Build Your Intranet in a Day

Name: Build Your Intranet in a Day
Rating: 4.8 (28 reviews)

Create a complete SharePoint intranet using Microsoft 365, Teams, automation, and real business examples

Created byGerry Brimacombe

Last updated 3/2026

English

What you'll learn

How to build an intranet from scratch with step-by-step guidance.
Implement hands-on projects and real-world applications.
Master key features including permissions, customization, and navigation.
How to increase productivity in a team
Configure document libraries and lists.
Manage permissions and security.
Customize navigation and integrate with Microsoft 365.

Course content

7 sections • 24 lectures • 7h 35m total length

Introduction18:28
Explore how to build a SharePoint intranet in a day with Copilot AI, covering planning, hub site creation, and essential tools shown through the MapleWorks case study.
Defining Your Goals4:51
Begin with the end in mind to define goals, uncover pain points, and foster collaboration with managers, colleagues, and users using Tiki principles of tools, templates, and simple iteration.
Planning & Managing Your Intranet Build Project14:11
Plan and manage your intranet build with a charter, milestones, and budget, leveraging status reports, change management, and user acceptance to keep scope simple and iterative.
Designing Your Intranet6:27
Explore intranet design basics, including naming, hierarchy, and hub sites, and learn to plan information architecture with communication and team sites, hub-and-spoke navigation, and co-creation with a design team.

Creating a Communication Site15:49
Learn to create a SharePoint communication site as the intranet foundation, sign up for Microsoft 365, and configure hub and home sites with colors, logos, and templates.
Branding and Customization20:01
Learn branding and page customization by building SharePoint pages with sections and web parts, configuring layouts, adding columns, and using Copilot to generate content for Mapleworks.
All About News11:56
Learn to create and share news in the MapleWorks hub, including news posts and links, using templates and Copilot, plus email distribution to connect teams across the hub.
All About Document Libraries10:03
All About SharePoint Lists10:45

Lesson 137:00
Create a centralized shared contact list on the MapleWorks intranet, add custom fields and grouped views, export to Excel, and use Copilot to generate sample data.
Building a Leave Calendar21:34
Create a leave calendar by combining classic and modern SharePoint calendars, configure categories and a calculated leave description, and apply content approval for leave requests.
Building a Knowledge Base57:58

Building a Simple Suggestion Box32:52
Create a simple Mapleworks intranet suggestion box to collect employee ideas, including anonymous submissions, using Microsoft Forms, a SharePoint list, Copilot design, and Power Automate.
Building a Help and Support Page25:07
Build a MapleWorks intranet help page with Copilot, a one-stop IT and HR resource, including contact list, suggestion box, quick links, and top menu and home page integration.
Creating a Timesheet App14:51
Create a timesheet app with a SharePoint list and form to capture work date, hours, project, and details. Export to Excel for analysis and use Copilot to analyze data.

Creating and Connecting Hub Sites24:51
Connect and manage your organization with SharePoint hub sites, linking spoke sites to a central hub, inheriting theme and navigation, surfacing news, content, and calendars hub-wide.
Connecting Teams and SharePoint17:05
Explore how Microsoft Teams and SharePoint connect, create teams from SharePoint sites, and use Viva Connections to surface SharePoint content in Teams with tabs, lists, and dashboards.
Office Connections and Tips9:57
Sign in to SharePoint from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook to access OneDrive and sites, then use favorites, recent, and shared with me to organize data in Microsoft 365.
OneDrive Syncing11:56
OneDrive syncs SharePoint and Teams files to your computer, enabling offline work; manage with always keep on this device or free up space, and stop syncing safely without deleting data.

Managing Permissions28:07
Manage permissions with Teams, SharePoint, Azure AD groups; assign owners, members, visitors. Use inherited or unique permissions at sites and libraries, with read, contribute without delete, and full control.
Go-Live: your Intranet Launch7:05
Launch the Mapleworks cooperative carabiner intranet with a clear communication plan, a Monday cutover, and training supported by short how-to videos and a GoLive webinar.
Go-live Presentation23:36
Demonstrate the go-live of the carabiner intranet, a cloud-based Microsoft 365 SharePoint site that provides one source of truth with knowledge base, help and support, timesheets, and shared documents.
Continuous Improvement12:29
Move from go live to continuous improvement by starting simple, gathering real user feedback, and iterating with fresh content, governance, and the Microsoft 365 stewards driving engagement.

Requirements

Basic computer skills. Access to Microsoft 365 with SharePoint Online. Perfect for beginners eager to learn quickly.

Description

Your team can't find files. Nobody knows which version is current. You're paying for Microsoft 365 and using it as glorified email.

This course fixes that. You will build a complete, working company intranet in SharePoint from scratch — not a demo, not a sandbox exercise, a real intranet you can deploy Monday morning.

Using a realistic company example (Mapleworks Cooperative), you'll design, build, brand, automate, and launch a fully functional Microsoft 365 intranet step by step. No IT department required.

Instead of learning features in isolation, you will design, build, brand, automate, and launch a fully functional intranet site step by step.

By the end of this course, you will have created:

• A branded SharePoint Communication Site
• Structured document libraries with metadata and views
• Custom SharePoint lists
• A company leave calendar
• A centralized contact directory
• A knowledge base with version control
• A suggestion box using Microsoft Forms and Power Automate
• A timesheet tracking app
• A Help and Support page
• Hub site structure for future growth
• Proper permissions and a structured go-live plan

You will also learn how to:

• Plan your intranet around real business needs
• Design site hierarchy and navigation for clarity
• Understand Communication Sites vs Team Sites
• Integrate SharePoint with Microsoft Teams and Office
• Use automation to streamline workflows
• Manage permissions safely and confidently
• Launch and continuously improve your intranet

This course is designed for small business owners, operations managers, HR leaders, IT coordinators, and consultants who want a practical, structured way to build an internal SharePoint portal using Microsoft 365.

No advanced technical background is required. If you can use Microsoft 365, you can build this intranet.

You will not just learn SharePoint theory. You will build a working intranet you can adapt immediately for your own organization.

Who this course is for:

IT professionals, small business owners, and beginners seeking to quickly set up a SharePoint intranet.
Adminstrative staff

Build Your Intranet in a Day

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction4 lectures • 44min

Your First SharePoint Site: the Intranet Foundation5 lectures • 1hr 9min

Power Up Your Intranet: Tools for Connection & Clarity3 lectures • 1hr 57min

Boost Your Workflow: Information Collection & Automation3 lectures • 1hr 13min

Power Up Productivity: Teams & Office Integration4 lectures • 1hr 4min

Bring in your Files: Migrate, Load, and Organize1 lecture • 18min

Permissions and Go-Live4 lectures • 1hr 11min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: