The City of Mississauga was undertaking a major SharePoint 2013 modernization initiative, consolidating and upgrading more than 10 internal, on-premises SharePoint solutions from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013. As part of this effort, the City introduced a newly redesigned intranet homepage built on the SharePoint 2013 platform.

A central component of the new intranet experience was the News Web Part, which played a prominent role in surfacing city news and internal communications. However, the existing News Web Part—originally developed in SharePoint 2007, launched in 2010, and later migrated to SharePoint 2010—was more than five years old and no longer aligned with modern usability, branding, or platform standards.

To support the upgraded intranet and drive employee engagement, the City required a modernized, visually cohesive, and highly usable News Web Part that matched the new intranet design and leveraged current SharePoint 2013 capabilities. The City also sought a trusted vendor to manage the full lifecycle of the solution, including design, development, configuration, documentation, and knowledge transfer through staff training.

Buchanan designed and delivered a clean, intuitive, and mobile-responsive intranet built on SharePoint 2013, with a clear roadmap for future migration to SharePoint 2016. The solution leveraged a tile-based design to organize content efficiently, enhanced by hover-over functionality that provided additional context without cluttering the user experience.

To drive engagement and adoption, Buchanan incorporated social features that surfaced content interaction metrics, including views, likes, and shares. The intranet was fully compatible with modern web browsers—including Internet Explorer 11+, Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari—aligning with the client’s technical standards.

Upon completion, Buchanan transitioned full ownership of the solution to the City of Mississauga’s technical team, providing comprehensive documentation, including installation instructions, configuration details, and source code, along with hands-on training to ensure long-term sustainability and internal support.

While delivering a modern look and intuitive user experience was an important objective, the City of Mississauga’s primary requirement was to partner with a vendor capable of navigating and preserving the integrity of its complex SharePoint ecosystem. The City’s environment spanned 19 servers across production, test, and development, requiring a solution that enhanced functionality without introducing risk to the core infrastructure.

Buchanan’s deep expertise in Microsoft technologies and extensive experience within SharePoint environments enabled the team to manage the initiative end to end. Buchanan’s architects and project managers conducted detailed requirements reviews, developed wireframes, proposed enhanced business functionality, completed all development and documentation, and successfully implemented the solution. Comprehensive knowledge transfer ensured the City’s internal technical staff was fully equipped to support and maintain the solution moving forward.

As a result, the City of Mississauga now benefits from a modern, mobile-responsive, and highly usable intranet that proactively delivers timely corporate and departmental news to staff. Employee adoption and satisfaction increased as users embraced the improved design, streamlined functionality, and ease of use—simplifying day-to-day tasks while strengthening internal communication across the organization.