In any growing organization, internal communication and knowledge sharing must evolve in tandem with the business. For MSA Professional Services, a multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm, this meant rethinking its intranet. What had started as a robust, ERP-integrated SharePoint site had gradually grown unmanageable, cluttered with outdated content, and managed by too many hands. The need for a streamlined, user-friendly, and future-ready solution was clear.
MSA partnered with JourneyTeam to create a modern intranet built on SharePoint Online and Viva. Called “Mosaic,” the intranet emphasizes ease of use, evergreen content, and integrated communication, and has dramatically reduced administrative effort while improving employee engagement and self-service access to resources.
About the Customer
MSA Professional Services, Inc. is a full-service consulting firm based in Baraboo, WI, with 18 offices across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Florida. The company has a team of over 500 engineers, architects, surveyors, planners, environmental specialists, and funding professionals who support municipal and county governments, state and federal agencies, tribal entities, private companies, and agricultural producers.
As a 100% employee-owned company, MSA places strong emphasis on culture and connectedness — values that drove its desire for a more efficient and engaging internal platform.
Too Much Content, Too Little Clarity
MSA had a clear problem: “Our intranet had become increasingly more complex than it needed to be — and we needed to make a change,” recalled Alyssa Scheuneman, Director of Marketing at MSA.
Over time, the intranet had sprawled with content, plugins, and contributors. Too many people had editing rights, making it difficult to maintain accurate, up-to-date information. The issues weren’t just technical, they impacted the employee experience. For example, employees struggled to find basic forms or policies, and some even stopped using the intranet altogether.
Compounding the challenge was MSA’s shift to Microsoft Teams, which introduced yet another platform for internal communications and file storage. The overlap created confusion about where information belonged. “We realized we needed an intranet that wasn’t just a storage solution — it needed to be a launchpad,” said Scheuneman, describing a central hub that offered a consistent employee experience, and supported a growing, distributed workforce.
MSA reached out to JourneyTeam based on a recommendation from the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). What stood out wasn’t just JourneyTeam’s deep, technical expertise in SharePoint, Viva, and Teams integration, but our approach. As Scheuneman put it: “JourneyTeam collaborated with us, guiding us through a lean, intentional process. It wasn’t about overbuilding again — it was about helping us create something we could grow into.”
A Fresh Start: Designing an Intranet with Intent
From the outset, MSA and JourneyTeam agreed the project wouldn’t be a lift-and-shift of the old system. Instead, the intranet would be designed from scratch as a clean, modern SharePoint Online site integrated with Microsoft Viva.
The design philosophy was user-first. JourneyTeam facilitated discovery workshops to understand the employee journey and align navigation to common user needs. The result was an intuitive structure organized around three primary areas: Company, People, and Career. “It sounds simple,” Scheuneman noted, “but the art was in distilling it down. We built for everyday usability, not for every possible edge case.”
Evergreen content was prioritized to minimize upkeep. Forms and documents were linked out rather than stored locally, reducing duplication and keeping Mosaic focused on clarity and access — not content sprawl. “This wasn’t about bells and whistles,” said Kevin Zollinger, a JourneyTeam Solution Specialist. “It was about enabling people to get in, get what they need, and get out.”
Building with the Future in Mind
Throughout the build, JourneyTeam emphasized skill transfer and transparency. MSA’s internal stakeholders were involved at every step — sitemap development, content governance, and even hands-on training in SharePoint modern site design. This ensured MSA could manage and scale the platform independently after launch.
Just as importantly, Mosaic was designed to work across devices. MSA’s workforce is mobile, in the field, and across time zones. With SharePoint Online and Teams integration, employees can access what they need from anywhere, on any device. The site’s launch marked a reset — not only in how information was delivered, but in how internal communications were managed.
Real-Time Savings, Long-Term Value
The results of MSA’s new intranet were immediate and measurable. Most striking was the drop in administrative overhead. The company previously had a full-time employee focused on intranet content. Now it’s managed entirely in just a few hours each week. More importantly, that time is being redirected to more strategic internal communications and engagement efforts.
The streamlined experience has also improved usability and trust. With outdated content removed and search functionality restored, employees are now using Mosaic as a reliable go-to. The simplified, evergreen structure means employees can access critical company information, forms, and links quickly, from desktop or mobile.
