You’re looking for a new intranet. But the further you look, the more complex the choice seems to become. There are complete SaaS solutions, standard SharePoint intranets and variants where SharePoint is enhanced with additional functionality. Each option promises better communication, more engaged employees and a future-proof solution. With all these different flavors, you sometimes literally can’t see the wood for the trees. Which intranet really suits your organization, your communication goals and the way your employees work?
Especially in that phase, an independent view is of great value. A party that does not sell, does not implement, but helps organizations to make choices based on content, use and practical experience. Evolve fulfills exactly that role. They support organizations in internal communications and digital platforms and assess intranet solutions without commercial interest. In this blog, we show you what Evolve says about Fresh Intranet and why their opinion is such a relevant reference point for organizations orienting themselves to a new intranet.
An intranet touches more than just technology. It’s about communication, adoption, structure and daily use. Vendors and partners can tell you a lot about functionality and roadmap, but a truly objective assessment comes from parties who look at intranets from multiple organizations and sectors. This is precisely why independent research is so valuable. It helps organizations look beyond promises and marketing and make choices that will continue to work in the long term.
Evolve is a Dutch consulting firm that has been around for 15 years and in these years they have helped more than 200 organizations with intranet issues. They help with strategy, selection and further development of intranets, without providing software themselves. As a result, they do not look from one solution, but from the issues that organizations experience in practice. In their “Under the Hood” series, they analyze various intranet solutions to provide insight into what a platform actually adds and where it differs from standard solutions.
In their article “Under the Hood: Fresh’, Evolve describes how they evaluate Fresh Intranet from that independent position. What they immediately mention is that Fresh does not try to be an alternative to Microsoft 365, but rather deliberately builds on it. Fresh stays close to SharePoint and uses existing structures, permissions and security. At the same time, Evolve sees that Fresh responds to parts where standard SharePoint as an intranet often falls short.
According to Evolve, Fresh’s strength lies in adding consistency and ease of use. They describe how Fresh provides, among other things, expanded news coverage, social interaction and clear intranet structure, all within the familiar Microsoft environment. This does not make SharePoint more complex, but rather more accessible to employees.
Evolve emphasizes in their review that Fresh especially adds value for communications and editorial teams. They see that Fresh helps make content more consistent and focused, including by working with set templates and clear content structures. This allows more colleagues to contribute to the intranet without diluting the quality.
In addition, Evolve mentions that Fresh provides insight into content usage. Not just publishing, but understanding what employees are reading and using. This shifts the intranet from a gathering place for information to a communication tool that can be actively managed.
Search and AI also get attention in the review. Evolve describes how Fresh is committed to answering employee questions faster, including through FreshMind. In doing so, they emphasize that this AI functionality works within existing permissions and on controlled intranet content. According to Evolve, this saves employees time, while keeping organizations in control of information and governance.
As a partner of Fresh, we work with the platform every day and see in practice what it means for organizations. We know what Fresh is strong in and why organizations consciously choose it. It is therefore great to see confirmed what we have experienced for some time and what we believe in.
The assessment of Evolve shows that Fresh is not about separate functionality, but about cohesion, communication power and ease of use within Microsoft 365. These are exactly the features that make the difference in day-to-day operations.
As far as we are concerned, the fact that Evolve names these points so clearly is mainly an acknowledgement of the work and vision of the Fresh Intranet team. We are proud to work with them as an exclusive partner for the Netherlands and the Flemish-speaking part of Belgium. This independent review feels like a well-deserved confirmation of the choices Fresh has made in recent years and the direction they continue to take with their product.
Thank you Evolve for this great article! Wondering what else they wrote? Check out the full article on Fresh at this link.
