Moving Beyond SharePoint: Why CFOs Should Champion the Digital Employee Experience

As enterprises prepare to retire SharePoint 2016/2019 and modernize their intranets, they face a pivotal decision. The impending end-of-life event - or simply competitive pressure to modernize - means organizations must choose their next digital workplace platform. But this transition is more than a technical upgrade – it’s a chance to reimagine the employee experience (EX) in ways that directly impact the bottom line. For enterprise leaders, and especially CFOs, improving the digital workplace now is not just IT housekeeping; it’s a strategic investment in engagement, productivity, and profitability.

The Business Case for Investing in Employee Experience

Employee experience has emerged as a critical driver of organizational performance. When employees are empowered with modern tools and a positive work environment, they are more engaged, productive, and committed. 

For example, research by Medallia and the Josh Bersin Company found that companies excelling in EX were 12 times more likely to report annual revenue growth over 20% compared to their underperforming peers.

Likewise, Gallup has observed that organizations with highly engaged employees achieve 21% higher profitability and 17% higher productivity on average than those with low engagement.

The message is clear: a great employee experience isn’t a “nice-to-have” – it is directly linked to superior financial outcomes.

Why does EX make such a difference? Engaged, supported employees tend to go the extra mile for customers, drive innovation, and stay with their companies longer. They collaborate better and adapt to challenges with more resilience. On the flip side, poor employee experience – marked by outdated tools, frustration, and disengagement – can quietly drain productivity and increase costs - Gallup estimates that disengaged employees cost the global economy hundreds of billions in lost productivity each year. In short, the quality of your internal digital workplace significantly influences how well employees perform and how much value they create.

Leaving Behind Outdated Platforms (and Mindsets)

Many enterprises have relied on SharePoint as a work hub for years, but aging on-premises versions like 2016/2019 were not built for today’s workforce expectations. As Microsoft phases out support for these editions, the risks of clinging to them multiply. Security patches and updates will cease, exposing firms to cyber threats and compliance issues. If something breaks, there’s no safety net of vendor support – meaning potential downtime and higher maintenance costs on your own. Moreover, an outdated system that can’t evolve with your business will hinder your ability to scale and innovate. Users stuck with slow, clunky tools become frustrated, and their productivity suffers.

Continuing to rely on an out-of-date intranet isn’t just a technical inconvenience; it’s a hidden liability. Think of the lost hours as employees search for information in a chaotic portal, or the disengagement that sets in when communication is poor and tools don’t meet modern standards. There is an opportunity cost when your digital workplace isn’t up to par – talented people may feel less valued and even consider moving on. From a CFO’s perspective, these are real costs: wasted labor hours, higher turnover expenses, and even lost revenue due to slower execution and innovation.

A Modern Digital Workplace: What “Good” Looks Like Today

The good news is that today’s digital workplace platforms are light years ahead of those old SharePoint sites and file shares. Modern solutions – such as Akumina’s employee experience platform – are designed to deliver a seamless, engaging experience that aligns with how employees actually work in 2025. Key characteristics of a modern digital workplace include:

• Centralized, One-Stop Access: A single, personalized hub where employees can access all the tools, apps, and information they need. Instead of hopping between disparate systems, everything from HR forms and policy documents to project workspaces and analytics dashboards is integrated in one interface. This centralization reduces time wasted searching across silos and ensures everyone is on the same page.
• AI-Driven Search and Personalization: Advanced search engines and AI recommendations help users instantly find answers, experts, or files across the enterprise. For example, Akumina’s platform leverages AI to surface relevant content (like updated sales figures or the latest IT support FAQ) proactively. Employees spend less time hunting for information and more time executing on their tasks.
• Mobile and Remote Accessibility: A true digital workplace is not confined to the office. Native mobile access means frontline and remote employees can stay connected to company news, collaboration, and tools from anywhere. Whether it’s a technician on a job site pulling up a safety checklist or a salesperson accessing the intranet on their phone, the experience is consistent and user-friendly. This keeps everyone engaged, regardless of location or device.
• Scalability and Integration: Modern EX platforms are cloud-based and highly scalable, capable of growing with your organization. They integrate with popular productivity suites (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, etc.), business applications, and even legacy systems. That means you can bring together data and functions without massive custom development. As your company adds new software or processes, the digital workplace can incorporate them, future-proofing your investment.
• Efficiency and Cost Savings: By streamlining communications and workflows, a modern platform cuts down on email clutter, redundant work, and manual processes. For instance, publishing a policy update or CEO message on the intranet homepage can replace mass emails and ensure the message actually reaches everyone. Automated workflows (like onboarding checklists or expense approvals) can be built into the platform, saving time and reducing errors. Over time, these efficiencies translate into tangible cost savings and quicker cycle times.
• Measurable Business Impact: The best digital workplace solutions provide analytics to track usage and engagement, helping leadership see what content or tools are most valuable and where there are bottlenecks. This data-driven insight allows continual improvement. More importantly, when employees are better informed, more connected to company goals, and less frustrated by tech hassles, you see results in business metrics – faster project delivery, higher customer satisfaction, and improved financial performance.

