Financial services CIOs have a lot on their plate: tightening regulations, legacy systems, cost pressures, the list goes on. In the midst of ongoing digital transformation, the humble intranet (or digital workplace) might not scream priority. But leading CIOs in banking and insurance are quietly making it one, and they’re reaping surprising dividends. 

Modernising your digital workplace goes beyond supporting internal comms. It’s about building a secure, compliant, efficiency-driving one-stop shop that enables employees to work effectively.  

Here’s why leading finance CIOs are championing modern intranets as a strategic asset: 

Compliance and Auditability: No More Blind Spots 

Every financial firm has poured money and effort into compliance, especially with regulations like the FCA’s Consumer Duty in the UK impacting not some, but the entire workforce.  

It’s a ticking time bomb when regulators ask, “How do you know everyone understood this update?” Many firms rely on blanket emails or outdated SharePoint sites for policy communication. You can roll out new policies yet still have no clue who’s read or understood them. 

A modern digital workplace can close that gap and reduce the risk of costly fines or reputational damage from compliance slips. It also satisfies the boards and regulators’ growing appetite for demonstrable control over internal processes. By using Microsoft 365 with Addin365 products, you can turn compliance communication into a trackable, targeted process: 

• Targeted announcements: Ensure the right teams see relevant updates (e.g., only traders get the new market conduct guidelines, not the whole company). 

• Mandatory read receipts: Require employees to confirm they’ve read critical notices. No more “I missed that email” excuses; you have a dashboard showing 98% have confirmed, and you know exactly who needs a follow-up nudge. 

• Audit-ready logs: Every view and acknowledgement is logged, meaning you can produce a report in minutes when asked to. 

Security and IT Governance: Sleeping well 

Financial institutions are prime targets for cyberattacks. CIOs lose sleep over this, and rightly so; a breach can cost millions and sink customer trust. The last thing you want is an insecure internal platform opening a back door. That’s a big reason to build your digital workplace on Microsoft 365, which comes with enterprise-grade security baked in. In short, you’re not crossing your fingers that an intranet vendor got security right; you’re leveraging the same proven platform your email and documents already live on. 

Governance becomes simpler too, with a single platform, IT can enforce policies uniformly. Want to ensure every file classified as “Confidential” isn’t shared externally? Microsoft Purview can do that globally. Need to retain communications for 7 years for MiFID II? Your intranet content can fall under the same retention policies as email. User lifecycle management is unified: when Jane in Trading leaves the company, disabling her account cuts off access to everything at once – OneDrive, Teams, the SharePoint intranet – all in one go. 

For the CIO, this centralised control means fewer cracks for things to slip through. It’s easier to adhere to IT governance standards when you’re not juggling 15 different systems. You can also more readily certify compliance with frameworks like GDPR, since data isn’t splintered across an unmanageable number of tools.  

Consolidation and Cost Efficiency: Doing More with Less 

CIOs in finance are under constant pressure to optimise costs and simplify the IT stack. Why pay for a stand-alone intranet service if SharePoint (which you already license) can deliver what you need? Why support a separate chat or social wall when Viva Engage can provide it under the same security umbrella? 

Beyond hard costs, think about efficiency gains. With an integrated digital workplace: 

• Employees have one platform to learn. New joiners ramp up faster because the intranet search, Teams collaboration, and document libraries all behave consistently. There’s one less “system” to train on. 

• Everything is connected. A conversation in Teams can link to a policy on the intranet; a Power BI dashboard can be embedded on an intranet page; an intranet announcement can be sent via Viva Engage to the company feed. This means less time jumping between apps and more time getting work done. 

• Less context-switching boosts productivity. A McKinsey study found that knowledge workers spend ~20% of their time just looking for information. A well-designed digital workplace with global search (surfacing SharePoint content, people, and even attachments in emails) slashes search time. What used to take 15 minutes now takes 2 minutes with a unified search. Multiply that across thousands of employees, and the productivity gain is tangible. 

Measurable Business Impact: From Soft Benefits to Hard Results 

For CIOs, the good news is that a modern digital workplace moves the needle in ways that matter to the bottom line: 

• Operational Resilience: Better internal comms mean incidents are responded to faster. Consider an IT outage – with a modern digital workplace, you can instantly push a Teams notification. People get the memo, switch to contingency plans, and avoid wasted effort.  

• Employee Productivity: We touched on search and information access. Another angle is process improvement. If your SharePoint intranet becomes the go-to hub for, say, procedural checklists or how-to videos, employees spend less time asking around for help.  

• Talent Retention & Engagement: While usually HR’s concern, it’s increasingly a CIO’s problem too – because the digital work environment is a big part of employee experience. Millennials and Gen Z staff expect consumer-grade tech at work. If your internal systems are archaic, frustration builds. Conversely, a slick, modern digital workplace (especially one accessible on mobile for branch staff or remote workers) helps people feel connected and informed.  

• Faster Innovation: A modern digital workplace often introduces enterprise social networking, communities of practice, and easier cross-department collaboration. Over time, this can lead to new process improvements or product ideas bubbling up from parts of the organisation that were previously disconnected.  

Ready to Turn Your Outdated SharePoint Intranet into a Strategic Powerhouse?  

Our team has helped financial leaders such as St James’s Place and Gatehouse Bank modernise on Microsoft 365 quickly and effectively. Let’s talk about what a high-impact digital workplace could look like for your financial organisation. Book a demo or consultation today, and take the first step toward a smarter, safer, more connected workplace.