With so many options available for your company’s next intranet solution – from a turnkey to custom SharePoint – it can be a challenge to know where to start in making the best choice for your business. And, to make matters even more complicated, Microsoft is introducing NextGen Portals, a set of out of the box solutions in Office 365 that duplicate many of the same functionalities businesses were building on their own leveraging Microsoft SharePoint platform.
So how can you possibly pick the right solution for your organization? Fortunately, it’s not an either-or proposition.
You can rely on Microsoft’s upcoming NextGen Portals, go completely customized with your own intranet solution or find a middle ground – perhaps a NextGen Portal with some additional capabilities. Or, to keep things simple, you can opt for a ready-to-go intranet solution that will get you up and running with minimal overhead. Keep reading to learn more about the differences between these three intranet options.
NextGen Portals
If you find that both time and budget are limited, and you’re fine with the idea of having a fixed, user experience with no customization options, then Microsoft upcoming NextGen Portals in Office 365 might be right for you. The portals are responsive and social by design and rely on Microsoft’s Office Graph machine learning technology. Microsoft has already released the Office 365 Video portal for sharing video content, as well as the Delve dashboard to provide relevant information about coworkers and content. More portals are planned for release in the future, including an “Infopedia” knowledge management portal.
In addition, this option offers a slick, modern user experience that improves on SharePoint’s slow, clunky interface. But if you’re wary of adopting this bleeding-edge technology – or if you really do need a more customized intranet solution to meet the needs of your business – then NextGen Portal isn’t going to cut it for your organization.
Custom Intranet
When you need a specialized branding or interface for your intranet, or want it to integrate with other highly-personalized systems used by your business, then it stands to reason that you should look to a custom-built solution. A custom intranet solution is also the right choice if you have the luxury of not worrying about either money or time to market, or if you’ve done in-depth calculations about the return on investment that a custom solution would bring, with positive results. A custom intranet solution will enable you to match the unique needs of individual use cases across an organization, something that’s not available with a ready-to-go solution.
Where NextGen Portals can get up and running quickly, they offer little flexibility, which is something you can definitely get with a custom solution. Ultimately, however, if you build your intranet the right way, there should be little distinction between NextGen Portals and custom solutions from a performance standpoint.
Ready-To-Go Intranet
If you want a customized user experience, but are unhappy with what Microsoft has provided, you might consider a turnkey intranet solution. This “ready-to-go-style” intranet bridges the gap between the NextGen Portals and a customized solution, offering a middle ground with some degree of control and customization without having to invest the same scale of time and money a custom solution demands. Turnkey intranets also have some benefits over custom intranets, such as easier adoption and maintenance, faster implementation of new features, and less technical skill required.
Final Thoughts
So which is the better option? Microsoft Office 365 NextGen Portals, intranet SharePoint solution or ready-to-go intranet? The reality is that all of these options are viable. The critical component of success for any intranet solution comes down to selecting the technology that accurately takes into account the most critical needs of your business.
