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Out-of-the-Box SharePoint Intranet Sites Don’t Always Cut it

Out-of-the-Box SharePoint Intranet Sites Don’t Always Cut it

August 12, 20162 min read

Learn How to Take It Up a Notch with No Code and No Fuss

Companies naturally want to improve internal communication within their organization, and SharePoint is a great tool to do just that, but out-of-the-box SharePoint intranet sites often lack the pizazz needed to engage employees. Basically, SharePoint out-of-the-box creates pages in one of three different ways:

  1. Wiki pages: This is the best option for text, but difficult to brand and design to your liking.

  2. Web part pages: Web parts are great for listing data, but offer rigid web part zones for design.

  3. Publishing pagesThis is great for branding, yet requires a ton of effort to create a master page, layout pages, and build your actual pages against that layout.

The result…most out-of-the-box SharePoint Intranet sites are simple, cluttered and are built around a text-based design. And more often than not, valuable and engaging content that could potentially connect employees and build an internal community gets lost. For many companies, this doesn’t quite cut it. Not only does it result in boring and lackluster ways of communication, it can also take up a ton of time and deplete valuable resources.

At General Networks we constantly look for 3rd Party add ins to SharePoint that can more easily solve our client’s business problems. One such solution that we’ve found to make designing good looking SharePoint pages easier is LiveTiles. LiveTiles is a SharePoint add-in that we use to transform SharePoint intranet sites into modern digital workspaces. Some benefits of implementing a LiveTiles solution are:

  • Leverages your SharePoint investment and existing content

  • Does not require coding and is very easy to use

  • Takes up a very small software footprint

  • Speeds up the page creation process

  • Is available at a low cost along with excellent support

As outlined above, using SharePoint out-of-the-box can present some limitations on what your intranet can communicate to your internal teams. A LiveTiles project implementation from General Networks can help conquer those hurdles.

To help you learn more, we created an exclusive on-demand webinar, How to Transform Your SharePoint Intranet Site into a Stunning Digital Workspace. In just thirty minutes, you’ll see how we changed a simple SharePoint intranet site into a branded, visually inviting communication tool by using LiveTools and the Genesys Methodology, which includes four critical project plan phases:

  1. Assessment

  2. Design

  3. Development/Build

  4. Deployment


General Networks also gives you the option to choose your LiveTiles package offering. See which one is best for your organization.

If you have any questions along the way, we can help! Contact General Networks info for more information.

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Featured Posts

Out-of-the-Box SharePoint Intranet Sites Don’t Always Cut it

Out-of-the-Box SharePoint Intranet Sites Don’t Always Cut it

August 12, 20162 min read

Learn How to Take It Up a Notch with No Code and No Fuss

Companies naturally want to improve internal communication within their organization, and SharePoint is a great tool to do just that, but out-of-the-box SharePoint intranet sites often lack the pizazz needed to engage employees. Basically, SharePoint out-of-the-box creates pages in one of three different ways:

  1. Wiki pages: This is the best option for text, but difficult to brand and design to your liking.

  2. Web part pages: Web parts are great for listing data, but offer rigid web part zones for design.

  3. Publishing pagesThis is great for branding, yet requires a ton of effort to create a master page, layout pages, and build your actual pages against that layout.

The result…most out-of-the-box SharePoint Intranet sites are simple, cluttered and are built around a text-based design. And more often than not, valuable and engaging content that could potentially connect employees and build an internal community gets lost. For many companies, this doesn’t quite cut it. Not only does it result in boring and lackluster ways of communication, it can also take up a ton of time and deplete valuable resources.

At General Networks we constantly look for 3rd Party add ins to SharePoint that can more easily solve our client’s business problems. One such solution that we’ve found to make designing good looking SharePoint pages easier is LiveTiles. LiveTiles is a SharePoint add-in that we use to transform SharePoint intranet sites into modern digital workspaces. Some benefits of implementing a LiveTiles solution are:

  • Leverages your SharePoint investment and existing content

  • Does not require coding and is very easy to use

  • Takes up a very small software footprint

  • Speeds up the page creation process

  • Is available at a low cost along with excellent support

As outlined above, using SharePoint out-of-the-box can present some limitations on what your intranet can communicate to your internal teams. A LiveTiles project implementation from General Networks can help conquer those hurdles.

To help you learn more, we created an exclusive on-demand webinar, How to Transform Your SharePoint Intranet Site into a Stunning Digital Workspace. In just thirty minutes, you’ll see how we changed a simple SharePoint intranet site into a branded, visually inviting communication tool by using LiveTools and the Genesys Methodology, which includes four critical project plan phases:

  1. Assessment

  2. Design

  3. Development/Build

  4. Deployment


General Networks also gives you the option to choose your LiveTiles package offering. See which one is best for your organization.

If you have any questions along the way, we can help! Contact General Networks info for more information.

Back to Blog

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