The Department of Home Affairs is an Australian Government agency responsible for managing immigration, border protection, national security, and cybersecurity.
Client
Department of Home Affairs
Service
SharePoint Online
Organisation size
Large
Industry
Government
Context
The Department of Home Affairs embarked on a strategic initiative to modernise its digital workplace by replacing an ageing SharePoint 2016 intranet with a new, contemporary intranet built on SharePoint Online. Their existing intranet hosted several mission critical custom features that could not be replicated using out of the box modern SharePoint capabilities.
To ensure continuity of key business operations while improving user experience, Engage Squared provided specialist SharePoint consulting, solution design and architecture, and custom development services.
To ensure continuity of key business operations while improving user experience, Engage Squared provided specialist SharePoint consulting, solution design and architecture, and custom development services.
Challenge
Home Affairs required its modern intranet to retain and enhance the sophisticated custom functionality embedded in the legacy platform. Out‑of‑the‑box SharePoint Online features were insufficient to meet requirements relating to content governance, reporting, corporate directory capabilities and advanced policy management.
Specific challenges included:
- Recreating bespoke intranet components that had no modern out-of-the-box equivalents
- Improving content lifecycle management, ownership transparency and editorial workflows
- Integrating analytics and reporting capabilities for content oversight
- Modernising corporate directory functionality and ensuring ongoing automated HR system integration
- Migration of a complex Policy and Procedures register content and workflow processes into a new platform
Solution
Engage Squared worked as embedded members of the Home Affairs project team, collaborating closely with the Home Affairs project manager, business analysts, technical stakeholders and business owners. This partnership ensured solutions aligned with business needs, governance requirements and the broader digital strategy of Home Affairs. The team delivered a mix of custom development, solution configuration and platform enablement, including:
- Designing and building custom SharePoint Online components tailored to Home Affairs’ workflows
- Upgrading existing on‑premises integration services to work with the new environment
- Developing Power Apps, Power Automate workflows and reporting tools
- Supporting multi‑environment deployments (development, test, production)
- Producing comprehensive as‑built and configuration documentation
Throughout the project, Engage Squared worked closely with the department to create:
Customised user interface components
- A custom web part header with configurable titles and “see all” links
- A custom footer injected across pages showing content owner details, last updated date, and quick‑access buttons to submit page feedback or claim content ownership
- A banner application highlighting pages that are checked out or pending approval, improving editorial visibility
Improved content governance and workflows
- Automated workflows initiated by page feedback or content ownership requests
- Content approval and publishing, content review reminder, and automated archiving workflows built with Power Automate
- Custom page templates deployed at scale across sites
Enterprise‑grade reporting tools
A reporting application providing visibility across the intranet, including:
- All pages within selected sites
- Pages without designated content owners
- Pages not modified within a specified timeframe
- All instances of a specific URL or text across intranet content
Corporate directory modernisation
- A searchable corporate directory supporting advanced criteria (name, contact details, organisational unit, etc.)
- User profile pages displaying location, contact details, reporting lines, delegations and corporate functions
- Organisational unit profiles including hierarchy and organisation charts
- Upgrading the supporting on‑premises .NET application integrating SAP data for the new cloud environment
Policy and Procedures Register Solution
- A modernised Register interface enabling users to search, filter and view all published policies and procedures
- A Power App allowing content owners to manage Register items, with auto‑completion logic based on organisational unit data
- Automated updates triggered by changes to organisational unit details
- Review reminder workflows and on‑demand reporting for unit‑owned policy and procedure items
- Full migration and transformation of the Register content from the legacy intranet
Results
Engage Squared were proud to assist The Department of Home Affairs to deliver a modern, cloud‑based intranet that retained and enhanced the Department’s essential custom functionality.
Key outcomes included:
- A smooth transition from SharePoint 2016 to SharePoint Online without loss of capability
- Stronger content governance and ownership transparency across the intranet
- Modernised user experience aligned with best‑practice SharePoint patterns
- Improved search, reporting and policy register management capabilities
- Empowered business owners with greater knowledge of SharePoint Online and confidence to manage Intranet web content
Final thoughts
The partnership between The Department of Home Affairs and Engage Squared was highly productive, with the successful launch of a robust, modern intranet that serves as a foundation for long‑term digital workplace evolution.
