Microsoft 365 Intranet: Essential Features That Drive Success and ROI

Microsoft 365 is one of the most powerful productivity platforms available today. With Teams, SharePoint, Viva, and the wider suite of apps, organizations can collaborate, communicate, and manage information at scale. But while Microsoft 365 provides a solid foundation for your business, it is not in itself a complete intranet.

For smaller organizations, Microsoft 365 will likely meet most business requirements. But for mid-sized and larger enterprises, building an intranet on Microsoft 365 alone often leads to gaps in communication, engagement, and productivity. Custom development may fill some of those gaps—but it’s not a sustainable or cost-effective approach.

Instead, organizations turn to combining the Microsoft platform with a true intranet product built for the purpose—like Omnia. By combining the two, you will get a more sustainable and user-friendly solution that speeds up time to value and help make the most of the Microsoft 365 investments.

Below, we provide 17 feature examples that every Microsoft 365 intranet needs, with examples of how Omnia delivers them in practice. 

→ Learn more about how Microsoft 365 compares to your intranet requirements in this free guide: Microsoft 365 Intranet Comparison: Evaluating SharePoint and Viva Connections.

Effective internal communication is the foundation of a successful intranet. To engage employees, messages must be consistent, targeted, and delivered in a channel or device of the recipients choice. It must be possible to follow metrics to evaluate communication effectiveness, while governance and lifecycle management are essential to maintain quality and compliance at scale.

An intranet must empower communicators here and now—while ensuring long-term structure, control, and improvements. Here are some key Microsoft 365 intranet features:

A Microsoft 365 intranet needs a central hub for planning, creating, and distributing news. Omnia offers a dedicated communication hub with scheduling, targeting, and AI-assisted content creation. Articles can be published across SharePoint, Teams, newsletters, or signage, reaching employees on their preferred channel. With built-in analytics and feedback loops, communicators can track engagement and refine future updates, ensuring clarity and consistency in all internal messaging.

Image 1: Using the News hub for centralizing communication in a Microsoft 365 intranet.

Relevance drives readership. Omnia enriches Microsoft 365 with advanced targeting that goes beyond static groups, using properties like department, role, and location. Communications can be published once and distributed across multiple channels—Teams, Slack, newsletters, signage, or mobile—without duplication. Editors can adapt tone, visuals, or layout for each channel, while employees receive only content tailored to their needs, making every interaction more impactful and engaging.

A modern Microsoft 365 intranet must combine flexibility with robust governance. Omnia supports this through structured templates, approval workflows, and automated review dates. Editors can manage documents and articles with version control, lifecycle reminders, and compliance checks powered by AI. This ensures policies, guidelines, and procedures remain up to date and trustworthy. Consistency in layout, branding, and compliance not only saves time but also strengthens credibility.

Collaboration flourishes when Teams workspaces follow a defined structure. Omnia extends Microsoft 365 intranets with governance models and ready-to-use collaboration templates. Organizations can standardize projects, communities, or initiatives by predefining channels, tabs, permissions, and resources. This reduces setup time, improves compliance, and ensures every workspace aligns with business practices. Employees start with the right structure in place, boosting productivity and knowledge sharing across the enterprise.

→ Related reading: How to Improve Internal Communication—and Why a Modern Intranet Is Essential.

Image 2: Enhanced templates based on project models makes collaboration more effective in Microsoft 365 Intranets.

For employees to embrace a Microsoft 365 intranet, the experience must be intuitive, personalized, and supporting daily work. Employees should instantly find the content and tools they need to get things done, and receive recommendations that match their role and interests. A successful intranet balances simplicity with intelligence, ensuring employees feels connected, engaged, and empowered. Key intranet feature examples are:

Omnia ensures a visaully appealing look and feel aligned with organizational design guidelines and consistent across the digital workplace. Administrators can define brand rules such as colors, theming, fonts, layouts and decide on layouts and templates that meet modern workplace expectations. The Microsoft 365 intranet needs to provide a unified experience that builds trust and familiarity, while reducing time spent on repetitive design work.

Clear navigation is essential in a large Microsoft 365 intranet. Omnia provides mega menus, role-based directories, and dynamic navigation that reflect your organizational structure. Whether content is centrally or locally owned, employees always have intuitive paths to follow. This reduces search time, lowers frustration, and ensures that as the intranet grows, employees can still rely on familiar, structured routes to find the resources they need.

Image 3: Flexible navigation to most commented news in a Microsoft 365 intranet.

Employees expect fast, accurate answers when searching the intranet. Omnia delivers AI-enhanced search with semantic understanding—and keyword search with customizable categories and refiners that match business needs. Also, setup stand-alone search applications as product search or find colleague for best user experience.

Analytics highlight failed queries, guiding editors to close content gaps. The result is a Microsoft 365 intranet that continuously learns, adapts, and help end-users find what they need in no-time.

Image 4: A find colleague search application in a Microsoft 365 intranet.

No two employees have the same needs, so the Microsoft 365 intranet needs to be personalized. Omnia can help solve this challenge by providing personalized navigation, precision targeting of content, and letting end-users decide features on the intranet homepage or in personalized dashboards surfacing projects, local news, or training.

Make sure to reduce the noise and avoid overwhelming employees by delivering a personalized experience—and turn your Microsoft 365 intranet into the daily starting point that employees return to again and again.

