How to Manage Mobile Devices with Microsoft Intune

The modern UK workplace has fundamentally changed. Employees no longer work exclusively from company-issued desktops in a single office. They work from laptops in coffee shops, tablets on trains between London and Birmingham, smartphones in client meetings, and personal devices at home. This mobility delivers enormous productivity benefits, but it also creates significant management and security challenges that traditional IT tools were never designed to address.

Microsoft Intune is Microsoft's cloud-based endpoint management solution, and for UK businesses already invested in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, it represents the most natural and cost-effective way to manage and secure the diverse range of devices that access corporate data. Intune allows you to control how devices are configured, enforce security policies, deploy applications, protect corporate data on personal devices, and remotely wipe lost or stolen equipment — all from a single cloud-based console.

This guide explains what Microsoft Intune is, how it works, what it can do for your business, and how to implement it effectively. Whether you are managing 20 devices or 2,000, Intune provides the tools you need to maintain control without restricting the flexibility that modern workers expect.

What Is Microsoft Intune?

Microsoft Intune is a cloud-based service that provides mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) capabilities. It is part of the Microsoft Endpoint Manager suite and is included in several Microsoft 365 licensing plans, including Microsoft 365 Business Premium, Enterprise E3, and Enterprise E5. For many UK businesses, this means Intune is already available as part of their existing subscription — they simply need to configure and deploy it.

Intune manages devices across all major platforms: Windows 10 and 11, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android. This cross-platform support is essential for UK businesses where employees use a mixture of company-issued Windows laptops, personal iPhones, Android tablets, and macOS devices. Rather than requiring separate management tools for each platform, Intune provides a unified console that applies consistent policies across all device types.

The service operates entirely in the cloud, which means there is no on-premises server infrastructure to deploy, maintain, or update. Configuration and management happen through the Microsoft Intune admin centre, a web-based portal that your IT team or managed service provider can access from anywhere. This cloud-native architecture aligns perfectly with the hybrid and remote working models that have become standard across UK businesses.

Core Capabilities of Microsoft Intune

Intune provides a comprehensive set of capabilities that address the full lifecycle of device management, from initial enrolment through to retirement. Understanding these capabilities helps you plan an effective deployment.

Device Enrolment

Intune supports multiple enrolment methods to accommodate different device ownership scenarios. For company-owned devices, Windows Autopilot enables zero-touch provisioning — a new laptop arrives from the manufacturer, the employee turns it on, signs in with their Microsoft 365 credentials, and Intune automatically configures the device with the correct settings, applications, and security policies. No IT intervention required. For Apple devices, Apple Business Manager integrates with Intune to provide similar automated enrolment. For Android devices, Android Enterprise enrolment offers both fully managed and work profile options.

For personal devices (BYOD), Intune offers a lighter-touch enrolment model that protects corporate data without taking full control of the employee's personal device. The employee installs the Intune Company Portal app, registers their device, and Intune applies policies only to the corporate data and applications — their personal photos, messages, and apps remain untouched and invisible to IT.

Configuration Profiles

Configuration profiles allow you to define and enforce device settings at scale. You can configure Wi-Fi connections (automatically connecting managed devices to your corporate network), VPN profiles (ensuring secure connectivity for remote workers), email settings (pre-configuring Outlook with the correct server settings), security settings (enforcing screen lock, PIN complexity, encryption), and restrictions (preventing data transfer from corporate apps to personal apps).

Feature	Company-Owned Devices	Personal Devices (BYOD)
Enrolment Method	Autopilot / DEP / Android Enterprise (fully managed)	Company Portal / Work Profile
Device Control	Full device management	Work data only (MAM)
App Deployment	Mandatory and optional apps	Corporate apps in work container
Security Policies	Full device policies	App-level policies only
Remote Wipe	Full device wipe	Selective wipe (work data only)
Personal Data Visibility	IT can see device inventory	Personal data invisible to IT
User Privacy	Lower (company device)	Higher (personal data protected)

Application Management

Intune allows you to deploy, update, and manage applications across all managed devices. You can push required applications (such as Microsoft Office, your VPN client, or your CRM app) to devices automatically during enrolment, make optional applications available through the Company Portal for self-service installation, and remove applications when they are no longer needed or when an employee leaves the organisation.

For BYOD scenarios, Intune's app protection policies are particularly powerful. These policies create a managed container around corporate applications on personal devices, preventing data from being copied, shared, or saved to unmanaged locations. An employee can view a confidential document in Outlook on their personal phone but cannot copy the text and paste it into a personal email or save it to their personal cloud storage. If the employee leaves the organisation, a selective wipe removes all corporate data and applications from the device without affecting personal content.

Compliance Policies and Conditional Access

Compliance policies define the minimum security requirements that a device must meet to access corporate resources. You might require that devices have encryption enabled, a minimum operating system version installed, a screen lock configured, and no jailbreak or root detected. Devices that do not meet these requirements are marked as non-compliant.

