Knowledge platform for a financial consulting firm
Sector: Financial consulting · Scale: ~1,200 people · Platform: Microsoft 365 / SharePoint Online · Services: Discovery, IA, design, build
Brief
A financial consulting firm needed customer-facing teams to find approved methodologies, templates, and client-ready resources quickly. Content existed but was scattered across team sites, file shares, and legacy locations. Financial advisors lost time searching - or reused outdated material.
Challenge
No single trusted entry point for client-service resources
Inconsistent metadata and naming - search failed for non-expert users
Financial advisors have low patience for internal tools; if search fails, they ask colleagues or skip the process
IT owned the platform; comms and practice leads owned the content - no shared IA
Pressure to support AI and Copilot later without a governed content foundation
Approach
Discovery and research
Stakeholder interviews with team leads and financial advisors. Content audit across high-traffic libraries. Task-based scenarios such as “Prepare for a client meeting in 15 minutes.” Success measures agreed upfront.
Information architecture
Topic-led hub structure (not org-chart-only navigation). Clear content types: methodology, template, example, policy. Metadata simple enough for authors, precise enough for search. Governance for publish, approve, and retirement.
Design, build, and rollout
Employee-friendly search and browse. SharePoint Online hub and spoke in the client tenant. Phased rollout with champions. Author training focused on templates and metadata.
Impact
Financial advisors access approved resources in one place before client conversations
Reduced reliance on tribal knowledge and duplicate files in team chats
Foundation for Copilot and AI search with governed, findable content
Authors publish with clear templates - less one-off page sprawl
Quantified metrics available under NDA on sales calls; public case uses role-based outcomes.
FAQ
Was this a custom product or SharePoint?
SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365 - designed and structured for findability, not a third-party intranet licence.
How long did discovery take?
Several weeks of interviews and IA work before build - exact duration depended on stakeholder availability.
Could a smaller organization do something similar?
Yes at smaller scale. Intranet-only fixed-fee projects are scoped separately - see Intranet design & build pricing.
Related: Discovery & IA · Strategy & AI
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