SharePoint Intranet Redesign: From Classic to Modern in 2026

Why classic SharePoint intranets need to go

If your organization is still running a classic SharePoint intranet — whether it is SharePoint 2013, 2016, 2019, or even SharePoint Online classic sites — you are living on borrowed time. The problems compound every year:

• No mobile experience: Classic SharePoint pages do not render properly on phones or tablets. In 2026, with hybrid and mobile workforces, an intranet that only works on desktop is an intranet that 40% of your employees never use.
• No Copilot integration: Microsoft 365 Copilot indexes and surfaces content from modern SharePoint sites. Classic sites are second-class citizens in the AI-powered workplace — employees using Copilot cannot find or reference classic intranet content as effectively.
• No Viva Connections: Viva Connections, which surfaces your intranet inside Teams, requires a modern SharePoint home site. Classic sites cannot serve as the Viva Connections root, leaving your Teams-first employees disconnected from company communications.
• Deprecated features: Microsoft has stopped investing in classic pages, web parts, and workflows. InfoPath forms are end-of-life. SharePoint Designer workflows were retired in favor of Power Automate. Classic master pages and page layouts have no modern equivalent — they are a dead-end technology.
• Security and compliance gaps: Modern SharePoint integrates with Microsoft Purview for DLP, sensitivity labels, and retention policies. Classic sites have limited Purview integration, creating compliance blindspots.

Step 1: Classic site assessment

Before designing the new intranet, you need to understand what exists. EPC Group's assessment covers:

• Site inventory: Every site collection, subsite, and page in the classic intranet — cataloged with owner, last modified date, page views (from SharePoint usage reports), and content type. This reveals which sites are active, which are abandoned, and which contain content that should migrate.
• Customization audit: Classic intranets often have master page customizations, custom CSS, InfoPath forms, SharePoint Designer workflows, and script editor web parts with inline JavaScript. All of these must be replaced with modern equivalents (SPFx, Power Automate, Power Apps). The customization inventory drives the development effort estimate.
• Content audit: Page-level analysis of content relevance. We categorize every page as current (migrate), outdated (archive or retire), or redundant (consolidate). Most classic intranets have 40-60% outdated content that should not migrate — migrating it would just recreate the mess in a modern wrapper.
• Analytics review: SharePoint usage reports and Google Analytics (if implemented) reveal which intranet sections employees actually use. Pages with zero visits in 6 months are candidates for retirement. High-traffic pages get priority attention in the redesign.
• Stakeholder interviews: We interview department heads, HR, communications, IT, and a sample of end users to understand what the intranet should do (not just what it currently does). Common themes: better search, mobile access, fewer clicks to find policies, and integration with Teams.

Step 2: Viva Connections hub architecture

The modern SharePoint intranet is built on a hub site architecture with Viva Connections as the front door:

• Home site: A single communication site designated as the organization's home site. This is the root of Viva Connections and appears as the default landing page in the SharePoint mobile app and Teams. It contains company news, leadership communications, key links, and a search scope that covers the entire intranet.
• Hub sites: Departmental or functional hub sites (HR Hub, IT Hub, Finance Hub, Operations Hub) that aggregate content from their connected sites. Hub sites share navigation, theme, and search scope with their child sites, creating a coherent experience within each department while maintaining a unified intranet through the home site.
• Communication sites: Individual sites for specific content areas — company news, policies, benefits, onboarding, office locations, events. Communication sites are designed for broadcasting content to a broad audience with rich page layouts, hero web parts, and news posts.
• Team sites: Connected to Microsoft 365 groups for collaborative workspaces — project teams, departments, committees. Team sites are where work happens; communication sites are where results are shared. This distinction is critical for a clean information architecture.

The hub architecture replaces the classic subsite hierarchy. Instead of a single site collection with 50 subsites nested 4 levels deep, you have a flat collection of purpose-built sites connected through hub associations. This is easier to manage, easier to govern, and scales without the subsite permission inheritance problems that plagued classic SharePoint.

Step 3: Communication sites vs. team sites

Choosing the wrong site type is one of the most common intranet design mistakes. EPC Group applies this framework:

Step 4: Navigation architecture

Navigation is the backbone of intranet usability. If employees cannot find what they need in 3 clicks, they will use Google or email their colleague instead. EPC Group designs navigation using these principles:

• Global navigation (Viva Connections): A persistent navigation bar visible across all sites via the SharePoint app bar. Contains 5-7 top-level categories (News, People, Policies, IT Help, HR, Office Info) that cover 80% of employee needs. This replaces the classic "mega menu" that tried to expose every page in the intranet.
• Hub navigation: Each hub site has its own navigation covering its child sites. The HR hub navigation includes Benefits, Policies, Onboarding, Performance, Learning. This navigation is shared across all sites associated with the hub.
• Site navigation: Local navigation within each communication site. Kept to 5-8 items maximum. If a site needs more than 8 navigation items, it should be split into multiple sites connected via a hub.
• Search-first design: Modern SharePoint search is excellent when properly configured. EPC Group configures search verticals, promoted results (for common queries like "expense report" or "PTO policy"), custom result types, and acronym definitions. For many employees, search becomes the primary navigation method — faster than clicking through any menu structure.

