For years, clients have asked me the same question: „Should we build our intranet on SharePoint, or on Viva Connections?” Microsoft just answered it — they are the same thing.

Starting this month, the Viva Connections app in Teams becomes the SharePoint app in Teams, with general availability rolling out through June 2026. It looks like a rename. It isn’t. It puts the entire employee experience under one roof — and it matters for any company that wants an intranet people actually open.

Setting up your intranet now happens directly from the SharePoint admin center — fewer steps, fewer moving parts. Two new web parts arrive for the home site: Resources for key links and tools, Announcements for company-wide updates. There is a new customization experience for both desktop and mobile. And, most important for anyone already running the system: your existing branding, app name and permissions stay exactly as they are. Nothing to reconfigure.

Until now, many employees were never quite sure where company content actually lived — in SharePoint? in Viva Connections? in Teams? That confusion has a real cost: time lost searching for documents, the same questions asked again and again, an intranet nobody uses because nobody is sure what it is.

One place, one name fixes exactly that. Fewer „where do I find that document?” moments, better adoption, less wasted time. For a business owner, that means people working — not people searching.

Companies with a well-designed home site win immediately — they get new capabilities on top of a foundation that already works. Companies running a half-built intranet nobody opens now have the perfect reason to fix it: the platform is finally pointing in one direction, and what you invest today won’t be wasted tomorrow.

The rename isn’t what makes the difference. What’s behind it does: a clear structure, organized content, workflows people actually use.

We have been building on SharePoint since 2003, and this is exactly the foundation behind Apollo 365: your intranet, documents and operations living where people already work, in Microsoft 365. No parallel system, no „one more app” to learn.

Microsoft’s move confirms the direction we have followed for years — the intranet isn’t an isolated IT project, it is the company’s daily workspace.

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Built on Microsoft 365, with a clear scope and a fixed price — pick a package and we begin:

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I’ve been working with SharePoint since 2003. I’ve been through every major stage of the platform — from the early on-premise deployments to AI agents grounded in organisational content.

In our industry, people forget quickly where we started. For anyone making decisions today about Copilot, agents and governance, the context of where SharePoint came from matters — because it explains where it’s going.

Here’s the journey, told from the perspective of someone who was there.

— Denis Stadler, Founder, Stadler & Partners

The first SharePoint deployments were rough. On-premise servers, manual configurations, training sessions where I explained what a „document library” was. The real problem we were solving back then wasn’t about intelligence — it was about order. Companies had mailboxes choked with attachments and chaotic network shares.

SharePoint brought structure, versioning and a consistent way to collaborate across departments. For many organisations, that was enough. For others, intranets became content graveyards — because SharePoint’s value depended on user discipline, not on the platform itself.

Moving SharePoint to the cloud, as part of Microsoft 365, removed the infrastructure burden: no servers to patch, no scaling headaches, no migration projects every few years.

More importantly, SharePoint became the invisible foundation underneath Teams, OneDrive, Power Automate and Power Apps. Anyone still talking about SharePoint as „a separate product” has missed this shift entirely.

Our Microsoft 365 Cloud Foundation package is built exactly on this reality: SharePoint is no longer „deployed” — it’s configured properly as the foundation for everything else.

Microsoft Graph, Delve, Cognitive Services — the first tools through which SharePoint began to „learn” who works with whom, what content is relevant, what gets searched for repeatedly.

It was the first time the value of an intranet stopped being measured by how much content it stored — and started being measured by how quickly you could find what you needed.

Microsoft 365 Copilot transformed SharePoint from a passive repository into an active partner in knowledge work.

A new hire asks for HR policies in natural language and gets answers in seconds. A salesperson asks for a pre-meeting briefing and Copilot builds it from emails, documents and notes across SharePoint. A manager generates a project page from a single prompt.

For us, this opened a new category of projects: Copilot rollouts that don’t stop at „we’ve bought the licences”. Real adoption requires content preparation, governance, training and measurement. Without them, Copilot stays an expensive button no one presses.

For the full picture of Copilot’s path toward autonomous agents, see our article on Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3.

The current stage. And the most interesting part of our day-to-day work.

With Copilot Studio, we build specialised agents: a legal agent that understands the client’s contracts and policies, an engineering agent that answers from technical documentation, an HR agent that helps employees find answers about benefits.

All these agents are grounded in the client’s own SharePoint content. They don’t make things up. They don’t hallucinate from the internet. They answer based on the organisation’s internal truth.

In Apollo 365 — our Digital Workplace solution on Microsoft 365 — this is exactly where the acceleration layer sits: SharePoint as the foundation, Apollo 365 as the workplace experience, agents as the intelligent extension of the team.

The uncomfortable truth about AI on SharePoint: it amplifies everything. Including the mistakes.

Weak permissions no one has reviewed in five years suddenly become visible. Sensitive content that was „hidden through obscurity” surfaces in Copilot responses. Compliance risks (NIS2, GDPR) scale up sharply when anyone can ask anything in natural language.

