Sam and Chris demonstrate the features of hub sites in SharePoint (Office 365), and show how internal communicators and intranet managers can create a simple and dynamic intranet, or a landing page for a major section of the intranet. They discuss when it’s best to use hub sites versus communication or publishing sites, and highlight the advantages and limitations. Covering: - What intranet managers and internal communicators need to know about hub sites. - How they work (with live demo). - When to use hub sites vs communication, publishing or team sites. - Advantages, limitations and good practice advice.

1. Webinar
SharePoint hub sites
What intranet managers
need to know

2. We will try to answer
some questions during
the webinar, and a few
more at the end.
Both participating
companies will email
you the recording
within 48 hours (so you
won’t miss it!).
You can listen via your
computer or by dialling
the phone number in
the email you received
today.
Housekeeping

3. Your webinar hosts
Sam Marshall
Managing Director
@SamMarshall
ChrisO’Brien
Head of Development
@ChrisO_Brien

4. AboutClearBox
ClearBoxConsulting is a specialist independent consultancy
that believes in making the workplace a better and more
productive experience.We understand technology, but we
approach it from the people side first.
Our goal is to help organisations collaborate and communicate
more effectively.We specialise in intranets and the wider digital
workplace, including internal social media, enterprise mobile
strategies and real-time collaboration tools.
Sam Marshall
Managing Director
@SamMarshall

5. About Fresh
Fresh isContent andCode’s easy-to-use, cost effective solution
that helps users find what they need when they need it, and
without the fuss. Fresh is the result of delivering intranet
solutions using Microsoft technology over 17 years of award
winningContent andCodeConsulting experience.
Combining functionality for intranet delivery with integrated
applications fromOffice 365, Fresh is the best way to rapidly
deliver a great user experience on the Microsoft cloud.
ChrisO’Brien
Head of Development
@ChrisO_Brien

6. What's your experience
of using SharePoint
communication sites?
Poll

7. Agenda
§ What are hub sites?
§ Hub site capabilities and demo
§ Q&A 1
§ When to use hub sites
§ Implications and the future
§ Q&A 2

8. What are hub sites?

9. Hub sites
§ A way to pull other
sites together into a
‘portal’
§ Common navigation
§ Common branding
§ Common search

10. Why did Microsoft introduce them?
§ Navigation - modern sites no
longer in a hierarchy
§ Mobile-friendly
§ A precursor to a full intranet
homepage?

11. slide source: Microsoft

12. How to get a hub site
§ Create a team or communications site
§ (Communications site is usually a better choice)
§ Use PowerShell to register the site as a
hub site
§ Register-SPOHubSite
§ (requires tenant admin permissions)
§ Associate sites to this hub
§ ThroughUI
§ Through PowerShell (Add-SPOHubSiteAssociation)

13. Hub site capabilities

14. What hub sites can do
§ Aggregate all the news and activity from associated sites
§ You can filter which sites are used
§ Add global navigation across all associated sites
§ Impose a single brand/theme
§ Create consistency via Site Designs
§ Site Design applied when a site joins a hub (e.g. to add content types, lists or other tools)
§ Scope search to a set of sites
§ Otherwise you only have ‘this site’ or ‘everywhere’
§ Anything a communication or modern team site can do

15. News across a hub
§ Today:
§ Select individual sites, or “all sites
in hub”
§ “Hub News” layout – adds label
showing source site within hub
§ Tomorrow:
§ Pinning news articles
§ New compact layout
§ Carousel support

16. Hub navigation
§ Provides consistent global
navigation
§ Includes logo for “sense of
place”
§ Be aware:
§ Links are manually-defined
§ Links are NOT security-trimmed
§ Typical approach – only link sites which
all users will have permissions to

17. Demo
Hub sites – navigation, news /
activity, and finding them

18. Consistency viaSite Designs (soon)
§ Site Designs / SiteScripts offer a
way of applying a template to a site
§ Capabilities:
§ Create list (and fields and content types)
§ Add navigation link
§ Apply theme
§ InstallAdd-in or solution
§ Register SPFx extension (e.g. header/footer)
§ Trigger a Flow
§ Manage guest access

19. Consistency viaSite Designs (soon)
§ Site Designs can relate to hub sites
in two ways:
1. Auto-join a hub site when a site is created
using a specificSite Design (“joinHub”)
Or, the other way around:
2. Apply aSite Design when an existing site is
associated with a hub
§ End result = consistency for sites
within a hub

