SharePoint intranet examples for growing organisations

Short answer: the best SharePoint intranets for organisations of 50 to 150 staff aren’t the flashiest. They do six things well: a home page people open every day, company news, a policy and forms hub, a people directory, a page for each team or location, and quick links to everyday tools. Here’s what each looks like, and what it takes to get right.

All of these are built with standard SharePoint pages and web parts, inside the Microsoft 365 you already own. No extra intranet licence is needed.

1. A home page built around the working day

What it looks like: the latest company news at the top, a row of quick links to the tools people use most (timesheets, the CRM, the leave form), upcoming events, and a search box that actually finds things.

What makes it work: keep it short. If staff have to scroll past three banners to find the leave form, they’ll bookmark the form and never come back. Pick the five to eight links people use every week and put them where they can’t be missed.

2. Company news that replaces the all-staff email

What it looks like: news posts with a picture and a headline, shown on the home page and pushed to Microsoft Teams and the SharePoint mobile app. Department or location news can roll up into the main feed.

What makes it work: a small group of trained editors and a simple rhythm, such as one post a week. News that’s three months old tells people the intranet isn’t looked after.

3. A policy and forms hub people trust

What it looks like: one page listing current policies, procedures and forms, filtered by type or department, with an owner and review date on every document.

What makes it work: one current version of each document. If policies need approvals, version control and scheduled reviews, this is where an intranet becomes a document management system. Applecart DMS is our ready-made version of that for SharePoint.

4. A people directory with more than phone numbers

What it looks like: a searchable staff directory drawn from Microsoft 365, showing role, team, location and contact details, plus who to ask for common things (“payroll questions”, “IT access”).

What makes it work: it’s only as good as the data in Microsoft 365. Ask HR or IT to tidy job titles, departments and managers first. It’s a small job that makes the directory, Teams and Outlook better at the same time.

5. Team and location pages

What it looks like: a page for each department, site or office with its news, key documents, contacts and links. For multi-site or multi-country organisations, each location can have its own page in its own language.

Real example: for Dovida, the home-care group formerly known as Home Instead, we built one intranet and document system that serves its offices in the Netherlands and Switzerland, in Dutch, German and French. Each country got its own news and controlled documents, built on one shared baseline. Read the Dovida case study.

What makes it work: a standard page template, so every team page looks and works the same way, and a named owner for each page.

6. Everyday tools in one place

What it looks like: links or embedded apps for the things staff do often: leave and expense requests, incident reports, booking a room or a vehicle, onboarding checklists.

What makes it work: if a process still runs on paper or a spreadsheet, it can often become a simple app with Power Apps and an approval in Power Automate, launched straight from the intranet.

What the good examples have in common

• They’re designed around tasks, not the org chart. Navigation follows what people come to do.
• Every page has an owner and a review date. That’s what keeps the intranet trusted.
• They use a small set of templates. Easier to build, cheaper to run, and consistent for staff.
• They live where people already work. The intranet is pinned in Teams and works on phones.

How long and how much?

A practical intranet with the six elements above usually takes 6 to 12 weeks. For an organisation of 50 to 150 staff, set-up typically costs $15,000 to $50,000 (ex GST), with no extra Microsoft licence. See what a SharePoint intranet costs in Australia for what drives the price.

If you also need a portal for customers, members or suppliers, that’s a different tool. See SharePoint intranet vs Power Pages.

Common questions

What should a SharePoint intranet include?

A home page, news, a policy and forms hub, a people directory, team or location pages, and links to everyday tools. Start with those and add more once people are using it.

Do I need a third-party intranet product?

Usually not, for 50 to 150 staff. Modern SharePoint pages cover most needs without a per-user fee.

Planning your intranet?

Applecart Digital designs and builds SharePoint intranets for growing organisations in Brisbane and across Queensland and Australia. We start with what your people need, show you the design before we build, and give you a fixed price up front. Talk to us about your intranet.