Modern workforces expect intranet access anywhere, anytime. Omnia’s mobile app delivers a fully optimized Microsoft 365 intranet experience on phones and tablets. Push notifications alert employees to critical updates, while responsive layouts keep content clear and engaging. Frontline workers, remote staff, and office employees all benefit from consistent access, ensuring communication and productivity tools are available across every device and working environment.

→ Explore more: Modernizing Intranets: Improving User Experience with AI.

An intranet is more than a communication platform—it should support the entire employee journey. From welcoming new hires to celebrating achievements and offering opportunities for growth, a Microsoft 365 intranet must strengthen culture, foster motivation, and provide a trusted space for feedback. When engagement and employee lifecycle support are built in, the intranet becomes central to employee experience and retention. Key intranet feature examples include:

Omnia helps organizations deliver structured onboarding portals within the Microsoft 365 intranet. These include welcome messages, checklists, tasks, and training content tailored by role or location. Integrations with HR systems ensure consistency and compliance. For new employees, the experience feels clear and supportive, shortening time-to-productivity and helping them feel connected to culture from day one. For HR, the process becomes more efficient and trackable.

Employee growth requires access to structured learning resources. Omnia provides a central hub for training, courses, videos, and microlearning. Content can be categorized by role or topic, made searchable, and tracked for compliance or career development. Integrated with HR systems, progress is monitored and aligned with development goals. This transforms the Microsoft 365 intranet into an active learning environment that supports upskilling and career progression.

Image 5: Providing intstructor-led and self-service courses in the learning center of a Microsoft 365 intranet.

Recognition strengthens culture and motivation. Omnia supports recognition features within the Microsoft 365 intranet, including promotion highlights, anniversaries, and peer-to-peer shout-outs. Leaders and colleagues alike can contribute, fostering transparency and visibility across departments. By making recognition part of daily intranet use, organizations reinforce shared values, boost morale, and help employees feel valued for their contributions—directly strengthening engagement and retention.

Image 6: Posts for praising colleagues and teams in a Microsoft 365 intranet.

Employees need a voice, and leaders need actionable insights. Omnia offers embedded polls, surveys, and comment options across the Microsoft 365 intranet. Results are displayed in dashboards, helping leaders identify trends and act transparently. Making feedback visible builds trust, while enabling organizations to adapt communication and policies in real time. Over time, feedback tools strengthen alignment between leadership and employees.

→ Learn more: 10 HR Intranet Best Practices and Examples to Improve Engagement.

Beyond communication and engagement, the intranet must support efficient daily work. A modern Microsoft 365 intranet acts as a productivity hub—connecting employees with tasks, knowledge, and systems they rely on to get work done. Here are some essential intranet feature examples within this area:

Omnia helps organizations turn their Microsoft 365 intranet into a knowledge hub. Expertise directories, structured communities, and governed content hubs ensure employees can find not only information but also the right colleagues to connect with. This reduces duplication of work, improves onboarding and problem-solving, and strengthens collaboration across teams and geographies. 

Image 7: Using topic-based communities for knowledge sharing in a Microsoft 365 intranet.

Intranets must serve all employees—not just those at desks. Omnia ensures frontline workers stay included through mobile access, lightweight publishing, and role-based targeting. Updates can be shared quickly across devices and channels, while features like mandatory reads ensure compliance. By removing barriers to access, the Microsoft 365 intranet becomes a unifying platform for the entire workforce, strengthening inclusivity.

Measurement drives improvement. Omnia’s analytics dashboards, powered by native features and Matomo Core, provide real-time insights into communication reach, adoption, search behavior, and intranet usage. Dashboards are customizable for communicators, admins, or business leaders, making data relevant to their roles. By turning statistics into actionable insights, organizations can continuously improve content, structure, and user experience across their Microsoft 365 intranet.

Image 8: Following up on usage metrics for a Microsoft 365 Intranet.

A great Microsoft 365 intranet connects employees with the tools they use every day. Omnia surfaces tasks from Microsoft 365 apps and third-party systems directly in the intranet, reducing context switching and keeping priorities visible. Integrated processes, from approvals to project updates, can be managed without leaving the intranet. This makes the Microsoft 365 intranet a hub for managing tasks and daily workflows.

→ Recommended: Drive Productivity in Daily Work with a Modern Intranet.

A successful Microsoft 365 intranet requires more than a collection of tools. Like the intranet feature examples above indicate, to drive real business impact the solution must bring together communication, user experience, employee engagement, and productivity into one seamless platform. When these elements are aligned, employees feel informed, connected, and empowered to do their best work.

By combining Microsoft 365 with Omnia, organizations can extend their existing investment to create a modern intranet that delivers measurable value. From advanced publishing and governance to personalized dashboards, analytics, and frontline enablement, Omnia ensures your intranet becomes the digital front door for all employees—helping you boost engagement, improve productivity, and maximize ROI.

→ If you want to learn more about Microsoft 365 intranet limitations, check out our free guide: Microsoft 365 Intranet Comparison: Evaluating SharePoint and Viva Connections.

→ Want practical advice on implementing an intranet in Microsoft 365? Sign up for our free webinar: How to Implement a Successful Intranet in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint.

→ Ready to see what a modern Microsoft 365 intranet looks like? Book a personalized demo today.