SharePoint Modernisation — What It Actually Involves

If you've been using SharePoint for a while, chances are it's turned into a bit of a mess. No judgement — it happens to everyone. Documents everywhere, team sites nobody uses, classic pages that look like they're from 2010, and a folder structure that only makes sense to the person who built it.

That's what SharePoint modernisation is about. It's not throwing everything out and starting again. It's getting what you have into shape so it actually works for your team.

What does modernisation actually mean?

Moving from classic to modern

If you're still on classic SharePoint pages and sites, you're missing out on the modern experience — better navigation, responsive design that works on phones, and integration with the rest of M365. Modern sites are faster, easier to manage, and don't need IT to make changes.

Fixing the information architecture

This is the big one. Most SharePoint environments grow organically — someone creates a site here, a library there, a folder inside a folder inside a folder. Modernisation means stepping back and designing a structure that makes sense. Where do documents live? Who has access to what? How do people find things?

Cleaning up permissions

Over the years, permissions get messy. People leave, new people start, someone shares a link with "everyone in the organisation" and forgets about it. We audit who has access to what and tighten it up. This matters even more if you're looking at Copilot — because Copilot respects SharePoint permissions, so if your permissions are wrong, Copilot will surface things to the wrong people.

Migrating content

Sometimes it's moving from on-prem SharePoint to SharePoint Online. Sometimes it's moving from file shares or network drives into SharePoint. Either way, you don't just drag and drop — you need a plan for what goes where, what gets archived, and what gets left behind.

Building useful sites

Intranets, project hubs, document centres, team sites that people actually want to use. We build them using out-of-the-box features — no custom code that breaks when Microsoft updates things.

How we approach it

We start with a discovery session. We look at what you've got, talk to the people who use it (and the ones who gave up on it), and figure out what good looks like for your business.

Then we build a plan — usually phased so you're not trying to change everything at once. Migrate the most important stuff first, get people comfortable, then keep going.

The goal is a SharePoint environment that people actually use because it's easier than the alternative. Not one that IT forces everyone onto.

If your SharePoint is due for a clean-up, we can have a look and tell you what's involved. No obligation, just an honest assessment.