Building a Family Office Intranet on SharePoint Online
WebVine’s client is in private wealth and is a family office of approximately 40 staff and guests. As the team grew, day-to-day information lived across personal drives, email threads and chat – there was no single, trusted place where people could find policies, news, contacts or forms. Leadership wanted a digital space to bring everything together, lift internal communication, and give the team and family confidence working inside Microsoft 365.
Like many small but ambitious organisations, the Client had a clear sense of what good looked like, but limited internal capacity to design, build and run the platform themselves. They needed a partner who could translate intent into a SharePoint solution and coach the team to own it long-term.
The Challenge
- No existing intranet: the team lacked a single place to find information, news and forms.
- Vendor selection had been frustrating. After approaching multiple providers, the Client found the quoting process unnecessarily complex – often requiring multiple calls across various departments just to obtain basic cost estimates.
- The internal team did not consider themselves particularly tech-savvy. They needed a partner who could guide them patiently – not just deliver and walk away.
- The vision was clear in spirit but hard to articulate in technical terms. The partner had to interpret intent, not just collect requirements.
- The final platform had to be intuitive, reflective of the organisation, and maintainable in-house long-term.
The Solution
WebVine assigned a dedicated senior SharePoint consultant and ran the engagement as a guided, relationship-led delivery rather than a hand-off project. From the very first conversation, the Client experienced a different way of working: clear scope, transparent costs upfront, and a productive cadence of working sessions inside the first few weeks.
- Discovery & planning: weekly Teams workshops to align on objectives, vision and timelines.
- Information architecture: site structure, metadata, menus and permissions designed for scale and governance.
- Build & configuration: SharePoint Online plus Viva Connections configured into a modern, branded, mobile-friendly experience.
- Custom component: tailored Microsoft Forms built into the intranet to support key business processes.
- Content enablement: guidance on content creation best practice so the team could populate the platform themselves.
- Coaching & ongoing support: remote guidance on Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams during workshops; the Client’s team progressively took ownership of the platform.
The Results
- A modern, intuitive intranet went live in April 2026 – the Client’s first ever.
- SharePoint Intranet in Teams provides a single, mobile-friendly entry point to news, links and resources.
- 15+Hands-on workshops and coaching sessions delivered via Microsoft Teams across discovery, build and enablement.
- Tailored Microsoft Forms are live and supporting core business processes inside the intranet.
- Information architecture documentation and a permissions matrix were handed over for ongoing governance.
- A non-technical team transitioned from “not tech-savvy” to confidently editing pages, managing menus and adding content.
- The engagement became an ongoing partnership – the Client kept the contract open for continued support and platform evolution.
What's Next
- Continue evolving the platform under an open, but modest retainer with WebVine.
- Layer in additional Microsoft 365 capability – Copilot adoption, further automation – as the Client’s technical skills mature.
- Roll out additional content owners across teams and extend SharePoint Intranet in Teams usage on mobile.
Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned
- A dedicated senior consultant matters. Other providers had lost the Client at the quoting stage; a single experienced point of contact who could speak to scope and cost up-front unlocked momentum.
- Translate vision, don’t just gather requirements. The Client could describe outcomes but not the technical “how” – the partner needed to surface SharePoint capabilities the Client hadn’t considered.
- Build for owner-operators. Designing for a non-technical team means investing in coaching and documentation alongside the build, so they can run it themselves on day one.
What The Client Said
“We engaged WebVine to support the development of our company intranet, and the experience was exceptional from start to finish. After reaching out to multiple providers, we found the quoting process unnecessarily complex, often requiring multiple calls across various departments just to obtain basic cost estimates. In contrast, from the very first conversation with WebVine, the difference was clear. They listened carefully, acted quickly, and provided transparent guidance around costs upfront.”
“A standout aspect of our experience was being assigned a dedicated senior consultant to guide us throughout the entire process. As someone who does not consider themselves particularly tech-savvy, I deeply appreciated their thoughtful, patient, and highly knowledgeable guidance. They not only led us confidently through the build process but also empowered our team to understand the platform, learn the fundamentals, and gradually take ownership ourselves.”
“What impressed us most was their ability to interpret our vision, even when we struggled to articulate it clearly. They consistently brought forward innovative ideas and demonstrated the full capability of SharePoint in ways we hadn’t even considered.”
“We are thrilled with the final result. The intranet is intuitive, engaging, and truly reflective of our organisation’s needs. We fully intend to maintain our partnership with WebVine and keep our contract open for ongoing support as we continue to evolve the platform.”
— Project lead (client side)
