Out-of-the-box (OOTB) Microsoft 365 intranet portals, such as SharePoint Online, offer a strong foundation for digital collaboration. With built-in features like document sharing, task management, and company-wide communication, these platforms address many baseline requirements for modern workplaces. However, the true potential of these platforms is unlocked when they are customized to reflect the unique processes, structure, and goals of your organization. While an OOTB setup enables quick deployment, many businesses eventually find gaps between what’s provided and what’s truly needs to support their teams effectively.
This article explores the key benefits of customizing OOTB intranet portals to better align with your organization’s specific needs, including:
Why customize an OOTB Intranet?
OOTB solutions are built for universal appeal, which can sometimes limit their relevance to specific industries or internal structures. Organizations may operate with unique workflows, compliance standards, or collaboration models that a generic setup cannot fully support.
By customizing the OOTB intranet experience, companies can address pain points without abandoning the reliability and scalability of the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s about configuring the system to work the way your teams do-not the other way around.
Enhanced user experience
A one-size-fits-all design can often hinder usability. When users struggle to navigate or locate resources, productivity takes a hit. Customizing the intranet allows you to shape the interface around the way your people work.
- Create tailored landing pages for different departments
- Personalize dashboards and content feeds based on roles
- Simplify navigation with department-specific menus
These enhancements reduce friction and improve how employees interact with the system daily.
Brand consistency across the digital workplace
Brand identity plays a vital role in building a sense of belonging. OOTB portals offer limited customization for visual elements, which can result in a disconnected experience. A customized intranet ensures that your internal platform reflects your organization’s tone and culture.
Customization options include:
- Applying your brand’s color palette, logos, and typography
- Designing consistent templates for announcements, events, and newsletters
- Reinforcing culture through custom imagery and messaging
This consistency makes the portal feel like a natural part of your company, not an external tool.
Support for unique workflows and business logic
Every team works differently. OOTB workflows, while useful, rarely capture the nuance of your internal processes. Through customization, you can map workflows more closely to real-world operations.
For example:
- Complex approval hierarchies can be built using Power Automate
- Data can flow between SharePoint, Teams, CRM, and ERP systems
- Custom forms can enforce logic, validation, and branching rules
By removing manual steps and enabling automation, customized workflows help teams move faster with fewer errors.
Increased engagement and adoption
An intranet that serves relevant, timely, and useful content naturally drives higher usage. When customization puts important tools and information at employees’ fingertips, adoption improves across departments.
- Highlight personalized announcements or updates
- Integrate third-party apps or tools directly into the portal
- Show team-specific KPIs, reports, or quick links
The result is an intranet that evolves from a static resource to a daily productivity hub.
Better governance and scalability
OOTB portals without governance can quickly become cluttered and disorganized. As content and sites grow, issues with permission sprawl, broken links, and unused content emerge. Customization enables better control and long-term maintainability.
This includes:
- Role-based access and content visibility
- Automated lifecycle rules for content archival
- Monitoring and reporting on usage of metrics
With proper governance, your customized portal remains clean, compliant, and scalable over time.
Striking the balance: customization without complexity
One of the common concerns with customization is the fear of making the portal too complex or difficult to maintain. But modern development tools like SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Power Platform, and Microsoft Graph allow for modular and future-proof enhancements.
Best practices to ensure a smooth path forward:
- Use no-code/low-code tools where applicable
- Rely on Microsoft-supported frameworks for long-term compatibility
- Avoid heavy custom scripts that may break after platform updates
When done strategically, customization becomes a competitive advantage, not a maintenance burden.
Final thoughts
OOTB portals are an excellent starting point, but rarely a destination. Customizing them ensures your digital workplace truly reflects how your organization works, collaborates, and communicates. It’s not about changing the platform; it’s about changing the experience.
Looking to customize your Microsoft 365 intranet without complexity?
AVASOFT helps businesses personalize OOTB portals to improve usability, drive adoption, and enhance digital collaboration-securely and at scale. Reach out to sales@avasoft.com to get started.
