Type in “SharePoint intranet alternative” into your favourite search engine, and you’ll see an abundance of results about how to move away from the platform.
Organisations in their droves are clearly looking to run away from their SharePoint intranet – but why? Let’s take a quick recap on SharePoint first:
What is a SharePoint intranet?
If you return to your chosen search engine and enter the keyword “SharePoint”, one of the first things to appear is the question: “What exactly does SharePoint do?”
This is perhaps not a good start for an intranet software provider, but it’s a fair indication of the platform’s complexity. Indeed, Microsoft themselves describe SharePoint primarily as a website builder, but also an intranet platform, document management system, and collaboration software.
There are several packages which provide different apps and services, such as SharePoint Server, SharePoint in Microsoft 365, SharePoint Online, and additional bundles with Office 365.
Depending on your chosen package, you won’t get access to all the apps that SharePoint offers. For instance, social features – a mainstay of online intranet solutions – are only available on the enterprise package. Similarly, only the most expensive option includes integrations with apps like Microsoft Teams and the Office suite.
Why are organisations looking for SharePoint intranet alternatives?
There are several common reasons why organisations are looking for an alternative to their SharePoint intranet, including:
- It’s too expensive: The cost of a SharePoint intranet includes more than just the software licence (which will set you back $40,000/£29,000 if you’re a company of just 50 staff). You’ll also need to budget for additional customisations to make the user experience more intuitive and mobile-friendly, which can raise intranet costs anywhere between $10,000 to $100,000 (£7,000 to £72,000). More on that below.
- The employee experience is poor: SharePoint intranets need additional “intranet in a box” services to make it user-friendly. These are a set of templates that a SharePoint Consultant delivers after it’s been installed, giving organisations a boilerplate of features they are most likely to use. This creates additional costs (a SharePoint Consultant earns around $83k/£62k a year) and slows down deployment, providing a poor intranet experience from the start.
- The platform is complicated to use and maintain: For non-technical users, a SharePoint intranet is particularly challenging given its complexity and specific idiosyncrasies to get it working. The system needs dedicated IT staff to set it up and maintain, making it a resource and time-heavy project.
What are the alternatives to SharePoint?
Independent intranet vendors – like Claromentis – are key players in the SharePoint alternative market. Providing modern intranet solutions with no-frills pricing packages, an intuitive user experience out-of-the-box, and a quick deployment, standalone intranet suppliers like us are liberating organisations from the complexity and costs of a SharePoint intranet.
Claromentis intranet software is a leading SharePoint alternative
Why is a company intranet a better alternative to SharePoint?
It’s true that some large corporations get on just fine with a SharePoint intranet, especially those who are already heavily invested in Microsoft’s suite of business products. But for the vast majority, a ready-to-go company intranet will prove much more valuable. Here are a few reasons why:
- It’s easy to build an intranet that suits your needs: Corporate intranets shouldn’t be boring (if they are, then expect to see low user uptake). The best intranets are those that are easy-to-use, look good, and provide teams with the tools and information they need. Modern intranets include drag & drop content management tools which enable non-techies to build personalised intranet pages for their teams. Everything from colour schemes and backgrounds to logos and layout can be customised in clicks, not code.
- All intranet applications are included in the price: We can’t speak for all intranet vendors, but in the case of Claromentis, our pricing package includes all intranet apps with no hidden costs. This means you get standard functionality such as document and knowledge management systems, internal communication channels, and employee engagement features, as well as additional productivity tools like e-forms and workflows, a Learning Management System, and project management apps for a single fee.
- Anyone can set up and manage the intranet, not just IT: Unlike SharePoint, a modern company intranet is intuitive enough that it doesn’t require IT resources to maintain it. Not only that, independent intranet vendors will usually install the system for you, either in the cloud or on your own infrastructure, at no additional cost.
