Helping Organizations Navigate their Intranet (regroove.ca)

Regroove Solutions Inc. helps teams harness Microsoft Cloud technologies to run a more effective business through projects and coaching.

Challenge

Regroove strives to ensure best practices are delivered to every customer we work with. Sometimes, this requires a little extra work on our end to make sure everything is right for the client. Helping clients set up a company-wide intranet via Microsoft 365 to store their files and other important information is something Regroove is all too familiar with, but sometimes there are things that Microsoft just doesn’t offer. That’s where Navo comes in.

SharePoint is an excellent tool to use for organizing company files. Sometimes, however, the creation and maintenance of a company’s SharePoint Intranet can be challenging due to certain features that Microsoft doesn’t offer.

We found the way we need to architect the site structure on SharePoint for clients in order to meet best practices for permissions and information management meant that we needed to create a lot of different sites.
Matt Longpre, Navo UX (User Experience) Designer, Regroove Solutions Inc.

Even small organizations create multiple SharePoint sites that separate sensitive data to follow information storage security best practices. SharePoint doesn’t give you an out of box way to create a navigation system that goes across every site you create. With an abundance of sites created for each client, the challenge for Regroove consultants became finding a way to make navigation between all sites easy enough for all employees at the client’s company to follow.

It became a standard procedure for Regroove specialists to create a simple way for clients to navigate between all the different SharePoint sites they set up. This usually came in the form of a consistent header, with a simple user interface that featured the same navigation links across each site.

We would create a navigation header manually for each client, and it got to the point where it was so repeatable that we decided to go and turn it into a product
Matt Longpre, Navo UX (User Experience) Designer, Regroove Solutions Inc.

Solution

The response from clients who received this SharePoint navigation system was overwhelmingly positive due to its inherent functionality, so Regroove thought, “Why not offer this functionality as a full service?” The product became Navo – a simple way to navigate through the multitude of SharePoint sites created for an organization.

As it stands now, the evolution of Navo as a concept has led the way for it to become much more than a simple way to navigate SharePoint. Today, Navo operates as a centrally managed hub of links that helps people get to and navigate through all the tools they may need to conduct their day-to-day tasks in the way they want.

Navo cuts through all the clutter that is keeping you from reaching your peak efficiency levels, affording you the same level of intuitiveness and convenience you would expect to find on a major website on the internet.
Sean Wallbridge, President, Regroove Solutions Inc.

In addition to a user-friendly visual interface to organize links, Navo introduced a search function so that keywords could be searched to find files or links within the organization. It was purposefully designed with this dual function to appeal to either preferred method of finding things. Some people like to use search bars to find tools, some people prefer to look through icons or filenames within a user interface – Navo is intended to cater to both preferences.

There were many things that had to be created for Navo to be launched; and to succeed.

According to Matt, “an application to manage the menu items needed to be created, as well as an API (Application Programming Interface) to put everything together.” Once the SharePoint framework was created, an extension for Chrome and Edge, as well as Microsoft Teams soon followed “so users could keep their menu with them wherever they were on the web” said Matt.

Expanding Navo’s functionality to browsers Chrome and Edge, as well as Microsoft Teams, extended the options for the user exponentially. Not only could users use Navo to search nearly all of the tools they would need, but they could do it in several different places, each with different interfaces.

I know I can call up Navo to come find and connect me to whatever I need access to do my job – be it a web-based tool or a list in a SharePoint site – from wherever I am working, from my browser to my cellphone.
Kelly LaForest, Consultant, Regroove Solutions Inc.

Outcomes and Benefits

According to Matt, Navo provides “consistency – that sort of governance – which is lacking in the way Microsoft sets things up.”

As comprehensive a tool as SharePoint can be, having consistent user interfaces to navigate through everything that may be necessary is important, and has made navigation within companies and organizations a whole lot simpler.

It provides “a structure that’s not going to change based on what you’ve been up to lately [and creates] an index, a catalog, a library of everything the company uses” said Matt on Navo’s functionality. As a result, it has never been easier for an individual at a company to access everything needed to do their job.

It is also easy for companies to govern and administer consistent navigation experience for everyone in their organization from one central spot. They can add and organize links, then deploy them to employees on any supported platform the company uses.

We were up and running with Navo in minutes! Our entire staff now has anywhere, anytime access to all of the most important information they need, when they need it.
Jeff C. Kelly, Principal Consultant, Slater Hill Inc.

Conclusion

Navo provides users with the ability to access everything they may need from their company in a simple, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing package. An old English language proverb states that necessity is the mother of invention. This certainly rings true for the creation of Navo.