The integration with Teams was another major win, Scheuneman said. Company news posts show up as banner notifications, allowing staff to engage with updates in the flow of work. “Everyone consumes information differently,” she noted. “Some read the emails. Others see it in Teams. And some go to the site. The point is — it meets them where they are.”
Rebuilding Trust in the Platform
Perhaps the most meaningful impact has been cultural. By aligning Mosaic’s structure with MSA’s organizational values, the new intranet became more than a tool — it became a touchpoint for company identity. Features like the Employee Owner Spotlight have helped foster cross-office connection, giving team members a voice regardless of location or role.
Equally important is the clarity of communications. Prior, all cultural and critical updates were posted in a single feed, making it difficult to prioritize or filter information. Now, business news and community engagement live in separate streams, respecting both the personal and professional sides of employee engagement.
We’re redefining how we communicate internally. We’re more intentional about what we share and how.
– Alyssa Scheuneman, MSA Marketing Director
Scaling with Confidence
With the new Mosaic intranet firmly in place, MSA is positioned to expand without outgrowing the system. Built almost entirely on native Microsoft functionality, Mosaic avoids excessive customization, making it easier to evolve alongside the Microsoft ecosystem. “We know Microsoft will keep updating Teams and SharePoint, so we wanted something future-ready. No band-aids or add-ons, just a clean, manageable setup we could control,” she said.
MSA is already exploring ways to extend the intranet’s impact with a long-term vision of using tools to provide relevant information fast, and without employees having to dig for it. One idea in discussion: developing a virtual assistant, or bot, to answer employee questions about benefits, policies, or where to find resources.
A Broader Communications Shift
Beyond the intranet itself, MSA’s journey has prompted a broader shift in how the organization thinks about internal communication. “We’re still working on the right balance,” Scheuneman admitted. “But we’ve started asking smarter questions — what content goes where, when do we use email, when do we use Teams, and when does Mosaic come into play?”
That intentionality is making a difference. Communications are no longer reactionary, they’re strategic. Instead of relying on mass email blasts or hoping employees stumble across updates, MSA is now more planful — curating content, managing timing, and layering delivery methods for better engagement.
The outcome is not just a more effective intranet — it’s a stronger, more connected organization. “Mosaic has become a key piece of how we operate,” Scheuneman said. “It reflects our culture, supports our growth, and helps us work smarter. And we’re just getting started.”
A Partnership Rooted in Enablement
From the first conversation to final rollout, MSA viewed its engagement with JourneyTeam as a true partnership — not a one-off project. “JourneyTeam didn’t just drop a solution on our doorstep,” Scheuneman reflected. “They brought us along for the ride. They helped us build it, understand it, and own it.”
That sense of enablement was woven into every step. From site mapping and governance planning to SharePoint skills training and hands-on content sessions, JourneyTeam made sure MSA’s internal team had the knowledge and confidence to manage the platform long after launch. “We weren’t just focused on delivery,” said Zollinger. “We were focused on helping them become self-sufficient.”
In the end, MSA’s success wasn’t just about clean design or better tools — it was about people. JourneyTeam’s understanding of Microsoft’s ecosystem, combined with a human-centered approach, ensured that technology never got in the way of culture.
JourneyTeam understood that our intranet wasn’t just for operations — it was for connection. It’s a reflection of how we work, how we share, and who we are.
– Alyssa Scheuneman, MSA Marketing Director
The result is a platform that is easier to maintain, better aligned with business needs, and more connected to MSA’s culture than ever before. It supports employee onboarding, career development, internal branding, and cross-office collaboration — all with the goal of minimizing friction.
As for what’s next? MSA sees continued opportunity. The company is exploring additional integrations, smarter search, and AI-driven support down the road. “But the best part is, we now have the right foundation to get there,” Scheuneman said.
Ready to Rethink Your Intranet or Microsoft 365 Strategy?
At JourneyTeam, we don’t just implement Microsoft technologies, we help you unlock their full potential. Whether you’re streamlining internal communication, modernizing SharePoint, or building employee experiences that scale with your business, we bring the expertise, tools, and collaborative mindset to get you there.
Our team specializes in Microsoft 365, Viva, SharePoint, and Teams — and we tailor every engagement to your people, processes, and goals. As MSA’s experience shows, the right intranet isn’t just about technology, it’s about clarity, culture, and connection.
Let’s start your journey and build something that reflects how your people actually work. Visit us at www.journeyteam.com, or contact our team directly.