Microsoft SharePoint Hub Sites

There are a host of exciting changes coming to SharePoint Online with the launch of SharePoint Hub, Communication & Team Sites but what do all the changes mean for your organisation?

What are Modern sites?

SharePoint has recently launched SharePoint Hub Sites, Communication Sites and Team Sites as part of the Modern Look & Feel that is slowly being implemented across the SharePoint Online environment. The Modern Sites provide enhanced functionality including,

• Responsive & Modern Look & Feel – A common complaint of SharePoint is that it can look bland Out of the Box without applying any SharePoint Branding. The new Modern Sites look excellent out of the box are responsive on all devices and are easy to maintain and update.
• Integration – The new modern framework web parts have much better integration with other Office365 Products including Microsoft Teams, Stream, PowerBI and Files within SharePoint and OneDrive.
• Usability – The Modern Sites are much easier to create and update. New modern framework web parts are easy to update including the News and Page Content.

Now we have an understanding of what the modern sites are below is a breakdown of how each type of modern site can be used and what functionality the SharePoint Hub, Communication & Team Sites provide.

Sharepoint Hub Sites

Hub Sites bring the Communication and Team sites together and become the centralised building block of an Intranet. By creating a Hub Site you can link all of the relevant Team & Communication Sites together making them easier to find, roll-up content from each of the sites (as you can see on the image above the news has and activity has rolled up from multiple sites) to the homepage, provide a standardised look & feel, consistent navigation and simplify access on mobile devices.

As you can see in the Hub Site Screenshot and the Communication / Team Site. We always have the same navigation on all sites as you browse between the sites. This makes the user experience much easier. This was possible previously but required much more manual steps so will save a lot of time going forward.

Its possible to create multiple Hub Sites in your organisation but not possible to link Team or Communication Sites to more than one hub. Hub sites are rolling out to Office365 tenants now and should be available for your organisation soon.

Communication Sites

Communication Sites are sites that are used for sharing information such as News, Events, Reporting Data & Showcasing Key Information such as Products, Teams or Events.

Team Sites

Team Sites are used for Teams and Departments in the organisation that require all of the functionality of SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams. They allow for documents to be stored, news to be created and the collaboration functionality that Microsoft Teams provides. Teams can be Public meaning all users in an organisation can have access or restricted to only certain team members.

Talk to a Sharepoint Hub Site Expert

At Valto, we’re committed to helping our clients get the most out of Office365 & SharePoint. We’ve been leading the way by developing best practices and solutions for SharePoint Hub, Communication & Team Sites.

Call now on 03335 779 009 or Contact Us.