and had a backlog of several new features to implement. Lacking the necessary SharePoint skills in-house, it decided to outsource the work and partnered with INNERLUXES.

Improving the Usability and Brand Identity of the Intranet

INNERLUXES's SharePoint developers started by redesigning the high-level structure of the intranet, implementing five separate websites for the Client's respective business directions and creating dedicated department spaces (accounting, marketing, HR, and administrative) for each of them. As the Client asked INNERLUXES to focus on its main business direction first, the project is currently dedicated to the intranet for the logistics services division.

Improving document search

INNERLUXES reorganized the document folders and added metadata for each document (e.g., creation date, creator, department ownership). This allowed users to search documents by specific attributes and made intranet navigation faster. INNERLUXES also provided training and introduced intranet users to the new approach to document organization.

Creating a branded interface

The team adjusted the intranet's UI in line with the Client's brand book for a unified and polished look.

Evolving the home page

INNERLUXES enhanced the home page with new features required by the Client:

• A news widget (a SharePoint web part) with corporate and industry news.
• A currency rate widget showing exchange rates for the main currencies used by the Client.
• A world clock widget showing the current time in the Client's different business locations.
• A ticketing system for employees to request office supplies; the responsible office managers receive automated notifications when a ticket is submitted or overdue.
• A section with quick access to the main document libraries.
• Quick links to the spaces of different departments.

What the Client Likes About Its Upgraded Intranet

• INNERLUXES launched the new intranet functionality and received positive feedback from the Client's team.
• Daily work with the intranet has become far more convenient — employees retrieve the documents they need much faster, stay up to date on corporate news, and are more involved in corporate life.
• The Client is eager to proceed with its intranet improvement and plans to involve INNERLUXES in more of its SharePoint initiatives.

Technologies and Tools

SharePoint Online.