What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of Microsoft Intune was initially to provide a more cohesive update platform. Our organization was trying to move away from SCCM as far as updating our device platforms across Windows devices. We chose Intune because it had a simplified way to configure Windows Update, view reports, and manage devices for updates. We expanded its use for configurations, moving from a hybrid join scenario to CloudJoin, which offers advantages for hybrid work and on-premise settings.
How has it helped my organization?
Everything has worked better since we started using Intune. Our devices use Intune for their authentication SSO process, which is also something that Intune integrates with, so we get fewer SSO prompts for our devices. There's more consistency in the configuration.
Our configuration profiles used to be all over the place. For example, there's a lot of legacy in Active Directory. Going through Intune has helped us enforce settings, which has improved device security and functionality. When you apply something through Intune, you know it works. You don't have to worry about a legacy setting from Active Directory that was uploaded by somebody seven years ago. With Intune, you can see that a device has a setting, and you can be confident that the device is configured how you want.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Microsoft Intune is the extensive reporting that is available. The platform's transparency allows us to see when a device has been configured correctly and what it is receiving.
We haven't implemented it yet, but Intune provides a cohesive platform for passwordless authentication. The single pane of glass is also huge. We were using SCCM with a third-party management platform. We took down five servers and consolidated everything into Intune. The ability to migrate everything into one platform greatly reduced our server footprint. It was effortless. We onboarded all 12,000 of our devices to Intune in a week.
Our users don't notice it, which is probably a good thing. If you don't notice something interacting with your computer, that's good from a user perspective. When we deploy stuff through Intune, it's silent. We recently deployed a bunch of potentially impactful settings to our users and tried to align devices with Microsoft's best practices. Nobody noticed.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes the syncing is inconsistent. I'm confident that the devices are checking in every eight hours, but sometimes the devices aren't picking up the settings as quickly as I would expect. Some features haven't been updated in a while, and Microsoft doesn't seem interested in developing them. Unless you talk to an engineer, you don't know whether there will be an update.
There are communication issues, so you might start working with a feature without knowing if it will be deprecated six months from now. Some reporting areas still need development. For example, I noticed that the reporting for driver updates is still confusing.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Microsoft Teams since the middle of 2022 when we started rolling it out to our Windows devices.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Microsoft Intune has been very stable. There has been only one incident with an outage on the Microsoft side, but it is rare to have significant outages.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Microsoft Intune is a scalable platform with room for growth. Over the past year, it has significantly developed, with onboarding Mac OS devices now an option. Microsoft has put effort into making Intune manage macOS effectively, surpassing some other providers.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Microsoft support eight out of 10. Microsoft Intune's customer service is generally efficient. When a support ticket is submitted, it directly reaches someone with Intune support expertise, unlike other Microsoft products where assistance may be delayed. Elevation to the right person is swift, though I haven't needed to submit many tickets because Intune functions well.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used SCCM and a device management platform called Remedy in tandem. We switched to unify our mobile device management under one platform and eliminate internal servers. Intune functioned as that single pane of glass for us. Additionally, Intune is more functional and user-friendly than SCCM or Remedy, making it an obvious choice.
How was the initial setup?
The ease of setup depends on your scenario because there are many ways to deploy Intune. Our setup was straightforward because our devices were already in Active Directory, so we could add them using a GPO. After that, we had to do some fine-tuning. We first onboarded our mobile devices and moved our Windows devices to it once the Windows management side matured a little. It took about a week to deploy the solution.
What about the implementation team?
We did not engage a reseller or consultant for our migration. The migration was handled internally without external help.
What was our ROI?
I can't speak to specific ROI numbers, but there is a noticeable reduction in man-hours spent on support and troubleshooting. Applications are deployed through Intune, and we see fewer tickets for common issues because we can resolve them through the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We did not incur additional setup costs for Intune, as it was already included in our E5 license.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We didn't evaluate other solutions; choosing Intune was obvious as the next step.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Microsoft Intune eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.