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Empowering Collaboration: Rysun Built a Modern Intranet for One of Africa’s Largest Challenge Funds

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Overview

Our client, one of Africa’s leading challenge funds operating across agriculture, renewable energy, and climate resilience sectors, faced growing internal communication and information management challenges. With a workforce spread across multiple regions, the organization lacked a centralized, secure platform to share updates, access documents, and align strategic goals.

Rysun designed and deployed a modern intranet solution built on SharePoint Online, transforming how teams collaborate, access information, and stay connected. Within just one month, Rysun delivered a fully functional intranet ecosystem integrating Power BI dashboards, intuitive navigation, and departmental sites, enabling the client to move from siloed communication to organization-wide transparency and engagement.

Industry​

Industry​

Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Climate Resilience

Solution

Solution

Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online Intranet

Location

Challenge

Lack of a centralized platform for communication, document sharing, and visibility across departments

The Challenge

The organization struggled to securely share information, streamline content management, and onboard employees effectively, all while maintaining strong data security and usability.

Key Obstacles Included:

  • No single, secure platform for news, events, and organizational updates
  • Limited visibility into mission, strategy, and impact across departments
  • No clear departmental ownership of content, making publishing and management inconsistent
  • Manual and inconsistent document sharing, with no version control
  • A complex onboarding process caused by scattered training materials
  • Limited in-house expertise in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint
  • The need to scale the intranet and strengthen data security without compromising user-friendliness

Rysun’s Solution:

Rysun implemented a SharePoint Online intranet built on a hub-and-spoke model, creating a centralized hub for organization-wide communication and individual departmental sites for localized management.

Key Components Delivered

  • Central Hub Site: Organization-wide news, announcements, and essential tools
  • Departmental Sites: Self-managed pages for each of the 12 departments
  • Power BI Integration: Live dashboards showcasing program impact and KPIs
  • Document Centers: Approval workflows, metadata-driven search, and governance controls
  • Employee Directory: Searchable profiles with contact info and photos
  • Engagement Spaces: Celebrations for birthdays, milestones, and achievements
  • Homepage Design: Multiple layout options shared and finalized through feedback loops
  • Training & Handover: Comprehensive end-user and admin training, onboarding decks, and guides

Rysun’s Consultative Approach

  • Discovery & Planning: Collaborative workshops with IT, HR, and Communications teams
  • Design Iteration: Stakeholder-driven demo pages and layout refinements
  • Agile Delivery: Sprint-based progress reviews and iterative improvements
  • Enablement: Role-based training and reusable onboarding resources for long-term sustainability

Benefits:

  • Centralized, Secure Communication: The solution included a central Hub Site with shared news, impact dashboards, and company-wide tools, as well as departmental sites for each business unit.
  • Enhanced Collaboration & Governance: Departments can work together seamlessly with controlled document access, approval workflows, and metadata-based organization.
  • Real-Time KPI Visibility: Integrated dashboards provide instant insights into program performance and organizational impact, enabling data-driven decisions.
  • Empowered Departments: Self-service site management allows teams to update content independently, reducing reliance on IT and accelerating communication.
  • Streamlined Onboarding & Training: Comprehensive guides, role-based training, and standardized onboarding materials simplify new employee ramp-up.
  • Scalable & Future-Ready Architecture: Hub-and-spoke design ensures the intranet can grow with the organization, supporting additional departments, tools, and workflows.

Impact

Rysun’s SharePoint intranet has transformed communication, collaboration, and knowledge sharing across the organization, delivering measurable results both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Qualitative

  • Seamless access to updated policies, templates, and program information
  • Enhanced visibility into organizational strategy and impact metrics
  • Increased employee engagement through personalized content and announcements
  • Empowered teams to evolve the platform independently—without IT reliance