At Accelerator 365, we have a unique philosophy that drives our approach to building enterprise intranets with SharePoint Online. Our roots are in consultancy as a Microsoft Partner, and as big fans and advocates of Microsoft 365, we recognize the investment that organizations are making in their M365 licenses. Our philosophy is therefore Microsoft-first.
However, having built many intranets ourselves, we also understand that there are functionality gaps in SharePoint when it comes to the tools needed on an enterprise intranet. That's where our Accelerator 365 apps come in. These apps have been specifically designed to plug the functionality gaps and provide administrators and content authors the tools they need for building and managing an intranet.
What do we mean by gaps? Well, some of most popular apps for larger intranets are:
- Launchpad – which allows users to browse a centrally managed directory of links, and then create their own personal dashboard of links that they want to see.
- Audience Subscription – giving users the option to pick and choose which audiences they are a member of; and influence the content they see on the intranet.
- Stock price – displaying the latest stock information on your home page is always a popular request!
- And for content authors our Accordion, Image Map and Tabs are always useful tools to have in the locker.
True to our philosophy, we always recommend out-of-the-box web parts where appropriate, and we have deliberately set out not to compete with Microsoft when it comes to designing our apps. That’s why we focus on the gaps.
Our Microsoft-first mindset also influences how we have architected our Accelerator 365 offering. We want to offer the customization options we see are needed in many intranet projects, but without the expensive support costs often associated with bespoke development. All our apps are individually deployed via the SharePoint Store, meaning you can pick and choose which ones will add value to your intranet. We’ve gone down this approach rather than a “one-size-fits-all intranet-in-a-box” approach because we want our apps to be used alongside (rather than instead of) the out-of-the-box apps. We feel this puts you in the best possible position to benefit from future changes in the ever-evolving landscape of Microsoft 365 – but without the gaps!
What do we mean by the ever-evolving landscape of Microsoft 365? Where do we start! There are seismic changes like the introduction of Viva Connections and the Viva suite. And then we have the smaller things like Microsoft subtly updating their design language (and brining back rounded corners!).
Thanks for reading!
