Upgrade your service quality with Microsoft Intune

Microsoft Intune already sees wide-ranging deployments across organisations, providing effective mobile device management (MDM) that’s built for the Microsoft ecosystem. But Intune also generates a gold mine of data about your customer’s IT estate – which MSPs can use to provide proactive support, build value into their services, and identify opportunities to deepen customer relationships. 

Plus, as it’s included as part of a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence – many of your customers won’t need to upgrade their M365 subscription to take advantage. And those who do, the incremental value they can realise will help as you convince them to level-up their licenses. If you’re looking for new ways to bring more value to your existing customers, here’s how Intune can help: 

Understand your customer’s environment 

Designed as an MDM solution, Intune provides a simple way to compile information about an IT environment – giving you a viewpoint into your customer’s IT estate, whether it’s just a handful of devices, or something much larger. 

So long as it’s deployed to user devices, Intune also works as part of a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy – giving you all-important insights that help you see what the makeup of an estate looks like, even if you’re not responsible for procuring the devices in use.  

 Intune’s endpoint analytics capabilities provide visibility that helps you uncover key metrics that your customer may be interested in – such as security patch compliance, utilisation of software licences, or the exact age of devices. These reports can be aligned to business outcomes to strengthen the impact on your customer. For example, licence utilisation can be framed as a way to optimise costs by downscaling the environment and cutting out unused licences – in turn freeing up budgets for new IT projects. 

Identify security gaps 

Beyond just patch compliance, Intune also helps to identify other areas where security may fall short, providing focused reports on device compliance, health and configuration. In doing so, you can open up new avenues for upselling – such as supporting your customer with their MFA rollout, or developing and deploying a more sophisticated conditional access system. 

Intune also integrates into Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, providing an at-a-glance view of alerts generated by different devices to maintain a bird’s eye view of your customer’s security posture. Whether you’re developing your messaging around cybersecurity or just want to provide end customers with peace of mind, giving them access to regular reports based on these Defender for Endpoint analytics is an easy way to boost your credibility.  

As mentioned in our previous blog, Intune and Windows Autopatch (also included in  Business Premium) can be a winning combination – streamlining the process of identifying and updating devices without requiring manual intervention. This doesn’t just help to simplify your operations – it enhances the user experience for your end customer, minimising the disruption that updating software can cause, without putting their security at risk. 

Emphasise your expertise 

While initially providing default Intune reports into key aspects of your customer’s environment is the fastest way to start adding value through your Intune deployment, there is a more efficient option as you scale this insight.  

Building custom dashboards also allows you to compile executive-level summaries for the key stats that your customer cares about – such as a strong focus on security, or an interest in optimising costs and rationalising their estate wherever possible. 

Dropping this information into a branded report template ensures these reports deliver maximum impact to your customer and reinforce your credentials as a Microsoft expert. 

Open up sales opportunities 

So far, we’ve focused solely on how Intune can help you add value to existing support arrangements – but it also offers MSPs a way to open up new dialogues with customers. Intune can be configured to send out automated alerts when given criteria are met – ensuring you’re always aware when customers are due for a device refresh, in need of advanced protections, or paying for licences they don’t need. 

This lays the foundations for a more proactive sales approach, informed by real data. Engaging a customer about an upcoming refresh is one thing, but being able to tell them that, for example, 30% of their devices are out-of-warranty or suffering from performance degradation helps you communicate the value of refreshing in good time. 

Intune is just one of the ways Microsoft 365 Business Premium can help MSPs like you offer more value to customers – helping them modernise their approach to IT, while ensuring a frictionless management process for you as their guide. To find out more, check out the resources in our Business Premium Hub.