In the Press

A Strategic Shift Towards a Future-Proof Digital Workplace

SharePoint “Classic” launched over twenty years ago; I can still remember all of our clients celebrating when it did. Believe it or not, back in 2001, SharePoint “Classic” was considered revolutionary. Although SharePoint “Classic” had a rough start with industry adoption, as a packaged product it offered a powerful platform that fostered collaboration through an easy-to-use interface that enabled a user to share content, create sites, and secure content without ever touching a line of code. Because of this, it started to gain a large following, and organizations started to see value in it. It’s easy to see why it’s grown in popularity since 2010.

For many of our clients (and many organizations), switching to SharePoint as a cornerstone of their collaboration and document management systems was a no-brainer. The platform offers flexibility that fosters innovation, efficiency, and a cost-friendly workspace. That popularity expanded beyond the collaboration space and intranet. Soon, it was leveraged as a centralized platform to build tools that supported business process automation and the front end to large Enterprise system integration (SAP, Oracle, Procore, etc.).

Although Microsoft Modern Framework has been around since 2017 and continues to evolve, it was not widely used early on. Just like SharePoint “Classic”, history seems to repeat itself. Microsoft Modern Framework has become a hot topic lately since Microsoft announced that the first set of SharePoint “Classic” features will be sunsetting, starting with SharePoint Add-ons on April 2nd, 2026. As a result, most of our clients have started to work on a plan to migrate to the Microsoft Modern Framework. In parallel, we have already started to reflect that shift in our updates. These Microsoft updates are starting to cause feature depreciation on SharePoint Classic.

A good example of this is the June patch that was recently applied to the SharePoint Online environment. Although it was announced that Master Pages would not be affected until the retirement on April 2nd, the June release broke the Master Pages feature due to the storage location of the Master Pages. Though this was a small move to help support Modern Branding Framework, it was detrimental to the existing SharePoint “Classic” engine. As a result, our clients’ web tools were unable to load “custom” branding, and some web tools were rendered unusable resulting in 24 hours of downtime as we conducted troubleshooting and applied the changes. This is one of many unforeseen issues that we have experienced and will continue to see leading up to the final sunsetting of the SharePoint “Classic” framework.

To ensure your current SharePoint will continue to function while enabling innovation, efficiency, and long-term success, we highly recommend upgrading to Modern Framework as soon as possible. Here is some additional information to help you on your journey.

Key Advantages of Upgrading to the Modern Framework

Innovation

Upgrading to the Modern Framework can help your team with innovation through additional tools to add to your tool belt. The introduction of SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Power Platform, AI, etc. has provided our clients with some amazing web tool enhancements. Some of the benefits that our clients notice right away are:

• Responsive Design is now Out-of-the-Box (OOTB). All of your SharePoint solutions will now fit properly on any device and platform. This enables organizations to reduce the amount of time it takes to ensure that their SharePoint solutions can be leveraged by employees who are using their work-issued laptops or their personal devices, enabling flexibility. This truly allows you to work from any place, anytime, and on any device!
• SharePoint Framework (SPFx) combined with Modern web parts has removed the handcuffs from our client’s development team as they no longer have to work within the confined space of Classic SharePoint and SharePoint Designer. SPFx enables developers to meet unique business requirements by enabling them to use mature programming languages like JavaScript, React, etc. While the OOTB Modern web part serves as a foundation to build upon, it helps the development team produce products faster and more creatively.
• SharePoint Framework (SPFx) combined with Power Platform helps simplify solutions with powerful engines.
  • Power Automate can create low-code/no-code workflows and is the answer to converting existing SharePoint “Classic” workflows into the Modern Framework.
  • Power Apps can low-code/no-code forms or extend the SharePoint native form, without leveraging code to create a form to collect data into SharePoint.
  • Power BI can create beautiful dashboards without purchasing additional plug-ins.

