Intranets and internal communications

Enhancing our internal digital communications will help ensure everyone at Oxford gets timely, relevant and accurate news and information from the University, allowing them to find, share and trust the information they need to study and work, in support of our mission of teaching and research. 

At the moment, our focus is rolling out OxIntranet, the University’s first Oxford-wide intranet, as part of our digital transformation.  

In the future, we will also explore enhancing our email tools, as well as exploring the opportunities provided by enterprise social networking and artificial intelligence tools. 

OxIntranet

We are working to deliver OxIntranet — a new intranet platform for staff and students that brings together the information you need to work and study, all in one place. 

Right now, internal content is scattered across multiple websites, SharePoint sites, and other systems, making it harder to find what you need. OxIntranet will change that by creating a single, secure and user-friendly platform, tailored to individuals within Oxford’s unique structure. 

Built on SharePoint technology, it offers a high-quality experience for both content creators and end users. Publishing will be simpler, content easier to find, and everything will be underpinned by accurate, up-to-date people data — so that news, resources and announcements can be targeted to the right audiences, like your department, college or division. 

Built with you and for you, OxIntranet will empower local units to manage and share their own content, while supporting a coordinated and consistent approach to internal communication across the University. 

This change will make internal communication more visible, connected and impactful, while also offering: 

• A unified look, feel and navigation: staff and students will access content through a consistent, user-friendly interface across the site 
• Enhanced governance and support: teams will be able to better manage their content using a new governance approach and improved support 
• Additional functionality: we’ve partnered with WM Reply to provide Accelerator 365, a suite of tools and web parts that improve content management and user experience in SharePoint – including built-in accessibility checking 
• Improved digital security: content will be securely held behind Oxford’s Single Sign-On (SSO), ensuring only the right people see the right information. 

The development process

In 2024, we partnered with a software provider called AppSpace to test its intranet technology with a small number of departments and colleges. However, we took a decision in September 2024 not to pursue this solution because it did not meet Oxford's needs. 

The learnings from the proof of concept gave us greater clarity on the platform we need. As a result, we are now moving forward with an enhanced SharePoint Online intranet.

Built in a dedicated part of the University’s existing SharePoint platform, OxIntranet will include: 

• Staff and student hubs: content that is relevant to all staff and students, which currently appears on multiple websites and intranets 
• Local unit homes: Colleges, divisions and departments will have a place to share their internal content - both for their own audiences and for colleagues in the wider institution 
• News and events: the latest information about what is happening across different parts of the collegiate University 
  • More details can be found below under ‘Other Technical Considerations’.Roll-out approach

Roll-out approach

OxIntranet will be rolling out through the 2025/26 academic year. We expect the initial offering to go live ahead of Michaelmas term 2025, with the gradual addition of more content over the course of the year. 

We expect that over time all parts of the University, including colleges, will move their content to the platform. However, there is no strict deadline for this. Given funding constraints in the project, there will be an initial focus on sites migrating from Mosaic (particularly University-wide content in the UAS) in the first instance. Self-help resources are available to support other units migrating, when capacity allows. 

More details of the roll-out plans will follow in the new future. 

Technical considerations

News and events: 

OxIntranet will feature a dedicated ‘News and Events’ area showcasing news relevant to all staff and students. Additionally, each unit onboarded to OxIntranet will have its own local news site for content tailored to their specific staff and students. 

Local news can be tagged to appear on a University-wide ‘News from across the University’ area, helping staff and students stay informed about wider developments, and users will also be able to subscribe to news that interests them. 

To reduce duplication, it will be possible to add news links to existing stories elsewhere on OxIntranet, eliminating the need to re-key internal news multiple times. 

Controlling permissions: 

The starting point will be that content should be open to all staff and students, unless there is a reason to restrict access to individual groups. It will be possible to restrict access to local content to local staff and/or students, and we will be working with the Identity Service to improve the way this is managed, in line with wider work in this area. It will also be possible to restrict content more generally to either staff or students. 

A secure and coherent approach to navigation

At present, lots of internal content is publicly accessible on the web, which increases information security risks. In addition, searching for internal information on the web only returns content that is in front of SSO, meaning you are not seeing the full picture. Moving everything to a well-governed, SSO protected intranet will improve security and make all internal content available in one place.

We are also working to enhance SharePoint search to make searching content on OxIntranet more effective, reducing the reliance on external search engines.

Content for external audiences will continue to be published online, and we are working closely with our web teams to ensure it is simple to reach OxIntranet content from the University website.  This will include staff and student gateways, directing staff and students to commonly used content on OxIntranet.

Information for teams considering migrating to OxIntranet

Ahead of the launch, there will be opportunities to learn more about the tools, features, and support available. Further details will be shared closer to the time. 

As part of the rollout, dedicated templates will be provided specifically for OxIntranet sites. These templates will leverage enhanced SharePoint functionality to ensure a consistent and improved user experience. 

Please note these templates will only be supported on OxIntranet sites. Therefore, to make migrating to OxIntranet templates easier in the future — and to simplify any new SharePoint intranet builds you may need to undertake before OxIntranet is available — we recommend the following best practices to ensure a smooth transition down the line: 

• Build SharePoint ‘sites’ rather than ‘hubs’ to align with OxIntranet’s structure 
• Keep to simple, out-of-the-box functionality with minimal custom design elements 

Where possible, we recommend waiting until Michaelmas term 2025 before building any new intranet sites. At that time, you can contact your Divisional Communications Lead, who can facilitate a conversation with the OxIntranet team about when you may be able to build directly on the new OxIntranet platform. 

If you cannot wait until Michaelmas term 2025, we advise building your SharePoint intranet following the best practices above. This will make migrating to OxIntranet simpler when it becomes available. 

Due to budgetary constraints, support for local (rather than University-wide) content will be limited to self-help guides and resources during the 2025/26 academic year. 

Project Governance 

The project is overseen by the Intranet and Internal Communications Project Board under the governance for the Transforming Oxford's Digital Communications Programme. Further information is provided on the Programme Governance page.

Funding

OxIntranet is currently funded by the Digital Transformation programme, so there is no charge for departments at this stage. Once the programme ends, we expect OxIntranet to be funded through service charges, meaning there would be no direct cost for individual units to use it. 

However, while the service itself is likely to remain free for departments and users, funding constraints of the programme mean that support may not be available for the practical tasks involved in migrating content. As a result, departments may need to allocate local resources to manage the migration of their content from existing platforms. Further details will be shared as the project progresses. 

Further information 

If you have any further questions, please check our recently updated Frequently Asked Questions or, if you are unable to find what you need there, please email us at transformingdigitalcommsprogramme@it.ox.ac.uk. 

Contact 

Please get in touch: transformingdigitalcommsprogramme@it.ox.ac.uk