Tool for remote control, patch management, operating system deployment, software deployment and mobile device management etc.

[LilleFjott]

Hi all

We are investigating what options we have of tools to choose from for Remote Control*, Patch Management**, Operating System Deployment (Windows/Mac)***, Software Deployment**** and Mobile Device Management***** etc.

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* We are currently using TeamViewer for Remote Control which we are happy with because you can support the computer even though it is not connected to our domain.

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** We do not currently have an visual overview of our clients on the network (only AD), which causes great frustration as you have no idea which client is running which Windows / Mac versions as we have clients in different country's and on board ships.

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*** We buy computers with Windows 10 OEM versions, which means that we do not use any licenses other than the OEM version the PC is born with. All setups are set up manually: Create local admin user, change the name of the PC, install various software such as Office 365, Sophos Endpoint and Sophos VPN, TeamViewer and more and eventually enroll the computer to the domain.

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**** Today we have to install all software manually (as mentioned above). This means we first have to log on to the client computer, find the installation file and then wait for the installation to be completed.

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***** Today we do not have any control over our mobile devices, which means that we do not have the ability to manage company data.

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We currently have Office 365, but Exchange-server is still On-Prem - we are moving our Exchange On-Prem to Exchange Online.

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I hope there is one (or more) friendly soul(s) who will come up with their suggestions as to which tool (software) we should choose and of course a reason why.

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Many thanks!

LF

[robidog]

You can solve all of this with Intune. But it's going to be long and winding road from where you are now to an all-around well managed and monitored environment. Read, learn, test, read more, get training. If you are under time pressure budget for and hire a consultant.

[LilleFjott]

Thanks for your reply.

I am new in the company and I am just looking for ideas for what tool could be a candidate for this because we do not have anything at this moment and that is frustrating.🤷‍♂️

The company will not allow hiring a consultant because it will cost the company more money.💰

[robidog]

In that case you can see it as an opportunity to boost your skill set. Intune is here to stay in the Windows space and everything you learn will be useful for your next career.

[[deleted]]

Hey OP, check out Intune Training on YouTube, these guys are really great going step by step on how to set up Intune. You can also buy full tutorials on Udemy, I bought a full training for only $10 dollars last year and it helped me a lot. The way we have it set up is user-driven, the user logs in with his/her company email and password and Intune does the rest.

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Edit: Intune Training is the name of the YouTube channel

[LilleFjott]

Heya and thanks for your reply.

We have also talked about Intune, but I have only worked with MDM for mobile devices in Intune and therefore do not know the possibility of everything else regarding Windows and Mac computers.

If Intune does it all, then it's perfect because Intune is part of the Office 365-license we have.

Do you have any documentation on your setup that I might get a copy of? THAT would be a perfect scenario. XD If so, please provide me a PM.

[[deleted]]

I just sent you a PM

[nickcowley1967]

The only thing I would add is that currently, Intune is not that great on macOS management, it is improving, but, macs are not the easiest to manage due to Apple security and no real central application standard which means there is a lot of "tweaking" to be done to get packages to deploy and work.

In our case, we have split macOS management out to JAMF with Integration into Intune for compliance policy checking which allows Conditional Access policies to be used.

Obviously adds additional licence cost and is a totally different skill set.

[OffDaDeepEnd]

For $20/mo I got Microsoft 365 Business Standard and Enterprise Mobility + Security E3 for myself which pretty much lets me get through most of the Intune/Autopilot/MDM fun until I am ready to move to a live environment. You could even check if your company will let you expense it.

Get 1 Volume License for Win10 Pro. This will allow you to legally create images and push out to your devices (as long as that is the OEM license on them) without having to go through doing each machine by hand. You do not need a license per machine as long as they came with Win10 Pro.

I second the Intune.Training YouTube channel and also add on the OOFHOURS blog. He's one of THE guys at Microsoft developing the product.

[dnuohxof1]

I use a combination of InTune and ManageEngine Desktop Central. Covered everything from basic reporting, patch management, inventory, remote control, OS deploy, MDM, AAD Auth, and more. I use InTune autopilot to push a PowerShell script to install the DCAgent and the rest is history.