Governance pillars we configure before Copilot:

• Sensitivity Labels — automatic classification of sensitive content.
• Access Reviews — periodic permission audits.
• Lifecycle Management — clear retention and archival policies.
• Data Loss Prevention — protection against leaks.
• Restricted SharePoint Search — precise control over what Copilot can search.

Governance is no longer an IT problem. It’s an organisational culture problem. That’s what we do inside the Microsoft 365 Cloud Foundation package: we don’t let clients walk into the era of agents without first putting their foundation in order.

The future of SharePoint is intelligent, proactive and embedded in the flow of work. Deeper personalisation, agents that don’t just answer but act — approve, update, trigger workflows across systems.

For us, that translates into the acceleration layer we already deliver: the combination of Power Automate, n8n, UiPath and Copilot Studio agents that handle end-to-end orchestration. SharePoint is the source of truth. Agents are the hands. Workflows are the nerves.

The dinosaurs who survived this evolution are the ones who stopped treating SharePoint as storage and started treating it as infrastructure for intelligence.

The same mission as in 2003 — helping people find the information they need to do their job well. Only the tools have grown. And so has their impact.

Want to talk about what the path from classic SharePoint to a workplace with intelligent agents looks like for your organisation?

Microsoft 365 Copilot rollouts, Copilot Studio agents and governance done right — on the Cloud Foundation, delivered through Apollo 365. Reach out and we’ll set up a technical conversation, no pressure.

Choosing between SharePoint, Power Apps with Dataverse, or a full custom Azure architecture can make the difference between a simple internal tool and a scalable business solution.

Across modern organizations, Microsoft 365 has become the standard infrastructure for collaboration and productivity.

But when the need arises to automate internal processes or build business applications, key questions appear:
“Where should we store our data? SharePoint? Dataverse? Or a fully custom solution built in Azure?”

Your platform choice directly impacts performance, scalability, security, and long-term cost of ownership.

If you already use Microsoft 365, you already have SharePoint.
It’s the perfect starting point for internal apps where you want to collect data, manage documents, and provide a familiar interface to end users.

✅ Advantages:

• Included in Microsoft 365 – no extra licensing required.
• Easy to configure and natively integrated with Teams, OneDrive, and Outlook.
• Handles up to 5,000 records per entity (list) efficiently.
• Ideal for prototypes and lightweight departmental applications.

⚠️ Limitations:

• Performance decreases on views exceeding 5,000 items or containing more than 8 lookup columns (including Person, Choice, or Managed Metadata types).
• No true relational integrity between lists – lookups do not enforce data consistency.
• No field-level security options.
• Becomes complex in Power Apps when connecting to multiple SharePoint lists.

When to choose SharePoint:

• Simple internal apps – HR requests, IT service forms, procurement tracking, or asset lists.
• Approval workflows with minimal data relationships.
• When you need a quick, low-cost solution within Microsoft 365.

💡 SharePoint is ideal for apps with moderate data volume and low complexity.
If your views slow down or you need more lookup relationships, consider migrating to Dataverse.

When your app becomes a core business system — with relational data, advanced logic, and layered security — the right foundation is Power Apps with Dataverse.

✅ Advantages:

• Consistent performance even with millions of records.
• Supports complex data relationships (one-to-many, many-to-many).
• Row- and field-level security for precise access control.
• Business rules, validation logic, and calculated or rollup fields.
• Deep integration with Dynamics 365, Power BI, AI Builder, and Copilot Studio.
• Centralized governance through the Power Platform Admin Center.

When to choose Dataverse:

• For complex apps like CRM, project management, or operations tracking.
• For apps that require integrated Power BI reports or automated workflows.
• When you need full governance, compliance, and scalability.

💡 Dataverse is the foundation for enterprise-grade Power Platform apps.
Combining Dataverse + SharePoint provides the best of both worlds: structured relational data and advanced document management, natively integrated with Teams.

Both platforms can complement each other perfectly:

• SharePoint for document and file management,
• Dataverse for structured business data,
• Connected through Power Automate for unified and scalable workflows.

For organizations with existing Azure infrastructure that require maximum performance and flexibility, we recommend:
SharePoint (modern interface) → Azure Web App (API / business logic) → Azure SQL Database (data).

How it works:

• The SharePoint interface is built with React and Office UI Fabric (Office React UX) – visually identical to Microsoft 365 apps, ensuring a responsive and intuitive experience.
• Azure Web App (API) handles business logic, validations, and process automation, securely connecting to the database.
• Azure SQL Database stores data efficiently and securely, with no delegation limits.

Native Microsoft 365 integration:

• 🌐 React web parts can be displayed as apps directly in Microsoft Teams.
• 🔐 Authentication through Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD).
• 🧩 Full access to Microsoft Graph API – users, files, groups, and emails.

✅ Advantages:

• Full control and top-tier performance.
• Modern, responsive UX built on Office React components.
• Seamless integration with Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, and Graph API.
• Unlimited scalability within Azure infrastructure.
• Ability to connect data from ERP, CRM, or other APIs.

