KnowledgePoint Rapid-to-deploy, bespoke intranet solution

A perfect balance of customisation and affordability, KnowledgePoint provides a

world-class, bespoke intranet, without the costs and timescales you might expect.

Our solution incorporates the collective input of hundreds of digital communications and

marketing professionals – ready for deployment in your data centre or in the cloud.

Solution overview

While each organisation is unique, we have found that even the most diverse workplaces share the

same core needs when it comes to an intranet. Developed through years of engagements with customers from across the public and private sectors, our KnowledgePoint solution comes ready-

built with the functionality essential to every corporate intranet.

Its development has been informed by the requirements, thoughts and ideas of a huge range of communications and marketing professionals, providing an extremely mature starting point that

accelerates your intranet’s development straight to the customisation stage.

KnowledgePoint is trusted by organisations as diverse as Hymans Robertson, Tesco Bank, ICAS, Cairn Energy and NHS Health Scotland to power their corporate intranets. It is built on top of the

Microsoft SharePoint platform, and can be seamlessly integrated with most enterprise systems.

Because of the head-start KnowledgePoint provides, we can deliver your bespoke intranet within

a matter of weeks.

Ready when you are.

A fully-customised

KnowledgePoint installation is typically ready to deploy

and use in just a few weeks.

Let’s work together.

We collaborate with your

organisation to ensure a tailored solution that’s

widely adopted.

A trusted platform.

Used by leading companies

and organisations to deliver their corporate intranet

experience.

Customisations and extra features

SharePoint platform

KnowledgePoint application

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KnowledgePoint

A Happy Medium

We believe KnowledgePoint occupies a ‘best of both worlds’ position between off-the-shelf and fully

bespoke solutions. Off-the-shelf solutions are cheap but generic, while fully-bespoke solutions are

tailored, but can be expensive and slow to develop. KnowledgePoint hits a sweet spot in the middle ground – a solution which is well-rounded and will meet your needs, budget and timescale.

Out of the box, KnowledgePoint delivers a fully-featured corporate intranet at an affordable cost – either purchased outright, or as a subscription on a per-person-per-month basis. Because we have

pre-built the features common to most intranets, we can focus on customising and configuring

your intranet to meet your organisation’s unique needs.

Key benefits

An affordable customised intranet – We’ll work with you to build a fully-branded solution

that meets the needs of your staff and your organisation.

No ‘big project’ delays – Depending on the level of customisation you require, delivery time is a matter of weeks.

Powerful enterprise search - Find anything: news, articles , FAQs, blogs, Yammer

conversations, documents, people – in short, the knowledge users need to be fully informed.

Works on the devices your staff use – Responsive design adapts to any modern browser.

Designed to encourage user adoption – Personalisation options such as drag-and-drop widgets, favourite links and colour schemes ensure users feel at home and keep coming back.

Easy for users to access – Transparent single sign-on thanks to Active Directory integration.

Easy for admins to secure – Control who can view and edit any area of the intranet, with

granular user permissions.

Won’t meet all your requirements

Low cost / low risk

Off-the-shelf solution

Rapid results

Can’t guarantee future direction

Can’t adapt with your business

Significantly more expensive

Meets requirements exactly

Bespoke development

Unproven solution

Slow to deliver and deploy

Higher risk of failure

Reduced cost

KnowledgePoint

Reduced risk

Meets requirements

Rapid results

Future-proofed

KnowledgePoint

Tailoring your intranet

We will work with you to design and configure an intranet

that meets your specifications – from implementing

consistent branding and layout, to designing content types that suit your business.

Our development process starts with a period of

engagement with your organisation’s staff. We

collaborate with them to create an information architecture for the new intranet. This process helps users

engage with the project from the start; the resulting user-

focused structure improves the chances of widespread

user adoption once the intranet is deployed, too. We

augment this with tailored training after delivery to make

sure your investment is a success.

We’ll design and build your intranet, implementing your

branding, configuring each detail and ensuring throughout that everyone is on the same page. By

working closely with your organisation and your staff, we make sure everyone is delighted with the

final product.

About us

Founded in 1996, CompanyNet

started out specialising in

bespoke intranets and extranets.

