Company laptops and phones are the new security perimeter. With Microsoft Intune you manage all devices centrally from the cloud: deployment without an on-site IT engineer, security policies that enforce automatically, and BYOD protection that leaves personal use untouched.
When most employees worked five days a week in the office and every device was connected to one corporate network, device management was relatively straightforward. Everything sat behind the company firewall, updates were pushed via a central server, and a cable connected each device to the rest. That model still exists, but it has long stopped reflecting the reality for most SMEs.
Employees work from home, on the road, and at client sites. Laptops are used in multiple locations, phones are both personal and professional. Applications run in the cloud instead of on a local server. The result: the traditional network boundary as a security model no longer works. What does work is cloud-based device management. Microsoft Intune is the most accessible choice for that for SMEs.
Intune is Microsoft's device and application management platform, part of the broader Microsoft Intune Suite and closely integrated with Microsoft Entra ID and Microsoft 365. It has two core functions. Mobile Device Management, or MDM, gives full administrative rights over a device. You can enforce policies, deploy applications, lock or wipe devices remotely, and gain insight into compliance status.
Mobile Application Management, or MAM, focuses exclusively on the business applications and data on a device, without fully managing the device itself. This is the key option for personal devices: employees retain full ownership of their phone, while the IT department only protects corporate data and selectively wipes it when someone leaves.
One of the most powerful combinations is Intune together with Windows Autopilot. Autopilot lets you ship a new laptop directly from the supplier to an employee without any IT engineer physically configuring the device. The employee unpacks the laptop, signs in with their company account, and Autopilot takes care of the rest: computer name, applications, certificates, security settings, and joining Entra ID.
The prerequisite is that the hardware supplier registers the device in advance in your Autopilot environment, something most reputable business suppliers can do as standard. The result is a fully configured device that meets your security requirements, without an IT engineer having to travel to the employee. For SMEs with multiple locations or a hybrid working model, that is a concrete time saving with every new hire.
Intune lets you define compliance policies that determine whether a device is considered secure. Examples: disk encryption must be enabled, the operating system must not be older than a specific patch version, a lock code must be set, and no unknown software must be detected. Devices that do not meet those rules are assigned the status 'non-compliant'.
The power lies in the integration with Conditional Access in Entra ID. A non-compliant device automatically loses access to Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint, and other business applications. The employee sees a notification explaining what needs to be resolved. As soon as the device complies again, access is automatically restored, without any manual intervention.
Via Intune you deploy applications to specific groups of devices or users. A sales employee automatically receives the CRM client and the quotation tool. The finance department gets the accounting software. Everyone receives the company browser with the preferred settings. You can set applications as required or as available in the company portal, where employees can install what they need themselves.
Beyond deployment, Intune also monitors whether applications are up to date. For Microsoft 365 apps, Intune manages the update cycle. For other applications available as Win32 packages or via the Microsoft Store, automatic updating can be configured. That means fewer outdated versions in your environment and a smaller attack surface.
Not every SME wants to fully manage personal devices, and that is a legitimate position. Employees who use their own phone for work as well have a reasonable expectation of privacy on their personal device. With MAM policies in Intune, you can choose the middle path: corporate data within apps such as Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive is encrypted, protected with its own PIN, and can be wiped remotely without touching the personal portion of the device.
When an employee leaves, you wipe all corporate data from their personal device with a single action. Photos, messages, and personal apps remain completely intact. This makes BYOD manageable without employees feeling that your IT department has access to their personal lives.
Intune is included in Microsoft 365 Business Premium, the most common business licence for SMEs with between ten and three hundred users. If you are already on Business Premium, you already have Intune and only need to set up the configuration. For organisations on Business Standard, Intune is available as a separate add-on or via an upgrade to Business Premium, which also includes Microsoft Defender for Business and advanced Entra features.
The business justification is relatively straightforward. Fewer hours for manual device configuration, fewer security incidents through enforceable policies, and less downtime from outdated software. For organisations with five or more devices regularly used outside the office, the time saving in the first year typically outweighs the licence costs comfortably.
An Intune roll-out works best in three phases. Phase one is inventory: which devices are in circulation, what operating system are they running, who has what, and where are the biggest risks. Phase two is a pilot group of five to ten employees, preferably with different device types and usage patterns. You test the policies, discover exceptions, and refine settings without affecting the whole organisation.
Phase three is the broad roll-out, during which you plan communication and support. Employees need to understand what is changing and why, especially in BYOD scenarios where the step toward corporate management sometimes meets resistance. With clear explanation and a solid helpdesk setup, that transition almost always goes more smoothly than expected.
Want advice on configuring Intune in your environment, help choosing between MDM and MAM for your situation, or support with Autopilot registration for new devices? Contact Zarioh for a no-obligation conversation.
