Modernising The Wave without losing what worked
Marine Stewardship Council partnered with Content Formula to move The Wave from a LiveTiles and classic SharePoint experience to a more modern SharePoint and Microsoft 365 intranet built around Lightspeed365. The project focused on preserving the functionality employees relied on while creating a more modern, more user-centric platform with improved news management, enhanced findability, and a better overall employee experience.
An established intranet that needed a more sustainable foundation
Marine Stewardship Council had an established intranet in The Wave, but it was tied to LiveTiles and classic SharePoint elements that no longer reflected the experience the organisation wanted to provide.
The challenge was not simply to refresh the design. The organisation needed to modernise the intranet in a way that would:
- move away from LiveTiles and classic SharePoint architecture
- retain the functionality staff already used and understood
- improve how company news and updates were surfaced
- support a more modern search experience without losing what was working in the old version
- create a better employee experience overall
- provide a realistic phased route to change through ongoing support and iterative improvements
This is a common digital workplace challenge. Legacy intranets often contain useful features and familiar user journeys, but the underlying architecture becomes harder to sustain, less flexible, and less aligned with how organisations want to use Microsoft 365 over time.
A phased move, not a one-off rebuild
Content Formula worked with Marine Stewardship Council to modernise The Wave through a phased and collaborative process rather than a one-off rebuild.
The work brought together:
- review of the existing LiveTiles and classic SharePoint setup
- homepage and UX input to support the move to a more modern intranet experience
- migration planning from LiveTiles to Lightspeed365
- migration and review of news content within the new environment
- modern search discussions to recreate useful legacy functionality in a future-ready model
- ongoing retainer-based support to prioritise and deliver improvements over time
This approach meant the organisation could move from old to new in a practical way. Instead of forcing a complete reset, the project focused on preserving what mattered, improving the experience, and creating a stronger long-term foundation within SharePoint and Microsoft 365.
Lightspeed365 as the product layer for The Wave
The solution centred on replacing the older LiveTiles and classic intranet experience with a more modern Lightspeed365-based approach inside SharePoint.
Lightspeed365 filled the gaps that had previously been covered by LiveTiles, including:
- a modern homepage that is easier to manage and keeps communications visible
- news publishing and targeting that makes company updates easier to surface
- a lift-and-shift of useful classic search behaviour into modern SharePoint search
- a stronger editorial and brand experience, using digital assets more effectively than the previous platform
The key solution themes were:
- a phased move from LiveTiles to Lightspeed365
- a more modern homepage and intranet design
- migration of news content into the updated intranet environment
- modernisation of classic search into a modern SharePoint search experience
- improved homepage content management and visibility of communications
- ongoing support to refine and extend the platform after the initial migration steps
This positioned Lightspeed365 as a practical way to fill gaps in native SharePoint while helping Marine Stewardship Council move to a more sustainable modern intranet model.
An active communications platform, not a static intranet
For Marine Stewardship Council, The Wave was an active communications and knowledge-sharing platform, not just a static intranet. That meant the migration had to do more than change the technology stack. It needed to improve how employees experienced the platform day to day.
The move from LiveTiles and classic SharePoint to a more modern Lightspeed365-supported experience gave the organisation a route to better usability, stronger communications visibility, and a platform that was easier to evolve over time.
What was delivered
- a clear transition from LiveTiles and classic SharePoint to a modern Lightspeed365-supported experience
- migration of corporate news into the updated intranet
- modern search work that recreated useful legacy functionality in a more future-ready model
- positive feedback on the more modern design and usability of The Wave
- a phased support model that allowed the organisation to prioritise improvements over time rather than trying to change everything at once
Early outcomes
Joe Turrent at Marine Stewardship Council reported early outcomes including reduced time spent managing content, improved visibility of company news and updates, a better user experience for employees, easier content publishing for teams, and more effective use of SharePoint as an intranet.
Taken together, the strongest outcome themes are:
- reduced time spent managing content
- improved visibility of company news and updates
- easier content publishing for teams
- a better employee experience
- more effective use of SharePoint as an intranet
- a stronger foundation for modern search, enhanced findability, and future intranet improvements
The modern search work was also seen as a successful first phase, with stakeholders agreeing that the updated experience was a strong lift-and-shift modernisation of the legacy search approach.