As long as a company has a few computers, everything can be set up by hand. The problem starts with a dozen or several dozen devices, plus private phones with company email and the laptops of people working from home. Nobody remembers which machine has an encrypted disk, which has an up-to-date system, and which has not received a single patch for months. Microsoft Intune solves this problem, because it lets you manage all devices from one console and enforce the same rules on them.

What Intune actually is

Intune is a cloud endpoint management service from Microsoft, part of the Microsoft 365 family. In short, it answers one question: how do you know that a device connecting to company data is secure. Instead of trusting someone’s word, you define a policy and Intune enforces it.

It manages two main worlds:

  • Company devices, which you enrol in full and control from the operating system to the applications.
  • Private devices, where you control only the company part, for example data in the Outlook app, without touching the employee’s private photos and messages.

What specifically can be enforced

The greatest value of Intune is consistency. Instead of hoping that every employee takes care of the settings themselves, you describe them once and they apply to everyone.

  • Disk encryption, so a lost laptop does not mean a data leak.
  • A requirement for an up-to-date system and automatic rollout of security patches.
  • A screen lock and a minimum PIN length on phones.
  • Installation of required applications right when a new device is set up.
  • Separation of company data from private data on the employee’s phone.

The most common moment when a company appreciates Intune is a lost phone or a stolen laptop. Remotely wiping company data in a few minutes turns a serious incident into a minor inconvenience.

Onboarding and offboarding without pain

Without device management, preparing a new laptop is hours of manual work. With Intune, combined with an automatic enrolment mechanism, a new computer straight out of the box downloads its configuration, policies and applications by itself. The employee signs in with their account and in a moment has a ready workstation.

An employee leaving works the same way. Instead of wondering what else is left on their private phone, you remove the company data with a single command, without touching the rest. That directly reduces a risk that in many companies is left unmanaged.

Intune and the security of all of Microsoft 365

Intune does not operate in a vacuum. It gains the most sense combined with conditional access in Entra ID. You can then set a simple but strong rule: only devices that Intune considers compliant with policy are allowed into company email and files. A laptop without encryption or a phone without a lock simply will not get access.

This closes a typical gap in which all the sign-in protections are in place, and yet the data ends up on an out-of-date, private computer with no protection at all.

Who it makes sense for

Intune is not just for large organisations. It works well anywhere that:

  • Part of the team works remotely or in a hybrid model.
  • People use private phones for company email.
  • The company is growing and setting up equipment by hand stops scaling.
  • Requirements apply, for example GDPR or NIS2, that call for control over devices.

It is also worth remembering that Intune is usually already in the Microsoft 365 Business Premium plans and higher, so you often pay for it without even knowing.

Where to start

A rollout does not have to be a revolution. A sensible order looks like this:

  1. Define a minimum policy: encryption, an up-to-date system, a screen lock.
  2. Enrol new devices first, and migrate older ones in stages.
  3. Set up protection of company data on private phones.
  4. Link device compliance with conditional access.

Bringing order to a fleet of laptops and phones is one of those steps that raise security the most for relatively little effort. If you want to roll out device management with Intune or arrange it together with the rest of your Microsoft 365 deployment, we will help you match the policies to how your team really works. Start with a conversation about how many devices connect to company data today and how many of them you really know.