We are now one of Scotland’s

leading independent software solutions businesses, with clients

including Tesco Bank, Whyte &

Mackay and the Scottish Housing Regulator. As a longstanding

Microsoft Partner, we were one of

the first in Europe to achieve Gold

Partner status in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Collaboration and Content (SharePoint). We also now hold Silver status for Data Analytics and Application Development.

Our slogan, “Collective intelligence for better business”, isn’t just a phrase; it’s the philosophy

behind everything we do. We believe the strongest solutions come from close collaboration towards a common goal. This is reflected in how we work and in the systems we build. We help unlock the

collective intelligence of your business, its people and data, making the whole greater than the sum

of the parts.

We take time to understand the purpose, function and goals of your business. This lets us select the

most appropriate models to suit your needs, and – where needed – bring in specialists from our

network of trusted partners. And it lets us all – client, partners and CompanyNet – work collectively

to deliver a truly successful project.

KnowledgePoint

KnowledgePoint takes care of the requirements common to every

intranet, letting us focus on customising it to your users’ needs.

KnowledgePoint

Shaping your new intranet

We know your corporate intranet is a huge investment – and that it stands or falls on the ability to

meet its users’ needs. Before we write a line of code, we will collaborate with your staff to draw up

an information architecture that reflects the way your organisation works. If you’re replacing an existing intranet, or have particular features in mind, we will go through a feature-mapping process

to ensure KnowledgePoint covers each of your requirements.

Basic intranet structure

KnowledgePoint comes with a base structure and feature set. We’ve pre-built the features common to the vast majority of corporate intranets, which lets us focus on tailoring a structure and adding

features unique to your business.

Automatic login and security groups

KnowledgePoint uses existing Active Directory credentials for login, meaning staff on internal

machines will be automatically logged in. External users can access the intranet using their familiar

Active Directory login details.

Users can be assigned to fully-customisable security groups. We will help you design groups that reflect your needs. A typical set of security groups might include:

System Administrator Central admin, can configure SharePoint services

Intranet Administrator Can modify/view all content, set privileges, monitor usage

Content Editor Can create and manage subsites

Breaking news content Editor Can create and modify breaking news stories

Intranet Member Can view content, edit profile, add/edit noticeboard items

In this case, the ‘Intranet member’ group would be mapped to SharePoint’s ‘Everyone’ group, giving

all users access to the intranet by default.

News Centre

Staff Directory

Homepage

Subsites Subsites Subsites

The news centre displays news stories created by staff around the

organisation, updated automatically from content across the site.

The staff directory lets you find the right contact quickly – search by

name, role or location, or even by team or skills.

The first port of call for all users, the homepage pulls key information

from around the site and provides entry points into all the content.

Unlimited subsites can be created for use as team, group or topic areas of the intranet.

KnowledgePoint

Publishing, design and personalisation

Pages Library and audit trail

KnowledgePoint uses the SharePoint Publishing Framework for production, approval and

publication of pages. All pages are stored in a pages library, which users with sufficient privileges (such as administrators) can access to add, modify, review and approve content.

Automatic version and approval control is applied to all pages created in KnowledgePoint. Copies

of previous versions of each page are kept, complete with metadata about the pages. This creates

an audit trail telling administrators who created a page, who approved it, and when it happened.

Creating pages - as easy as writing an email

Creating and editing pages is completely

straightforward. Just give your page a name, and start writing using the built-in visual editor.

Because it’s built on Microsoft technology, users

are already familiar with the Word-style editing features. In fact, if you can write and format an

email, you can create a page on a

KnowledgePoint-based intranet.

Responsive design and page templates

The design and layout of your intranet is essential to its usability. A clean, friendly and intuitive

design can significantly boost take-up and use of the site.

We work with web design experts to create a front-end to your intranet that makes it a piece of cake to use. KnowledgePoint sites

are fully responsive, meaning the intranet automatically adapts its

layout to work with any modern web browser. Regardless of platform and device, your users will have a great experience.

Since content is what makes the intranet useful, there should be no

barriers to publishing and editing it. We make content editing

hassle-free using master page templates. These are pre-designed and can be applied by users with no design skills, meaning ordinary

users can create and edit pages without worrying about breaking

the layout.

