University of Leeds

A Connected Campus with a Modern SharePoint Intranet

The University of Leeds, one of the UK’s largest universities, embarked on a digital transformation to connect its vast community and improve employee experience.

Work Timeline

Industry

  • Higher Education

Technology

  • SharePoint Online
  • Microsoft 365
  • Beacon
  • Customised Links & Tools
  • Viva Engage

Department

  • IT
  • HR
  • Marketing

Size

  • 9,000+ staff
  • 39,000 students

Timeline

With our support the University replaced a fragmented digital landscape (650+ sites) with a single, modern SharePoint intranet, creating a “single source of truth” for over 9,000 staff. This story charts the journey from initial vision through to launch, collaborative blogging, and ongoing workshops. Showcasing how a people-first approach delivered real results in higher education.

2023
Feb
Project Kick-off

The University of Leeds engages Silicon Reef to envision a new staff intranet as part of its digital transformation strategy.

2023
May
Discovery & Co-design

Launch of surveys (145 responses) and workshops. 200+ content owners are involved in shaping the requirements and design.

2023
July - Sept
Agile Build

Three-month intensive development of the new SharePoint Online intranet. Iterative testing with University stakeholders ensure the solutions meets real user needs.

2024
Jan
Intranet Launch

University of Leeds intranet homepage in SharePoint. It shows an orange welcome banner, latest news, personalised My Links and an Opinion and Insight section.

The ‘For Staff’ intranet goes live to 9,000 employees, consolidating hundreds of sites into one modern platform. Training sessions and a champions network support the rollout.

2024
March
Case Study

Person on laptop searching the University of Leeds Intranet.

We published a detailed case study and have jointly presented the story at industry forums.

View the Case Study

Continuous Partnership

Post-launch, Silicon Reef provides ongoing support: in-person workshops, a collaborative blog series with the Leeds comms team, and joint webinars to share lessons learned.

2025
Post-launch Workshops

UoL Workshop

After go-live, we conducted in-person workshops and training sessions with various departments to drive adoption and gather feedback. In the first month, our team held 20+ demo sessions across different faculty teams focusing on how to personalise news and use new features. This hands-on enablement helped staff quickly embrace the new intranet and make it part of their routine.

2025
Champions Network

We helped the Internal Comms team establish a Digital Champions network.

These are staff volunteers from across the university who meet regularly (virtually) to share how they’re using the intranet, discuss new ideas, and flag any issues. The Viva Engage community created during the project became a thriving forum that continued post-launch.

2025
April
Blog Series

In April 2025, Chris Hewitt authored an article on our blog titled ‘5 Lessons from the University of Leeds’ Intranet Transformation’.

The article shares key challenges and success factors (like adopting SharePoint and early stakeholder engagement) while celebrating Leeds’ achievement and offering practical guidance. This collaboration highlighted the University’s thought leadership and strengthened our partnership.

Explore More Here

Our new intranet is essential to the University’s strategy, our community and our progression. It was a pleasure to work with Silicon Reef.

Chris Hewitt

Head of Communications, The University of Leeds

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