Step 5: Branding with SharePoint Framework (SPFx)

Modern SharePoint's built-in branding capabilities cover 70% of enterprise needs: theme colors, logo, site header style, and footer. For the remaining 30%, SPFx development fills the gaps:

• Custom mega menu: SPFx Application Customizer that renders a branded mega menu in the site header, supporting multi-level navigation, icons, and featured content cards. The built-in SharePoint navigation is functional but limited in visual richness.
• Branded hero banner: Custom SPFx web part that replaces the standard Hero web part with a version matching your brand guidelines — custom animations, video backgrounds, call-to-action buttons, and responsive breakpoints.
• People directory: SPFx web part that surfaces the Azure AD people directory with custom card layouts showing photo, name, title, department, and office. Replaces the classic Delve people experience with a branded, faster alternative.
• KPI dashboard cards: SPFx web parts that pull data from Power BI or Microsoft Lists to display key metrics (headcount, open positions, support ticket SLA, project milestones) on the intranet home page.
• Custom footer: SPFx Application Customizer for a branded footer with copyright, legal links, social media icons, and a feedback button that creates a Microsoft Forms submission.

EPC Group follows a full ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) process for SPFx development: source control in Azure DevOps, automated builds and deployments, staging tenant for testing, and production deployment with rollback capability. No more "someone uploaded a script file to the site assets library and now the intranet is broken."

Step 6: Content migration strategy

Content migration from classic to modern is the most time-consuming phase. EPC Group uses a tiered approach:

• Automated page transformation: Microsoft's SharePoint Page Transformation framework converts classic wiki pages and web part pages to modern pages. The output requires manual refinement — modern web parts do not map 1:1 to classic web parts — but it handles the bulk conversion and preserves content.
• Manual rebuild: High-visibility pages (home page, department landing pages, executive communications) are rebuilt from scratch using modern page layouts, optimized images, and updated content. These pages are the face of the intranet — automated conversion quality is not sufficient.
• Content owners: Each department designates a content owner responsible for reviewing migrated pages, updating stale content, and approving the final version for the new intranet. This distributes the migration workload and ensures content accuracy.
• Redirect mapping: Every classic page URL gets a redirect to its modern equivalent. This prevents broken bookmarks, search results pointing to dead pages, and user confusion during the transition period.

Step 7: User adoption and change management

A beautiful new intranet that no one uses is a failed project. EPC Group builds adoption into the redesign from day one:

• Executive sponsorship: A visible executive champion (typically CHRO or COO) who communicates why the redesign matters, participates in the launch, and holds departments accountable for migration timelines.
• Champion network: 1-2 designated champions per department who receive early access, advanced training, and serve as local support during rollout. Champions are the first escalation point before IT gets involved.
• Phased rollout: Pilot with 2-3 departments, incorporate feedback, then roll out organization-wide. The pilot group's success stories become the marketing material for the broader rollout.
• Training program: Role-based training covering end-user basics (navigation, search, mobile app), content owner skills (page creation, news publishing, metadata management), and site owner administration (permissions, analytics, governance).
• Feedback loop: A visible feedback mechanism (Microsoft Forms or a dedicated Teams channel) where employees can report issues, request features, and share what is working. EPC Group reviews feedback weekly during the first 90 days and implements quick wins to build momentum.
• Usage analytics: Power BI dashboards tracking intranet usage: page views, unique visitors, search queries, mobile vs. desktop, and time spent. These metrics justify the investment and identify adoption gaps that need targeted intervention.

Governance framework for the modern intranet

Without governance, the new intranet will devolve into the same unmanaged mess as the classic one. EPC Group implements:

• Site provisioning process: New sites are created through a request workflow (Power Automate + Microsoft Forms) that enforces naming conventions, requires a business justification, assigns an owner, and applies the correct hub association and template. No more self-service site sprawl.
• Content lifecycle: Quarterly content reviews where site owners verify their content is current. Pages not updated in 12 months get flagged for review. Pages confirmed as stale are archived or retired.
• Permission reviews: Semi-annual review of site permissions to ensure access is appropriate. Automated reports flag sites with external sharing enabled, sites with more than 100 unique permissions, and sites owned by departed employees.
• Compliance integration: Purview sensitivity labels, DLP policies, and retention policies applied to intranet content — ensuring that the intranet meets the same compliance standards as the rest of the Microsoft 365 environment.

Frequently Asked Questions