⚠️ Limitations:

• Requires React and backend (.NET / Node.js) expertise.
• Azure hosting costs (SQL + App Service).
• Longer development time compared to Power Apps.

• ✅ SharePoint – for fast internal apps.
• 🚀 Power Apps + Dataverse + SharePoint – for enterprise business apps with complex logic and integrated document management.
• 🧱 Full Custom (SharePoint + Web App + SQL) – for full control, modern UX, and advanced integration.
• 🔗 SharePoint + Dataverse (Hybrid) – for document-heavy solutions and extended reporting.

💡 In short:
– SharePoint for simplicity.
– Dataverse for enterprise-grade apps.
– Azure Custom for complete control and deep Microsoft 365 integration.

AtStadler & Partners, we analyze Power Platform, SharePoint, and Azure scenarios to find the best-fit architecture for every business.

Get in touch for a personalized assessment and discover how to accelerate digital transformation within the Microsoft ecosystem.

SharePoint Agents – the AI assistant transforming your intranet into an intelligent information hub – Microsoft brings AI directly into SharePoint Online. Every site can now have an AI agent that answers, organizes, and automates based on the content it has access to.

In modern companies, the volume of documents and pages keeps growing. SharePoint Agents flip the script: from “search through folders” to “ask the agent.” The result? Faster answers, clarity, and more efficient processes.

SharePoint Agents are a new AI capability that connects an intelligent assistant to a SharePoint site’s content. The agent can answer questions, generate summaries, complete metadata, and suggest actions — all while honoring the existing Microsoft 365 permissions and governance.

• Contextual answers – ask about processes, policies, or documents and get information grounded in your site.
• File summarization – produce summaries and highlight recent changes.
• Metadata & classification – assist with tagging and organizing content.
• Automation – trigger approvals or notifications via Power Automate.
• Security by design – the agent only “sees” what the user is allowed to see.

• In HR, it answers questions about benefits, policies, or forms instantly.
• In projects, it summarizes status, deliverables, and recently updated documents.
• In knowledge bases, it finds guides and procedures without folder hunting.

• Conversational search – stop manual browsing and ask naturally, like in chat.
• Local context – each agent is grounded in its own site’s content.
• Microsoft 365 integration – works with SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and Power Automate.

SharePoint Agents are not just a UI change — the impact is operational and measurable.

• Clarity – information stays connected to the topic and easy to retrieve.
• Speed – fewer clarifications, faster decisions.
• All-in-one – chat, files, workflows, and reports in one Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
• Enterprise security – permissions and governance aligned with your policies.

• Start with a pilot – pick an HR or Project site for quick validation.
• Define roles – who can create/approve agents and how governance works.
• Clean your content – remove duplicates, update metadata.
• Monitor & iterate – optimize based on logs and user feedback.

The Microsoft 365 ecosystem keeps evolving; SharePoint Agents pave the way for smarter automation and analytics — from usage reporting to deeper Teams integration and granular AI cost controls.

👉 At Stadler & Partners we implement SharePoint Online as the central digital hub. For a modern intranet experience, explore Apollo 365 — our SharePoint Online intranet portal, bringing communication, documents, and workflows together.

📌 Read also: SharePoint Showcase Highlights – Get the most out of SharePoint Agents

Want to see how to combine SharePoint Agents with Apollo 365 for a smarter intranet? Contact the Stadler & Partners team for a tailored discussion.

SharePoint receives major header and footer enhancements – Microsoft continues to modernize the platform, introducing new features for site customization and a more engaging, efficient intranet experience.

The new options give organizations greater control over how they build and adapt their SharePoint sites, making it easier to reflect brand identity and provide clear navigation for users.

• Compact and modern header – more space for content, minimalist design;
• Advanced customization – configurable size and alignment for header elements;
• Flexible footer – extended options for links, logos, and useful information;
• Improved accessibility – fully optimized for desktop and mobile.

Previously, header and footer limitations made it difficult to align sites with a company’s brand. With the new options, organizations can now build more attractive and practical sites.

• Better alignment with corporate identity;
• Clearer, more intuitive navigation for employees;
• Centralized links and key information in a visible area.

To support this transition, Microsoft has also released a SharePoint Web UI Kit in Figma, providing visual components and templates for site design. This allows teams to create prototypes and wireframes before implementing them in SharePoint.

Although the kit doesn’t integrate directly with SharePoint, it provides a strong foundation for collaboration between design and development teams, enabling more efficient planning of layouts and visual elements.

Microsoft has confirmed that the new functionalities are already in gradual rollout and will be available to all SharePoint Online users in the coming months.

For organizations using SharePoint as their digital hub, these changes represent an important step toward a more modern and user-friendly intranet.

👉 At Stadler & Partners, we help companies implement the latest Microsoft 365 technologies to digitize processes and improve employee experience.

📌 Read more: Introducing new SharePoint Site Header & Footer Enhancements

Want to learn how to integrate these functionalities into your SharePoint site? Contact the Stadler & Partners team for a consultation.