Efficiency

Generally, the belief is that when you get a new tool, it will be better than the old tool. Of course, like any tool, it will come with its pros and cons, but in the case of SharePoint Modern Framework, we feel that it is going to offer more pros than cons. Not only does it help with innovation, but it also helps our clients’ teams with efficiency. Some of the benefits we have noticed so far are:

• With modern web parts, Power Users are empowered to take control of their SharePoint sites without having to change code. This trend has produced more meaningful sites because these sites are now built by the users, for the users. This has not only reduced the time to market for the site, but it has freed up the Development team’s time to build and support larger customizations.
• Along with modern web parts, the Modern Framework also brings AI features that can be leveraged by both the Power Users group and the Development group. Today, you can utilize AI to help build a site or find code and best practices to build out solutions in SharePoint. This increases efficiency and works as a guardrail to enforce best practices in the entire environment.
• Migrating from Classic SharePoint to the Modern Framework enables clients to use the Power Platform, particularly Power Automate. This shift has improved efficiency by simplifying workflow creation and allowing greater business process automation without extra costs or workaround solutions previously needed with the SharePoint Workflow Engine.

Long-Term Success

Microsoft continues to deeply integrate all of its tools into Microsoft 365, and there is no end in sight. So, upgrading to the Modern Framework provides you with a fully integrated and flexible platform and will only continue to grow along with all the other major Microsoft Cloud Technologies. Here are some examples of long-term success that our clients are experiencing with their upgrade to the Modern Framework:

• As Microsoft Cloud technology is utilized by large enterprises and government agencies across the world, Microsoft has invested heavily in cybersecurity and compliance. These investment benefits funnel down to your environment, ensuring that your environment is just as secure and compliant with the Department of Defense if you are at GCC High.
• As we mentioned earlier, migrating to the Modern Framework will also come with the benefit of being fully integrated with other Microsoft 365 tools (Power Platform, AI, etc.). So, the upgrade not only enables your team to get into a flexible and secure platform, but it also comes with additional tools that will help you expand your capabilities.

Things to know before upgrading to the Modern Framework

Now we have provided you with the many advantages of upgrading. But before you start, here are some things you should know about the journey.

• It is NOT a “One Button Upgrade”: Unless you are the 1% of clients that rely on SharePoint’s Out-of-the-Box features without any customization, you are not going to find a tool that will upgrade your environment to be modern for you.
• Stop treating this as a migration project: This is not a migration project; it’s an upgrade project. You will need to upgrade your current code, workflow, branding, etc., to fit into the new Modern Platform.
• Power Automate will be your best friend: Trust us, Power Automate is going to be your best friend. If used correctly, it can help you automate many of your upgrade processes.
• Time is not on your side: While you technically have until the end of 2026 until Classic is no longer supported by Microsoft, time is a luxury you don’t have. It’s more work to upgrade to the Modern Framework than you think (see the One Button Upgrade section above).
• Don’t start without a plan: Trust us — for every single Classic Feature you use, there is an equivalent functionality on the modern side. It may require you to convert your current work to the Power Platform, SharePoint Framework (SPFx), or a new Modern web part. So, before you start, know that there are 2 types of upgrades (Simple and Complex) that you need to do. Simple upgrades, like list/library, SharePoint Branding engine, and SharePoint Out-of-the-box webpart, can be done manually or leveraging a tool. For more complex upgrades like converting your current solutions via custom code (jQuery, JavaScript, .NET, etc.) and/or legacy technology via SharePoint workflow and InfoPath, you will need to upgrade these solutions to either SharePoint Modern Framework (SPFx) or Power Platform (Power Apps and Power Automate).

Conclusion

If upgrading from Classic SharePoint to the Modern Framework is not on your IT team’s roadmap for 2025, it is time to sharpen your pencils. You are losing precious time and not taking full advantage of your technology investments. Understandably, the thought of migrating to the Modern Framework may seem daunting. The concerns can pile up (data loss, user downtime, new technology to learn, etc.), but procrastinating on this project will produce more stress later on.

When it comes to upgrading to the Modern Framework, the time to act is now. The longer your organization delays this decision, the more you risk falling behind in a world that is advancing at lightning speed while introducing risks to your current investment in your SharePoint tools.

About the Author
My name is Huy H. Nguyễn, and I am a managing partner at Bayen Group. We specialize in partnering with organizations to plan and implement the Technology Enterprise Modernization Roadmap. If your organization is starting or in the process of its own Digital Transformation, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to be your guide through the Digital Transformation journey.

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