Conditional Access, powered by Azure Active Directory, uses compliance status as a factor in access decisions. You can create policies that block access to corporate email, SharePoint, and Teams from non-compliant devices, require multi-factor authentication when accessing sensitive applications, restrict access from untrusted locations or networks, and enforce additional verification for high-risk sign-in attempts. This combination of compliance policies and Conditional Access creates a zero-trust security model that protects corporate data regardless of where or how employees access it.

UK Endpoint Security Threat Landscape

Understanding the current threat landscape helps explain why endpoint management is not optional for UK businesses. The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reports that endpoint devices remain the primary attack vector for cybercriminals targeting British organisations. Without proper device management, businesses leave themselves exposed to a range of preventable threats that grow more sophisticated each year.

According to the UK Government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 39% of UK businesses identified a cyber attack in the past twelve months, with the average cost of the most disruptive breach reaching £4,960 for small businesses and £19,400 for medium and large organisations. A significant proportion of these breaches originate from poorly managed endpoints — devices that lack current patches, run outdated operating systems, or have no encryption enabled. Intune directly addresses each of these vulnerabilities by enforcing baseline security configurations across every device that touches corporate data.

The chart below illustrates the most common endpoint-related security risks reported by UK businesses, highlighting precisely the gaps that Intune is designed to close.

These figures underscore a critical point: the majority of endpoint security incidents are preventable with proper management tooling. Lost devices can be remotely wiped within minutes through Intune. Unpatched software can be addressed through automated update policies. Unsecured personal devices can be brought under control with BYOD enrolment and app protection policies. Shadow IT can be curtailed through Conditional Access rules that restrict corporate data to approved applications. Non-compliant configurations can be detected and remediated automatically through compliance policies. Each of these capabilities is built into Intune and requires configuration rather than additional investment.

Implementing Intune: A Step-by-Step Approach

A successful Intune deployment requires careful planning and a phased approach. Attempting to enrol every device and enforce every policy on day one is a recipe for disruption and user resistance. Instead, follow a structured implementation plan that builds capability gradually.

Phase 1: Foundation (Weeks 1-2). Configure the Intune tenant, set up Apple Push Notification certificates and Android Enterprise integration, create device groups based on your organisational structure, and define your initial compliance and configuration policies. Test everything with a small pilot group of IT-savvy users who can provide feedback and identify issues.

Phase 2: Pilot (Weeks 3-4). Expand to a broader pilot group — perhaps 10-20% of your users — covering a representative mix of device types, roles, and locations. Deploy core applications, enable Conditional Access in report-only mode (so you can see what would be blocked without actually blocking anything), and gather feedback on the user experience.

Phase 3: Rollout (Weeks 5-8). Roll out to the remaining user base in waves, starting with the least complex groups and ending with specialist users who may have unique requirements. Enable Conditional Access enforcement. Deploy additional applications and policies as needed. Provide user training and support materials to ease the transition.

Phase 4: Optimisation (Ongoing). Continuously monitor compliance dashboards, refine policies based on real-world experience, address edge cases, and extend the deployment to cover new scenarios such as kiosks, shared devices, or meeting room equipment.

Intune and the UK Hybrid Working Landscape

The shift to hybrid working has permanently altered how UK businesses operate, and device management sits at the centre of this transformation. According to the Office for National Statistics, 28% of UK workers now follow a hybrid pattern, splitting their time between home and the office. In London and the South East, that figure exceeds 40%. For knowledge workers in professional services, technology, and financial services, hybrid arrangements have become the default expectation rather than a perk.

This shift creates a specific set of device management challenges that Intune is uniquely positioned to address. When employees work from home, they connect through residential broadband rather than the corporate network, bypassing traditional perimeter security controls. Their devices may connect to shared household Wi-Fi networks alongside personal devices, smart home equipment, and other potentially insecure endpoints. Some employees alternate between a company laptop at the office and a personal tablet or desktop at home, creating inconsistencies in how corporate data is accessed and stored.

Intune resolves these challenges through its cloud-native architecture. Because policies are enforced at the device level rather than the network level, they follow the user regardless of location. A compliance policy requiring BitLocker encryption, a current operating system version, and an active antivirus solution applies identically whether the employee is sitting in the Manchester office or working from a cottage in the Lake District. Conditional Access policies can apply location-based rules — requiring multi-factor authentication when signing in from outside the corporate network, for instance — without requiring a VPN connection to enforce them.

For UK businesses with employees who travel between offices, client sites, and home, Intune also simplifies Wi-Fi and VPN configuration. Rather than manually configuring network settings for each location, Intune can push Wi-Fi profiles for all company offices, preconfigure VPN connections for secure remote access, and automatically connect to the appropriate network based on the device's location. This removes a common source of helpdesk tickets and ensures that employees always have secure connectivity available without needing to contact IT support.

Common Deployment Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Whilst Intune is a powerful and well-designed platform, real-world deployments frequently encounter challenges that can slow adoption or undermine user confidence if not anticipated and managed properly. Drawing on our experience deploying Intune across dozens of UK businesses, here are the most common obstacles and practical strategies for overcoming them.