Per-user personalisation

Users can personalise their experience with a range of widgets, drag-and-drop layout customisation

on the homepage, favourite links and colour schemes. For organisations with multiple office locations, we can also implement a location picker to let customise the user’s experience based on

their geographic location.

Personalisation settings can either be stored in a cookie in the user’s browser, or against their user

account for consistent cross-device personalisation.

KnowledgePoint

Cross-site navigation and widgets

A selection of navigation tools and widgets can be added to enhance your intranet. These help users

move through the site smoothly, find information quickly, and personalise their experience.

The site’s menus and navigation are informed by the information architecture:

Primary navigation appears on every page, providing routes into the most-used content.

Secondary navigation appears on subsites and displays pages available to the user at the

current team or subsite level.

Breadcrumb trail navigation shows the user exactly where they currently are.

Footer navigation contains general links, such as to corporate social media accounts.

The following widgets can be made to appear on every page of the site:

Quick Find

Users can start searches pre-

filtered by key business areas to

get to the documents or data

they need more quickly.

Search panel

Lets users instantly search the

content of your intranet and

staff directory.

Theme picker

Lets users pick their

preferred colour scheme.

Location picker

Lets users personalise what they

see based on office location.

Breaking news ticker

Rapidly notify staff of breaking

news, such as IT outages,

weather warnings or new clients.

Links panel

Quick links to popular parts of

the intranet. Can display fixed

links and user-added links.

Most popular

Displays the most popular news

items, pages or documents

across the intranet.

KnowledgePoint

Homepage

The layout of the homepage can be configured with a variety of additional widgets. These provide

useful functions and display key information pulled from across the site.

The Headline News panel is the main focus of the homepage, fixed in place front and centre. The

other widgets are dynamic, and can be dragged and dropped to let users create their preferred layout. This layout is then saved in a cookie, or against their Active Directory profile.

Widgets are styled to fit seamlessly into your design and can be configured to reflect your

organisation’s interests. In addition to our standard widgets, custom widgets can also be

developed, if you have specific business needs that require them.

Headline News panel

The focus of the homepage,

a list of key corporate news

items can be presented in

this widget. It displays each

story for a few seconds and

cycles automatically.

Internal News widget

Displays news drawn from sites

across the intranet. Can be

localised to the user’s location.

External News widget

Displays a selection of stories

from any public RSS feed, such

as BBC News.

Blogs widget

Shows recent posts pulled from

blogs around the intranet.

Don’t Forget widget

Acts as a small ‘advertisement’

which can link to a specific

page on the intranet.

Noticeboard widget

Lets staff share items such as classified ads, fundraising and social

events. Any user can publish a notice, set a date for their item to

expire, categorise it and edit or delete it.

KnowledgePoint

Subsites

KnowledgePoint gives you the opportunity to create an

unlimited number of subsites.

These can be used to encourage collaboration and sharing between departments and teams, as well as to provide a

focus on a particular client, topic or shared interest.

Typically, each team and project would have its own subsite.

Subsites can contain documents, pages and discussions, as well as further subsites. This allows

your staff to create a hierarchy of sections – for

example, the HR subsite could contain its own subsite

on staff benefits, which itself would contain documents on pensions and so on.

User permissions for viewing and editing content can be assigned to each subsite. You

can therefore give specified staff the ability to edit the parts of the intranet that fall within their remit, without granting site-wide editing privileges. It’s even possible to restrict who can

view a subsite, meaning sensitive information can be controlled and made available only to

those who require access.

Subsite homepages can be customised to give them a distinctive personality. Each one can display its own custom image, as well as ‘localised’ widgets which present news and

updates specifically related to that subsite.

Site Search and Delve

KnowledgePoint includes a fully-featured

enterprise search system which indexes content

from across your intranet. The search feature is available via a small widget found on every page

of the site. It provides an instant way for users to

find what they need without having to hunt for it.

Search results can include pages from across the main site and all subsites the users has access to,

news items, blog posts and people. The search

function is faceted, which means that, as well as full-text search, you can filter by a number of parameters like result type and department. We can

help you determine which filters and search scopes would be most appropriate for your intranet

during the initial scoping process.

SharePoint also integrates with Microsoft’s Delve technology (pictured), which lets users search in

a highly-personalised, visual way. Delve automatically prioritises content relevant to the user,

interpreting their search query using natural language processing to reveal the most useful

documents, emails, and Yammer conversations.

