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SharePoint Intranet Consulting

By Errin O'Connor, Founder & Chief AI Architect, EPC Group

EPC Group's SharePoint Intranet Consulting designs, builds, and operates modern Microsoft 365 intranets on SharePoint Online + Viva Connections. Scope: information architecture, hub topology, branding, governance, Copilot grounding, multi-lingual, multi-geo. Hundreds of Fortune 500 deployments since SharePoint 2003 beta team. Typical engagement: 4-9 months, fixed-fee depending on scope.

Key Facts

  • Hub-based topology with Viva Connections mobile + desktop app
  • Information architecture + branding + governance bundled
  • Copilot-grounded search across SharePoint content
  • Multilingual + multi-geography support (12+ languages delivered)
  • WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility compliance
  • Purview retention + sensitivity labels integrated
  • Microsoft Press author + SharePoint 2003 beta team heritage
  • Fortune 500 intranet builds: hundreds delivered

Engagement Scope (What You Get)

1. Discovery + IA

Stakeholder interviews, content audit (ROT removal target 30-60%), card-sort IA design, hub topology blueprint, search relevance plan.

2. Branding + Templates

Custom theme, header/footer extensions, page templates (Home, News, Department, Person, Resource), responsive design, WCAG 2.2 AA.

3. Hub Site Build

Hub sites + associated sites, navigation, content types, search verticals + refiners, Viva Connections dashboard cards, audience targeting.

4. Migration

Legacy SharePoint or non-SP source (Igloo, Jive, Confluence, custom CMS). ShareGate or Migration Manager + Mover. Content remap + bulk upload.

5. Governance + Copilot Ready

Provisioning, naming, lifecycle (Purview), permissions, sensitivity labels, oversharing remediation (required pre-Copilot), Copilot grounding.

6. Adoption + Hypercare

Champion network, training (admin + author + end-user), launch comms, Viva Insights + Page Analytics dashboards, 60-day hypercare.

Engagement Tiers

Small (under 5K users)
Fixed fee
4-6 month engagement · Single geo · English only
Mid-Market (5K-25K)
Fixed fee
6-8 month engagement · Multi-department · Hub + 5-10 sub-hubs
Large Enterprise (25K+)
Fixed fee
8-9 month engagement · Multi-geo · Multi-lingual · Regulated industry

Discovery + IA design only: fixed-fee 4-week engagement (see Copilot Readiness Assessment for adjacent productized offer).

FAQ

What is SharePoint intranet consulting?

SharePoint intranet consulting is the end-to-end advisory + delivery service that designs, builds, and operates a modern Microsoft 365 intranet on SharePoint Online + Viva Connections. Scope spans information architecture, branding, hub site topology, search configuration, governance model, content lifecycle, Teams integration, and ongoing adoption support. EPC Group has delivered intranet builds since SharePoint 2003 across Fortune 500 healthcare, finance, government, and manufacturing.

What does a modern SharePoint intranet look like in 2026?

A modern SharePoint intranet in 2026 is: (1) hub-based topology (not classic top-down nav), (2) Viva Connections mobile + desktop app for employee experience, (3) Copilot-grounded search across content, (4) personalized landing pages by department/role, (5) news + announcements with audience targeting, (6) Microsoft Teams integration for collaboration, (7) lifecycle policies via Purview, (8) governance + sensitivity labels enforced, (9) accessibility WCAG 2.2 AA, (10) measurable adoption via Viva Insights + Page Analytics.

How long does a SharePoint intranet build take?

Typical timeline: 4-9 months end-to-end. Discovery + IA design: 4-6 weeks. Branding + page templates: 4-6 weeks. Hub site build + migration: 8-16 weeks. Governance + training: 4-6 weeks. Cutover + hypercare: 2-4 weeks. Faster timelines (3-4 months) possible for single-geography, English-only deployments. Slower (9-12 months) for multi-lingual, multi-geography, or regulated industries (HIPAA, FedRAMP).

How much does a SharePoint intranet build cost?

Fortune 500 intranet builds are fixed-fee, scoped to organization size: Small (under 5,000 users), Mid-market (5,000-25,000 users), Large enterprise (25,000+ users). Multi-lingual, multi-geo, or regulated industries add 20-40%. Licensing (M365 E3/E5/E7) is separate. EPC Group offers a fixed-fee discovery phase before full engagement scope.

How does Viva Connections fit into a modern intranet?

Viva Connections is the mobile + desktop app that delivers your SharePoint intranet inside Microsoft Teams. Branded dashboard, news feed, resources, and personalized cards. EPC Group recommends Viva Connections as primary mobile intranet for any organization with frontline workers, hybrid workforce, or under-30 demographic. License: included in Microsoft 365 E3 and above.

What governance model do you recommend?

EPC Group governance framework: (1) Site provisioning policies (auto-classification, owner approval), (2) Naming standards + URL conventions, (3) Content lifecycle (Purview retention labels per content type), (4) Permission model (closed by default, request access), (5) External sharing tier (per-site policy, not tenant-wide), (6) Sensitivity labels on docs (with autolabeling for regulated content), (7) Site review cadence (quarterly owner attestation), (8) Decommission policy (90-day notice + archive).

How do you handle migration from legacy SharePoint or other intranets?

Legacy SharePoint 2013/2016/2019 on-prem: tenant-to-tenant migration via ShareGate Migrate or Microsoft Migration Manager + Mover. Non-SharePoint (Igloo, Jive, Confluence, custom CMS): content extraction + IA remap + bulk upload. We rarely lift-and-shift 1:1 — most engagements include content audit + 30-60% reduction (kill ROT: redundant, outdated, trivial). Migration plan + tooling included in scope.

Do you build Copilot-grounded intranets?

Yes. Microsoft 365 Copilot grounds responses on SharePoint content via Microsoft Graph. EPC Group intranet engagements in 2026 include Copilot-readiness: oversharing remediation (required pre-Copilot per SharePoint Oversharing Audit), sensitivity label cascade, search-relevant content modeling, and Copilot agent design via Copilot Studio for FAQ + HR + IT helpdesk use cases.

What about multilingual + multi-geography intranets?

SharePoint multilingual: per-page translation pairs (English source, translated variants). EPC Group has delivered intranets in 12+ languages. Multi-geo: SharePoint multi-geo tenants partition content storage by region (compliance + latency). Required for GDPR, China data sovereignty, and large geographically distributed enterprises. Adds 20-30% to engagement timeline + cost.

Why EPC Group for SharePoint intranet?

SharePoint consulting (since SharePoint 2003 beta team since 1997). 4 published books including SharePoint inside-out volumes. Hundreds of Fortune 500 intranet deployments. Errin O'Connor was original SharePoint MVP + Beta Team member, coined "SharePoint is the biggest Swiss Army knife in the world" (Infonomics, Jan/Feb 2009). EPC Group is a Microsoft Solutions Partner with all six designations under the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.

Related

Schedule Your SharePoint Intranet Discovery

SharePoint consulting since 1997. Hundreds of Fortune 500 intranet builds since 2003.

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