Departments
The sites that help departments to make themselves known within the company and manage their communication.
What is Departments
Department areas are designed to provide each team or department with a dedicated space on the SharePoint intranet. These areas can be structured as specific sites or pages, allowing departments to manage and share content relevant to their activities.
This approach helps strengthen internal communication and facilitate the efficient exchange of information across the organization.
Each department has its own space to present itself and highlight relevant updates, services, and key contacts for colleagues. Moreover, the Departments web part can be used to introduce the department manager, displaying their name, photo, and contact details.
Add the Departments web part to a SharePoint page
If your page is not already in edit mode, click Edit at the top right of the page.
Hover your mouse above or below an existing web part and you'll see a line with a circled +, like this:
Click on it and, in the web part search box, enter Department to quickly find and select the Departments web part, which is named "IAI - Company Department".
Click the Edit properties 
button on the left of the web part to open the property pane and set options such as Layout settings, Data sources, Person settings, General settings, and Display settings. See below for more information on each of these options.
Configuration
Layout settings
The layout settings allow you to customize the appearance of your application by adjusting various layout settings.
By opening this first configuration, you will see the following options:
Do you want to hide the background? You can choose to hide or display the web part background. The default setting is No. This means that, by default, the web part is characterized by a white background. If you enable this option, the white card background will be completely removed, allowing the content to appear directly on the page. As a result, the web part will be transparent, showing either the selected background image or the chosen SharePoint page color.
Do you want to hide the shadow? You can choose whether to show or hide the background shadow. The default setting is No. This means that, by default, the web part is characterized by a subtle depth effect that can make the web part stand out more against the rest of the page. If you enable this option, the shadow behind the background will be removed, giving the web part a flatter, cleaner look without any depth.
Select the type of shadow you want to use: if you decide to set the background shadow, a further configuration will appear and you can select the style from High contrast, Light, or Dark options.
If you select High contrast, this option creates a strong, bold shadow effect that provides a high level of contrast between the background and the content.
By choosing the Light background shadow, it will create a soft and subtle effect, giving a more delicate and gentle depth to the background.
Finally, the Dark background shadow style provides a darker, more intense effect, adding depth and emphasizing the background even more.
Do you want to hide the title? Here you can select whether to show the web part title or hide it. If set to visible, the web part title will appear on the left side.
Enter the title of the application: thanks to this configuration, you can customize the application title. If you keep it blank, SharePoint will show the default title “Company department” at the top left angle of the web part.
Data sources
As mentioned above, Departments introduces a person in the company, e.g., the manager of a specific department. The web part includes buttons through which you can contact this person. Therefore, it's essential to include People directory details in this section, so that the application can retrieve the user’s contact information.
Select the data source, which can be either SharePoint or Graph. Since a SharePoint list can contain a maximum of 5,000 items, companies with more than 5,000 employees will be required to use Graph as the data source. For companies with fewer than 5,000 employees, the choice will be the People directory list, which is synchronized daily with Azure AD contacts.
Contacts list: enter the URL of the People directory list.
For example: https://intranetai.sharepoint.com/sites/intranetai/Lists/IAIPeopleDirectory/All%20contacts.aspx
Favourite contacts list: insert the URL of the People directory favorites list.
Person settings
In this section, you can choose the name of the person to display. After writing the person’s name or surname, select the correct user from the search results.
General settings
In this section, you need to configure general options, such as selecting the field where the profile picture is stored and other related settings.
Select the field where the profile picture is stored: specify the Azure AD field where this piece of information is saved. Usually, it is Title/User Principal Name.
Select the field where the username is stored: specify the Azure AD field where this piece of information is saved. Usually, it is User Principal Name.
Select the field where the phone number is stored: specify the Azure AD field where this piece of information in saved. Usually, it is Business Phones/Mobile Phone. In order to add the phone shortcut and make calls, you need a Voip System. Click here to go to the guide that explains this aspect.
Select the field where the mail address is stored: specify the Azure AD field where this piece of information is saved. Usually, it is Mail.
Display settings
In this section, you need to select the information that will be visible in the person’s card.
Choose title, subtitle and sub-subtitle: select the options you want to see in the person’s preview card.
For example: Title (corresponding to the user's full name), Department, Job Title.
Do you want to show the favourite shortcut in profile section? Choose if you want to show the favourite shortcut in the profile section or not. If the favourite button (the star) is clicked, the user's profile will be added to the list of favourite contacts in the People Directory.
Do you want to show the phone shortcut in profile section? Choose if you want to show the phone shortcut in the profile section or not. In order to add the phone shortcut and make calls, you need a Voip System. Click here to go to the guide that explains this aspect.
Do you want to show the Teams shortcut in profile section? Choose if you want to show the Teams shortcut in the profile section or not. Thanks to the Teams shortcut, it will be possible to start a Teams chat with the user.
Do you want to show the mail shortcut in profile section? Choose if you want to show the mail shortcut in the profile section or not. Thanks to the mail shortcut, it will be possible to contact the user via e-mail.
Here’s an example of how the Departments web part is displayed on the page:
Last updated
Was this helpful?