Unique Selling Points of The Hub; A Modern SharePoint Intranet

To begin, for those not in the know, The Hub is a product delivered by AMT Evolve to enable customers to quickly deliver an Intranet based on the Microsoft 365 (M365) platform, primarily SharePoint. With over 25 unique modules provided by a consultancy and development team with a wealth of experience, you can rest assured you will be in safe hands.

In a recent Consultancy Review Meeting we asked the question “Why the AMT Hub?” and started to discuss at length our Unique Selling Point (USP) and what makes us stand out from the crowd. For this blog I have selected 5 items that stand out to me . . .

Microsoft 365 Done Right

We work with several organisations who have strong teams of IT and Marketing who may have years of experience working with websites but have never worked within Microsoft 365 and the SharePoint Platform. However, many organisations are updating their digital strategies to run on M365 meaning that switching off servers and ending of alternate subscriptions leads to the need for a new Intranet, with limited skillsets to make it happen.

At this stage, the first step is to review the market and locate Intranets that mention Microsoft 365 and/or SharePoint along with terms such as “Intranet-in-a-Box”. However, it is at this stage where the marketplace usually provides a couple of differing avenues:

1. Intranets that use SharePoint or Microsoft 365 as a back-end, but have their own subscribed service
2. Intranets that are built directly into your SharePoint and Microsoft 365 platform.

AMT Evolves’ Hub sits firmly in the 2nd avenue and is proud to do so as this is a major USP for the product. We believe that it is best value for our customers to work with the technology they have selected (and pay for) in the right way as opposed to having it hidden behind another subscription service. This approach safeguards the organisation and enables the Intranet to become scalable and move into other areas such as document management systems or employee applications e.g. Visitor Booking and Starters/Leavers Processes.

In my experience I see avenue 1 as quite a flooded market, meaning that it is very difficult for organisations to really stand out. It is due to this that AMT Evolve took the decision to be a bit different, a bit unique and really offer products and services that do not ultimately replace or hide technologies but extends them.

Furthermore, Microsoft 365 is forever being updated with new features and functionality with majority of them being hits rather than misses. It was only a few days ago that Microsoft Ignite took place and highlighted major upgrades that are publicly available or will be appearing soon in Q4 2020 or Q1 2021. It is these announcements that excite AMT Evolve as it provides tools to improve/extend our product and services for the customer, whereas other organisations may now begin to fret over features replacing their own USPs or are having to update their product to ensure they do not break when these are released.

We strongly believe that the AMT Hub will drive your business improvement using Microsoft 365!

A One Time Fee

AMT Evolve offer numerous products and services, with some of these that are on a subscription basis however our core Hub Products are currently delivered via a onetime cost.

I remember a few years ago visiting a Microsoft Conference in London and hearing a pitch of an Intranet Company who claimed that their intranet “cost less than a coffee and a donut per person per month”, I have always remembered this as this cost for a large organisation over 3 – 5 years could actually be extremely large.

Where we differ with the AMT Hub is that the product is purchased and deployed onto your own Microsoft 365 tenancy, you are trained how to use it and have access to all functionality and features leading to full ownership of the product as opposed to having to subscribe. This means that organisations can choose to up-skill their employees or create new job roles to manage their intranet, as everything remains accessible and in control of our customer. Regarding a business case this certainly simplifies any payback rates!

AMT Evolve do have several long term relationships with customers who started out just buying The Hub and then progressed into working with Document Management Systems, Power Platform, Bespoke SharePoint Framework Development, and general support/maintenance. We always take pride in these long term partnerships as we ensure that they are built on a strong foundation of the organisations wanting to work with us as opposed to having to.

Consultancy Driven

AMT Evolve are a Consultancy House first and foremost, with Developers to support the creation of a toolkit that can be used to deliver successful Intranets, when not building complex bespoke solutions. This means that our customers are working with subject matter experts (SMEs) with many years of experience, as opposed to only filling in a form and get a standard product deployed.

On numerous occasions I have been leading scoping and design meetings with a client, and have been able to lean on my past knowledge to help us solve a problem to improve communications and I am sure this would be echoed by the members of the Consultancy Team who have been in similar situations.

This has always been a key USP as it was how The Hub came to be. Working in bespoke web development and shifting to Microsoft 365 (what was then known as Office 365) lead to continuous builds of similar products to aid employee actions and communications. It was after delivery to a few clients that The Hub was born, through the question of “Why don’t we package up what all customers want into one solution?”

AMT Evolve use tried and tested methodologies, and their proven processes achieve successful results. So, if you are looking for more than just the Intranet, then selecting The Hub by AMT would certainly be advised (however I am a bit biased!)

Rapid Deployment & Development

A short but important USP is the timeframes in which The Hub can be built for our customers. Depending on the version that is purchased our clients can be launching a new Intranet between 4 – 12 weeks!

This includes end user and content author training, a 30 day warranty period and 8 hours’ worth of additional support to help aid user adoption.

Microsoft Teams Integration

The adoption of Microsoft Teams has grown massively over the last few months, we of course understand the tragic reasons behind this but I do believe we will get past that and we will continue to see this rise due to another word beginning with C – “COMMUNICATION”.

As with several organisations, including Microsoft, we have had to look at what a Microsoft Teams First approach would look like for The Hub. Well we did not have to look for long as we already now have a few modules that can be deployed directly into Teams like our Phonebook and Policies Libraries.

I can also direct your attention back to my very first USP at this stage, being Microsoft 365 done right. This is critical here as Microsoft Teams is not SharePoint, it is actually part of the larger M365 platform, recognising this and  using our strong consultancy skills to join multiple products together allows you to begin “evolving” from an Intranet into a Digital Workplace.

AMT Evolve are looking forward to the new Microsoft Teams Features announced at Microsoft Ignite that will improve these integrations even further, like publishing your entire SharePoint Home Site into Teams!

I know that there are plenty of other reasons why The Hub should be viewed as your next Intranet, but I hope that my overview of key USPs may help your decision.

For further details about The Hub then please click the following link: https://www.thehubintranet.com/ and why not reach out to us for a live demonstration.

Please contact us to discuss how we can help you in your next step in your IT & Microsoft 365 journey.