Endpoint device management with Microsoft Intune

Business leaders and IT managers have the weight of expectation on their shoulders today. People expect the flexibility to choose how, when and where they work. Distributed workforces also need highly reliable devices with the right protections against cyber security threats.

The world of work is dynamic and you need solutions that enable you to manage your corporate resources that would traditionally have sat within the office walls: your devices, business applications and data. 

Microsoft Intune, part of Microsoft’s Endpoint Manager suite, offers device management capabilities to ease the burden of managing IT across fluid and distributed workforces.

Why manage your devices and applications?

When working in a hybrid model, your team might utilise corporate-owned or personal devices to access company accounts and data. As we have transformed offices into places where people come and go, it has created some headaches for the IT department. How do you know which devices access your corporate data? And do you know if they are secure?

In addition, you must ensure that people have access to the corporate applications and resources they need to do their jobs. If you decide to retire a specific application, you need a method of ensuring the app and its data no longer exist on devices associated with your company.

Microsoft Intune provides a comprehensive, easy-to-deploy solution for managing mobile devices and applications.

What does Microsoft Intune deliver?

Microsoft Intune manages your devices and apps through two key functions: mobile device management and mobile application management.

Mobile Device Management (MDM)

With Intune, you can centrally manage and secure iOS, Android, and Windows devices from a single console. You use MDM for mobile devices, whether they are corporate-owned or part of a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program It enforces policies for what users can do on their devices and enables you to create security requirements that devices must comply with.

It includes various features for managing and securing devices. Microsoft Intune features such as remote wipe, device lock and password reset become particularly useful for protecting data on lost or stolen devices.

Mobile Application Management (MAM)

Endpoint management in a BYOD setting will primarily focus on MAM because people will want to use personal devices as they wish. But, you will want specific policies for business applications on that device.

MAM in Microsoft Intune lets you control which applications can access company data. With Intune, you can also deploy apps to specific groups of users, giving you the flexibility to manage apps based on users’ needs. For example, you can deploy a communications app to all your employees, but you might make another app only available to your sales team.

Deploying Microsoft Intune on devices and applications

When first setting up Microsoft Intune for your organisation, you will create compliance policies, assign the applications you want on user devices, enforce security measures, etc. You can specify which types of devices you would like to manage, such as Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android.

When new users join your organisation, you only need to assign an Azure Active Directory (AD) licence to them and set up automatically completes once they sign into Azure AD on their device. You can also set up an out-of-the-box experience whereby you register a new company device with Microsoft Autopilot so that the person can access your corporate resources as soon as they sign into their device.

When users with a company-owned device leave, you can recycle the device by wiping it through Microsoft Intune, restoring default settings and assigning it to a new user.

Reporting and analytics in Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Intune’s reporting and analytics capabilities provide visibility into how people use company devices and applications. It also delivers information on device health and alerts you to any maintenance you might need to implement.

Microsoft Intune shows you which devices and apps people use most often and how they leverage them. You can analyse device compliance, cyber security measures, updates, device configuration, etc.

Microsoft Intune reporting also highlights device issues, software recommendations, app reliability and startup time. With this information, you can quickly identify and resolve problems with your devices or apps.

Experteq can deploy your Microsoft Intune solution

Modern workplace success requires the right tools for communication, collaboration, and productivity while minimising costs. Experteq deeply understands the endpoint management because it is a solution we use in our company. We firmly believe in its merits and can bring these to your organisation.

Visit our Data Security Management page for more information on how we can serve your modern workplace.