Felton Industries: Creating Their First Ever Intranet, and Giving Staff One Clear Place to Start
Felton Industries is a well established Australian manufacturing business experiencing steady growth. As teams expanded and new starters joined more frequently, the way information was stored and shared started to show its cracks.
While Felton had already moved from servers to Microsoft 365, there was no true intranet. SharePoint existed, but mostly as a collection of sites and folders that had grown organically over time. Important information lived somewhere, but not always in the same place, and not always where people expected it to be.
With onboarding becoming harder and staff regularly asking, “Where do I find…?”, Felton knew it was time to create a simple digital home the whole business could rely on.
The Challenge
When SharePoint exists, but doesn’t really work as an intranet
Early workshops made it clear that the challenge wasn’t just technology. It was structure, clarity, and confidence.
Felton was dealing with:
- SharePoint sites without a consistent structure
- Uncertainty about where information should live
- A fragmented onboarding experience for new starters
- Growing pressure to manage documents more sustainably
- A strong desire to keep things practical, not over‑engineered
As one stakeholder put it:
“SharePoint was being used as a file dump rather than an intranet.”
It was a classic digital maturity moment. Like having plenty of cupboards, but no labels, no floor plan, and no agreed place to start.
The Impact
WebVine partnered closely with Felton through a highly collaborative, eight‑week engagement to design and deliver their first ever modern intranet. While building internal capability along the way.
Discovery & co‑design
We ran focused workshops to define:
- A clear intranet structure and information architecture
- Homepage and page templates that felt intuitive to staff
- Navigation, search behaviour and taxonomy
- Brand alignment and overall user experience
Configuration & build
We then designed and configured:
- A SharePoint Online intranet hub
- A modern homepage, co‑designed live with Felton’s team
- Navigation aligned to how the business actually operates
- A dedicated video hub for GM updates and leadership messages
- A Brand Centre for logos and approved assets
- Cleaner site structures with simpler, more sustainable permissions
Governance & capability building
Training wasn’t an afterthought. It was part of the solution:
- Administrator training
- Hands-on coaching during the build
- Practical guidance on modern document management
- Ongoing support to help Felton operate the intranet with confidence
By the end of the project, Felton didn’t just have a new intranet. They understood how to look after it and help it thrive.
The Solution
Felton’s new intranet is intentionally simple and easy to use:
- A single entry point for key systems (HR, Safety, Payroll, CRM, Timesheets and more)
- A homepage designed collaboratively to ensure buy in
- A clearer structure that reduces guesswork and improves findability
- GM updates delivered through a professional video hub instead of ad hoc emails
- Viva Connections is in place to support future Teams and mobile access
Launching the new site significantly marks the start of a more structured, confident approach to working digitally.
The Results
Clearer information, faster answers
Leaders reported early improvements in clarity around where content should live. And greater confidence directing staff back to the intranet instead of answering the same questions repeatedly.
A better onboarding experience
New starters can now understand systems, tools and processes much more quickly, with one clear place to begin.
More professional internal communication
Weekly GM updates now live in a structured, branded space.
“It looks a lot nicer and more professional.” – Mark Wiggins, General Manager
Growing confidence with digital tools
Felton gained a shared understanding of:
- What good information structure looks like
- How modern SharePoint works
- How they can evolve into future phases such as metadata and AI readiness
Why this Worked
This project succeeded because it combined strong collaboration with clear ownership. Felton’s stakeholders were engaged, decisive and actively involved throughout, supported by visible executive sponsorship.
Co‑working sessions delivered tangible outcomes early, building momentum and trust on both sides. Just as importantly, the final intranet closely reflected Felton’s original concepts, reinforcing internal ownership and confidence in the result.
What Felton Said
“A great project that worked well. The result you’ve come up with is a really good looking and easy-to-use intranet.”
– Mark Wiggins, General Manager