User Resistance to Device Enrolment

The single most common challenge is employee pushback, particularly around BYOD enrolment. Employees worry that enrolling their personal device gives the company access to their personal data, photos, messages, and browsing history. This concern is understandable and must be addressed proactively. Communicate clearly that Intune's BYOD model creates a separate work container on the device, that IT cannot see personal apps, photos, or messages, and that a selective wipe only removes corporate data. Providing a simple one-page FAQ and holding a brief all-hands session before rollout can dramatically reduce resistance. In our experience, businesses that invest thirty minutes in upfront communication see enrolment completion rates above 90%, compared to below 60% for those that simply send an email with instructions.

Legacy Application Compatibility

Some older line-of-business applications may not work correctly with Intune's app protection policies or may require specific device configurations that conflict with standard compliance policies. Identify these applications during the pilot phase and create targeted exception policies for the affected user groups. Intune's device groups and filters allow you to apply specific configurations to defined subsets of devices without relaxing security for everyone else. In particularly stubborn cases, application virtualisation through Azure Virtual Desktop can provide access to legacy applications without compromising the endpoint security posture.

Apple Device Complexity

Managing Apple devices through Intune requires Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) certificates and, ideally, integration with Apple Business Manager. The APNs certificate must be renewed annually — a task that is easy to overlook and causes immediate disruption if missed, as all iOS and macOS management capabilities stop functioning. Set a calendar reminder for sixty days before expiry and assign a specific team member as the certificate owner. Apple Business Manager integration, whilst requiring a DUNS number application that can take several weeks, enables zero-touch deployment for company-owned iPhones, iPads, and Macs and is well worth the initial setup effort.

Policy Conflicts and Troubleshooting

As your Intune deployment matures and you add more configuration profiles and compliance policies, conflicts between policies can emerge. A Wi-Fi profile might conflict with a VPN-on-demand setting, or two compliance policies might set contradictory password requirements for the same device group. Intune provides a built-in policy conflict report in the admin centre, and we recommend reviewing it weekly during the first three months of deployment. Adopting a naming convention for all policies — such as prefixing with the target platform and policy type — makes troubleshooting significantly easier as the number of policies grows.

GDPR and Compliance Benefits

For UK businesses subject to GDPR (which is effectively all businesses that process personal data), Intune provides several compliance benefits. The ability to enforce encryption on all devices that access corporate data helps meet the GDPR requirement for appropriate technical measures. Remote wipe capabilities ensure that personal data can be removed from lost or stolen devices promptly, reducing the risk of a reportable data breach. Compliance reporting provides auditable evidence that your device fleet meets your security standards — valuable documentation if the ICO ever questions your data protection practices.

Intune's conditional access policies also support the GDPR principle of data minimisation by ensuring that only authorised users on compliant devices can access personal data. This reduces the attack surface and limits the potential impact of a compromise. For businesses in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, or legal, these capabilities are not merely nice to have — they are essential for meeting regulatory expectations.

Measuring the ROI of Intune Deployment

Justifying the investment in Intune deployment is straightforward when you quantify the costs it eliminates and the risks it mitigates. For UK businesses, the return on investment typically manifests across four areas: reduced IT labour, lower breach costs, improved productivity, and audit readiness.

IT labour savings. Manual device setup — installing applications, configuring email, applying security settings, and joining the domain — takes between two and four hours per device when done by hand. For a business onboarding fifty new devices per year, that represents one hundred to two hundred hours of IT time. With Intune and Windows Autopilot, device provisioning is largely automated: the employee unboxes the laptop, connects to the internet, signs in, and Intune handles the rest. Most deployments we manage reduce per-device setup time to under fifteen minutes of IT involvement, saving the equivalent of £8,000 to £15,000 annually in IT labour for a mid-sized business.

Breach cost avoidance. The average cost of a data breach for a UK SME is £8,460 according to the UK Government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey, and significantly higher for medium and large businesses. A single lost laptop containing unencrypted client data can trigger a reportable breach under GDPR, with potential ICO fines of up to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover. Intune's ability to enforce encryption and remotely wipe lost devices effectively eliminates this risk category. Even preventing one breach over a three-year period more than justifies the cost of deployment.

Productivity gains. Self-service capabilities — the Company Portal for app installation, automated Wi-Fi and VPN configuration, and password reset integration — reduce helpdesk ticket volume by an average of 25% to 35% according to Microsoft's own case studies. For a UK business with 200 employees generating roughly 150 IT support tickets per month, this translates to 40 to 50 fewer tickets monthly, freeing IT staff to focus on strategic projects rather than repetitive device support tasks.

Audit and compliance readiness. For businesses pursuing Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, or sector-specific certifications, the compliance reporting built into Intune provides ready-made evidence for auditors. Without centralised device management, gathering evidence of encryption status, patch levels, and security configurations across a fleet of devices is a manual, time-consuming exercise that must be repeated for every audit cycle. Intune generates this evidence continuously and automatically, reducing audit preparation time from weeks to hours.