A high-caliber, enterprise-grade unified endpoint administration (UEM) answer is extra crucial than ever in right now’s distant, hybrid, and continuously fluctuating work panorama. In the event you’re in procurement or finance, you are doubtless below lots of strain to decide on the fitting one. You need to drive operational effectivity by way of value financial savings and overhead optimization.

For a lot of organizations, Microsoft Intune (rebranded from Microsoft Endpoint Supervisor [MEM] and usually offered as a part of an MS Enterprise License Settlement [ELA]) appears like a stable selection for endpoint administration. It is a cloud-based answer with clear identify recognition. One other plus: Microsoft’s Intune plan pricing appears very approachable.

Different choices have much less identify recognition than Microsoft however could also be a greater match relying on a corporation’s wants. For instance, in response to G2, Ivanti Neurons for UEM will get excessive scores for high quality of assist and ease of use. Atera presents specific experience for small companies. NinjaOne is rated effectively for being “a superb associate in doing enterprise.”

The upshot: Organizations shouldn’t be making buying selections primarily based on model identify and pricing. As a substitute, corporations ought to look beneath the floor earlier than investing in expertise, notably in high-stakes situations with severe return on funding (ROI) potential.

What to Ask Earlier than Investing in a UEM Answer

We can not try to debate the professionals and cons of each main UEM answer out there. With that in thoughts, here is what I like to recommend asking when evaluating a UEM answer:

1. What kind of gadgets will I be utilizing the UEM answer for? Is it primarily cellular, largely laptops or desktops, or a mix?
2. Are my endpoints dispersed regionally, globally, or largely on-site behind a fringe?
3. How is my IT assist desk going to assist and troubleshoot these gadgets? What’s the further value per yr to assist?
4. What number of staff shall be concerned, and what’s the price per worker?
5. What are the licensing agreements like? Do I want to purchase a complete pie after I solely desire a slice?
6. How is pricing structured? Will it scale primarily based on utilization?
7. Do my staff completely use one kind of system and working system or a mixture? If it is the latter, will the UEM answer work simply as effectively whatever the system kind and OS used?
8. Would my IT and safety staff profit extra from a central dashboard with a single-pane-of-glass view or built-in Cellular Risk Protection capabilities?
9. How does the answer combine with my different distributors/options and third-party apps?
10. What number of extra IT staff will it take to handle? Does it require extra servers?

A few of these questions may sound overly technical to these in finance and procurement, however your solutions can considerably have an effect on your true usability and prices.

Get the Full Image of Your Whole Value of Possession

As a rule, expertise should swimsuit the group utilizing it, and no expertise answer is appropriate for everybody. Whole value of possession, as an illustration, is necessary, and it varies amongst options. Let’s take a look at Intune for instance.

For all its strengths and light-weight helps on working techniques similar to Android and macOS, Intune just isn’t beneficial for some verticals and companies that require strong assist on third-party functions. It isn’t meant as a whole systems-management platform. A part of the explanation it would appear like you are saving cash by switching to Intune is as a result of it is constructed primarily for a slim subset of wants — and people wants are cheaper for Microsoft to deal with.

Suppose you’ve various endpoints and plenty of third-party apps to handle and combine. In that case, you will find yourself in a troublesome spot — both tolerating vital vulnerability or shelling out extra for a complete answer to select up the slack. You will additionally doubtless want to accumulate further software program to run on sure working techniques. Moreover, Microsoft fees further prices per yr for its Distant Assist/Distant View of cellular gadgets.

There are extra gaps like this, however maybe most critically for finance, Microsoft Intune’s pricing relies partially on the amount of knowledge transmitted. These utilization charges are difficult to foretell and funds for and might add up. It turns into problematic when deciding between facilitating an infinite circulation of protected information or managing prices. Moreover, I’ve seen many enterprises having to purchase extra servers to handle Intune and rent further directors to handle these servers.

The Backside Line for Your Backside Line

On this instance, Microsoft Intune is a implausible choice if:

• You want a strong answer for light-weight cellular functions primarily on the identical OS.
• Your use case is simple sufficient {that a} single-pane-of-glass view is not related.
• The numbers look favorable primarily based in your utilization wants.

When you have extra difficult necessities, carry out due diligence to determine extra versatile choices.

No matter the place you find yourself, don’t go with out a UEM answer. Your organization’s safety is dependent upon it.