Microsoft Teams and SharePoint have become the go-to tools for collaboration in many organisations. By bringing communication, document storage and workflow management into one central place, Microsoft has transformed how we work day-to-day.
However, having spent ten years supporting hundreds of organisations to get the most out of their investment in Microsoft 365, we know that the out-of-the-box experience doesn’t always feel as streamlined as it could.
“We’ve moved everything into Teams and SharePoint, but people still struggle to find what they need. There’s no consistency. Everyone’s doing things differently.”
Sound familiar?
The issue is normally not the platform itself, it’s often how it’s been set up.
When Microsoft 365 exists without a clear structure or navigation plan, even the best tools can start to feel confusing.
What challenges do organisations face when setting up Microsoft Teams and SharePoint?
Most organisations start small and grow Teams and SharePoint organically, with no real plan or structure.
A few Teams here, a SharePoint site there. It seems to work well at first, but as adoption grows, that early flexibility can quickly become challenge.
With no standardisation in place, and different departments create sites in different ways, naming conventions drift and document storage becomes messy, fast.
SharePoint becomes just another disorganised digital filing cabinet that no one can navigate.
A resulting domino effect leads to more workarounds, more sites and channels and more confusion:
Inconsistent structures
Without a shared framework, every Team or site looks and behaves differently. Staff waste time learning how each one works before they can begin the task at hand.
Difficult navigation
Staff often need to click through multiple times to find what they need. There’s no single reliable route to key resources and no way of telling if they’ve found the latest, most up-to-date version of a file.
Unclear ownership
When new sites are created freely with no standardisation, it’s hard to know who is responsible for keeping them tidy and up to date. Sites become cluttered with old content and new sites are created unnecessarily to correct the issues from older sites.
Disjointed user experience
Teams and SharePoint each have their own navigation logic. Without careful planning, the transition between them feels disjointed, leaving users unsure where to look first.
Governance headaches
Permissions and sharing settings vary from site to site. Confusion around ownership, navigation and where to find files results in ad hoc sharing that can cause significant compliance and security issues. Leaders lose confidence that the right people have access to the right content.
These problems rarely appear overnight. They build slowly, until staff begin to lose trust in the platform and revert to less efficient habits, like emailing documents or storing files locally.
How can organisations make Microsoft Teams and SharePoint easier to navigate?
By combining best-practice design, governance and automation, Cloud Design Box turns a growing Microsoft 365 environment into a well-organised, intuitive workspace that supports the way your organisation works.
Here’s what you get with Cloud Design Box:
Consistent, scalable SharePoint and Teams sites
Our Site Creation Tool gives organisations a fast, secure and auditable way to create Teams and Communication sites in SharePoint.
Staff with permissions can create a new SharePoint site in just a few simple steps by choosing from one of our pre-made templates.
Sites are created in a secure way with best practices, such as standardised naming conventions and permissions.
Global navigation that makes sense
A global, personalised menu for easy, clear navigation so that all your staff will be able to take advantage of the technology you have invested in.
This ensures that staff spend less time hunting for information and more time using it.
We also have numerous exclusive SharePoint Web Parts that can be customised to make navigation to key resources even easier. See all our SharePoint Web Parts here.
Controlled SharePoint site creation
With Cloud Design Box, you can delegate SharePoint site creation to an assigned user without making them a SharePoint or Teams admin.
There is a clear trail of who created the site and who is responsible for keeping it updated.
Seamless experience across Teams and SharePoint
Cloud Design Box bridges the gap between Teams and SharePoint so they feel like a single, connected system. Users can move from conversations to files to resources without confusion or duplication, streamlining collaboration and reducing friction.
Role-based access and visibility
When Cloud Design Box manages your Microsoft 365 environment, security comes built in.
Permissions are set correctly from the start, so users can only access what they need. We ensure governance and compliance policies are in place and limit ad hoc sharing by establishing structured, automated access across departments or teams.
Ready to get started?
At Cloud Design Box, we specialise in SharePoint and Microsoft 365 solutions that make sense for organisations of all sizes.
We offer:
- Fully branded intranet hubs tailored to your workflows.
- Custom architecture designed for simplicity, scalability and speed.
- Exclusive SharePoint Web Parts built for busy employees.
- Support and training to get all your staff up and running, fast.
With Cloud Design Box, your SharePoint intranet becomes your organisation’s digital HQ. Book a demo to see how it could work for you.