20. Hub site governance
§ By default, any site owner can associate their site
with any hub!
§ Good practice:
§ Consider use of Grant-SPOHubSiteRights to restrict this ability
§ e.g. only finance users can associate sites to the finance hub

21. First Q&A

22. When to use hub sites

23. Hub sites for communications
§ Programme portal
§ “Find out about Project Edsel”
§ Based on team or comms site, team sites
below
§ Employee reference information
§ Policy or guidelines center
§ Based on comms site, comms sites below
§ Events portal
§ “What's happening” Center
§ Based on comms site, comms/teams sites
below
Team sites
Hub site HR
Departm ent
HR Team
adm in Payroll L&D Recruitm ent
Department or function home
“By HR, for HR people”
Based on comms site, team sites below

24. Hub sites for collaboration
§ Divisions and departments
§ Clients and projects
§ Region and business units
§ Provide structure to otherwise
flat list of sites
Consulting
UK team
France
team
U.S. team

25. Hub sites vs other sites
Hub Comms Publishing Team
Best for Connecting a
cluster of sites
Single-topic micro-
site
Large audience
published
information
Small group
collaboration
Navigation Horizontal, multi-
site
Horizontal, single
site
Global Vertical, single site
Brand / Design Restricted,
common
Restricted, single
site
Flexible, multi-site Very restricted,
single site
Governance Admin controls Little control Flexible control Little control
Collaboration If based on team-
site
Unsuitable Unsuitable Optimal

26. Hub sites - limitations and gotchas
§ A site can only be associated with one hub site
§ Decide up-front if your hub principle will be geography or function
§ HR Hub = HR France + HR Italy + HRWales
Or
§ France Hub = HR France + Finance France + IT France
§ Maximum 50 hub sites per organisation (for now)
§ Association with a hub does not change the permissions on a site
§ Association with a hub does change the theme of the site

27. Hub sites - limitations and gotchas 2
§ If a classic site is used as a hub site, hub navigation will only appear on
modern pages
§ If SharePoint multi-geo used, only sites within the same geographical
location can be associated with a hub site.
§ No approval for joining a hub, butCAN restrict who can join to hubs
(a security group)
§ UseGrant-SPOHubRights

28. Implications
and the future

29. • Neither as flexible as publishing sites
• Comms sites lack:
• Full page control
• News centre
• Ability to move news
• Article syndication / targeting
• Templates
• Governance
• Multiple languages
• Hub sites
• Add basic navigation and branding only
• No ability to curate news
www.clearbox.co.uk/sharepoint-communication-sites-questions-answered/
Do communication + hub sites = intranet?

30. Announced by Microsoft in May
§ SharePoint spaces
§ Enhancements relevant for intranets
§ Metadata and filtering
§ Targeting
§ Organisational news
§ Mobile app enhancements
§ Content approvals (using Flow)
§ Save for later
§ Content enrichment
§ Improved lists – real-time updates, Power BI integration, new create experience etc.

31. Do you still need an intranet in a box?
§ Flexibility / control over design
§ Deeper integration withOffice 365 –Teams,
Groups, site and documents
§ Tailored search and people directory
§ Social integration
§ Multi-lingual
§ On-premises/hybrid

32. Q&A

33. SharePoint intranets in-a-box
10% off
FreshWebinar
clearbox.co.uk
34 intranet products reviewed
430 pages
Immediate download
Our expert assessments of products
that transform SharePoint into a useful
and useable intranet.

34. DigitalWorkplaceStrategy
Sign up for your strategy workshop:
freshintranet.com/digital-workplace-strategy
• Identify your:
• Digital Workspace priorities
• Current systems and content
• People, groups and processes
• Branding and corporate identity
• Implementation plan and timescales
• Project and on-going product team
• Defining an on-going change and success strategy
What you get:
Custom mock-ups showing a Fresh
Digital Workspace with your content,
identity and key deliverables.
You will also receive a high-level
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organisation.

35. Connect
ClearBoxConsulting
clearbox.co.uk
@ClearBox
hello@clearbox.co.uk
+44 (0) 1224 458746
Treliske House,Queens Park Road,
Chester,CH4 7AD, UK
Fresh
freshintranet.com
@Fresh_intranet
fresh@contentandcode.com
+44 (0) 2038 216 884
Content andCode, Fountain House, 13o
FenchurchStreet, London EC3M 5DJ

37. § First thing
§ Second thing
§ Sub-second thing
§ Third thing
§ Fourth thing
§ Fifth thing

41. § First thing
§ Sub-first thing
§ Second thing