SharePoint is one of the best tools to build your company’s intranet.
However, we often hear that the platform is too restrictive and requires customization to:
Make the design look modern
Make the search easy
Integrate with other corporate systems
Above are the top reasons why companies feel they need custom SharePoint development.
According to Nielsen Norman, the best intranets can take an average of 23 months and a team of 17 to build. That’s long and expensive.
In contrast, using an intranet solution, you can reduce development by 9X for a medium-sized organization.
Here is a comparison of alternatives for building your SharePoint intranet.
Will this intranet solution meet my needs?
The best part of using SharePoint intranet solutions is that there is no waiting around for a 2-month design. You can see your design immediately.
Of course, the example designs may not be custom-tailored to your brand, but you’ll see what you’re getting into.
Fun fact: a few of our customers, months before they even reached out to us, have used the examples on our website to mock up their designs!
You’re welcome to do that too.
To help you out, below is a downloadable PDF with our top examples in high resolution.
What if I need to change something?
When intranet solutions first appeared, they were rigid (some still are).
You want a modular SharePoint intranet solution, meaning every major part of the page can be taken out of the page.
This way, you can mix and match parts of the page.
With an intranet solution like that, you can always update functionality on a page when needed.
This is precisely what we do with Origami. When design trends change (and they do), we give customers new tools to update parts of their page at will.
You don’t want a SharePoint intranet portal that tells you what you can and can’t add to the page.
What if I need more custom development?
Integration with other corporate applications is one of the top needs IT leaders ask about for their intranet.
If you have an application you’d like to integrate with the intranet solution – that’s custom development, and your intranet solution should be flexible enough to allow that.
In our practice, we helped integrate our SharePoint intranet in a box with tools for HR, payroll, IT ticketing, and data visualization, to name a few. Sometimes we get asked to tailor one of our SharePoint apps to specific customer needs, which saves our customers from building solutions from scratch.
Warranty
One valid question many IT leaders have with any solution is:
“What if Microsoft changes something and it breaks the intranet solution?”
You might hear responses such as “nothing ever breaks” or “we follow best practices, so nothing should ever break.”
That may be comforting but not reassuring.
Our response to that is that we provide a warranty for any defects. It’s that simple.
References: are they as good as they say they are?
Usually, customers want to know these three areas when comparing Origami’s SharePoint intranet in a box with other solutions.
How do we perform during the project?
The implementation process was perfect: the schedule, the project management, and the brainstorming activity. It helped us visualize what we're going to build. Without this process, it would have taken way longer to build our intranet, and we might have created something that is not a fit ... read more
Oscar Gamboa
Information Technology Manager at Servicon Systems inc.
How is the support post-go live?
Origami has been absolutely fantastic about their support, it's definitely the best support I've ever received from any of the external products that we use ... read more
Ilona Foreshaw
Application Specialist at Wise Group
How is the overall intranet solution?
Best custom intranet out there. I researched several intranet options, and Origami made the use and administration of SharePoint easy, intuitive, and design stunning. Their apps make a more engaging experience for our users ... read more
Kris Meyers
CEO at EWC Experience
We've put together several of our favorite SharePoint site examples all built using Origami to help you come up with some amazing ideas! Learn the essential components for great intranet templates today!