In short, a modern digital workplace platform like Akumina’s acts as the nerve center of your organization, elevating the employee experience to drive engagement and productivity. It’s built to meet the expectations of today’s workforce (think intuitive interfaces, quick access, and personalization akin to consumer apps), which older intranet solutions simply can’t match.

The CFO's Strategic Role in Employee Experience

Traditionally, initiatives around employee engagement or intranet upgrades might have been seen as HR or IT projects. But CFOs are increasingly at the forefront of digital transformation decisions, and employee experience should be part of that strategic agenda. Why should a CFO be deeply interested in EX and the digital workplace?

First, EX investments have a clear ROI – as highlighted earlier, engaged employees produce better financial outcomes. CFOs, as stewards of organizational performance, can champion these investments knowing they are tied to metrics like revenue growth, profit margins, and efficiency gains. Modern EX platforms not only boost output, but can also consolidate or replace fragmented systems, often resulting in lower IT overhead and licensing costs. A CFO who pushes for a platform that unifies communication, knowledge management, and collaboration might find it eliminates several redundant tools, streamlining the cost structure.

Secondly, CFOs bring a data-driven rigor that can help measure and validate the impact of employee experience initiatives. By working with HR and IT to set key performance indicators (KPIs) – for example, employee turnover rate, time to find information, or productivity metrics – CFOs can ensure that the EX program is not a fluffy, feel-good project, but one that regularly reports outcomes and business impact. This oversight and alignment with business goals increase the credibility of EX efforts in the eyes of the C-suite and board.

Moreover, CFOs have a cross-functional vantage point. They see how poor internal processes in one department can create cost overruns in another, or how lack of information flow can hurt sales, service, or innovation. With this holistic view, a CFO is well positioned to break down silos. Championing a modern digital workplace is essentially championing better cross-department collaboration and knowledge sharing – which can reduce duplication of work and accelerate decision-making across the company. In practice, that might mean fewer costly project delays or mistakes due to miscommunication.

Finally, there is a leadership aspect. When the finance chief visibly supports employee-focused improvements, it sends a powerful message through the organization. It signals that employee experience is a priority at the highest levels and is considered integral to the business strategy, not just an HR initiative. CFOs can partner with CIOs and CHROs to ensure that technology and culture evolve in tandem – for example, funding not just the platform but also training and change management so that employees fully adopt the new tools. This kind of executive sponsorship greatly increases the chances of success for a digital workplace rollout.

Conclusion: Seizing the Moment for Transformation

As your company moves away from SharePoint 2016/2019 and enters a new era of workplace technology, don’t treat it as a routine IT migration. Treat it as an opportunity to supercharge your organization’s employee experience – and by extension, its performance. The evidence is overwhelming that companies who invest in EX come out ahead, whether in growth, productivity, or talent retention. CFOs who recognize this can turn a looming end-of-support deadline into a catalyst for positive change.

In the end, improving the digital workplace is about enabling your people to do their best work. It’s about removing friction, connecting team members to information and to each other, and creating an environment where employees feel supported and empowered. For a CFO focused on engagement, performance, productivity, and profitability, championing a modern employee experience platform is a strategic move that aligns people and profit. It’s an investment in a more agile, innovative, and resilient organization.

In today’s competitive and fast-changing business climate, enterprises can’t afford an internal system that’s stuck in the past. By leading the charge to improve EX during this SharePoint transition, CFOs and other enterprise leaders will not only avoid the risks of outdated technology – they’ll unlock a more engaged workforce ready to drive the company’s next chapter of growth. And that is a return on investment that any CFO can get behind.