Why Microsoft Teams Will Become the New Intranet

Intranet technology has made quantum leaps over the last ten years, from simple information publishing and file collaboration to fully immersive, integrated platforms. As such, it has made an innovative shift into content management. Intranet platforms have raced to embrace socialization, making the intranet experience heavily content focused with rapid creation and high availability, seeking to ultimately engage information on an emotionally level. In following Microsoft this last year, they sought to unify all these concepts into one tool; A new flagship product called Teams (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-overview) has emerged, fast becoming the cornerstone of the Microsoft product line. Like SharePoint was once being developed as the hub for apps, connections, and integrations, the torch has been passed to Teams. 

The Transition

With the unexpected cultural and professional changes incurred this year from COVID-19, Microsoft fast tracked the vision behind Teams to serve remote working needs on a global scale. The tool virtually already replaces the need for email, network drives, physical phones, and finally, intranet-level information sharing and socialization. This year, Microsoft unveiled the planned release of the Home Site App for Teams, which allows fully embedding a SharePoint landing page directly within Teams to ensure the same experience between professional work streams (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-sharepoint-blog/the-home-site-app-for-microsoft-teams/ba-p/1714255). Taking the concept one step further, Microsoft is developing integrations between Teams Search and SharePoint Search, allowing seamless handoff to SharePoint Enterprise Search Center pages. Not to be excluded would be the prompting at every corner to utilize "likes" and various emojis to encourage emotional investment in the content. The intended result is that Teams will become the one-stop-shop for all major informational exchanges. The move is bold, but logical and offers scalability unlike ever before. It is the future.

All the best to you, going forward into 2021! 

 -Nate