Homepage

Subsite

Another subsite

Documents

Documents

Discussions

Subsite

KnowledgePoint

News Centre

Internal news, external news and blog posts also appear in the News Centre, a dedicated section

which brings together complete news from across the organisation in one place. As with the

homepage, this can be personalised to show news important to the current user, based on their team and office location.

Staff directory and profiles

The staff directory lists all staff members in your organisation, and

offers a number of ways of filtering

them. This helps users quickly and

intuitively identify information about the person they need.

Key information about staff members

can be displayed in the staff directory search results. This includes name,

photograph, job title, office location,

team, phone number, mobile number and email address. Integration with the Microsoft Lync platform means it can even display a real-

time status indicator to show whether that person is available to contact. A filter panel (pictured

below) can be used to quickly narrow down search results by any attribute held in the staff directory.

This can be thoroughly customised to fit your business needs.

Selecting a person from the search results will take you to their

profile page. As well as a summary of the user’s details, the profile

page can include information such as their responsibilities, biography, what subject matters they are experts in, recent

interactions with others on the intranet, and an interactive

organisational chart showing their position within their team and the organisation.

Users may edit fields in their own profiles, where permission has

been granted. Some fields may be automatically populated by data

from Active Directory to ensure it is kept accurate and up-to-date.

Social features

Social features built in to KnowledgePoint allow a level of interaction between users. This helps encourage a sense of

community and further fosters collaboration.

On a colleague’s profile page, users can view a newsfeed showing their recent activity on the site.

Users can also follow each other to be alerted when people important to them create a new post, and ‘like’ and comment on posts.

KnowledgePoint

Technical specifications Feature comparison

The on-premise and Office 365 editions of KnowledgePoint share most features. There are some

technical differences due to the nature of each platform. We will help you choose the right platform for your business.

Minimum requirements

* On-premise, we typically deploy KnowledgePoint on a three-server farm (Web Front End server,

Application Server and SQL Server). This can be doubled for larger installations.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft SharePoint 2013

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

Three servers*

On-premise

MS Office 365 E3 or SharePoint Online

Subscription

Office 365

Se

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Minimum supported web browser versions: Internet Explorer 9, Safari 5, Chrome 10, Firefox 4

(other browser versions may work but are not officially supported) Cli

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Quick Find People Search

Highlight news panel

Internal news widget

Links widget, including per-user ‘My Links’

Noticeboard widget External news widget (RSS) Departmental sites (including rollup content

and images)

Search layouts

Hide Ribbon items based on group membership Blogs widget – Either from user My Sites or from

page content Most Popular widget

Homepage personalisation and colour picker, stored with user’s profile

My Sites personalisation Sub-site templates

On-premise

Quick Find People Search Highlight news panel

Internal news widget Links widget, including per-user ‘My Links’

Noticeboard widget External news widget (RSS)

Departmental sites (including rollup content and images)

Search layouts

Hide Ribbon items based on group membership Blogs widget – Page content Homepage personalisation and colour picker,

stored with a cookie

My Sites (themed)

Sub-site creation process

Office 365

KnowledgePoint

Cost breakdown

We know cost is an important factor in your decision. Our experienced team will work with you to

choose a technical solution that keeps the project within your budget while meeting your needs.

Start the conversation We hope this brochure has given you some insight into what KnowledgePoint is, and what it can do

for your organisation.

We’d be happy to answer any further questions you have about KnowledgePoint. If you’d like to

discuss any aspect of the system, from functionality to cost, please get in touch.

KnowledgePoint license £40,000 Configuration and customisation based on

extra requirements Microsoft Windows Server, SharePoint and SQL licenses

Per-user client access licenses (CALs)

Server hardware

On-premise

KnowledgePoint license £2-£4.50 per user per

month Configuration and customisation based on extra requirements

Office 365

On

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Maintenance/upgrade costs

Office 365 Enterprise E3 or SharePoint online client access licenses (CALs) – per-user, per-

month

Talk to us about what KnowledgePoint can do for your business.

Contact our sales team on +44 (0)131 559 7512 or email sales@company-net.com

www.company-net.com

Some of the organisations who have already chosen KnowledgePoint