Introduction
This case study demonstrates how to successfully and cost-effectively migrate from SCCM to Intune. The company that is the subject of this case study is a large financial services company. The move from SCCM to Intune was a pivotal component of its strategy to migrate users from physical devices to the Microsoft virtual desktop solution, Windows 365.
In addition to successfully migrating users to Windows 365, the enterprise also modernised endpoint management, enhancing security, scalability, and flexibility within a cloud-native environment.
The Project
Access IT Automation was asked to support the company’s Windows 365 migration project with a specific emphasis on transitioning MSI applications within the technology estate from SCCM to IntuneWin32 application objects in Intune. This part of the wider project was critical to successfully migrating users to Windows 365, including minimising costs, reducing complexities, and ensuring an optimised end-user experience.
The initial scope of the project involved 600 applications, growing to approximately 1,200 applications as the project developed.
What We Did
We assigned a project team that included application migration subject matter experts. We also adapted our product, Access Capture, to the requirements of the project to fully utilise its capabilities.
Those capabilities include the Publishing feature. Access Capture Publishing automates the creation of application objects in multiple formats suitable for 10 different deployment systems. This includes both Intune and IntuneWin32.
Access Capture was able to automatically create the required objects for approximately 90 percent of the MSI applications that fell within the scope of the project. Automation at this scale is possible when an application’s source detail, configuration information, command line, and arguments are stored as input values in a database, either in a configuration management database (CMDB) or within SCCM itself. With this information, Access Capture can get on with creating the go-forward application objects in Intune.
The remaining applications were not suitable for full automation in Access Capture because of their complexity. Reasons for this complexity include the large size of the application, the number of dependencies and pre-requisites, or the need for specific tailored detection logic.
With these complexities in mind, a small team of technical resources was allocated to oversee the automation process for the bulk of applications and work on those that required manual intervention. This work involved getting clarification on why certain applications are set up in SCCM in a certain way, as well as confirming the correct dependent application versions to use. This is because many old objects can be refreshed with newer dependency versions.
The Results
A project of this size with approximately 1,200 applications would typically involve a team of six technical resources working over a nine-month period. Using our automation tools and expertise, we completed the project in three months with a team of three technical resources:
- 66% reduction in project time
- 50% reduction in technical resources
- 83% reduction in technical resource hours
The above results achieved a key requirement for the client – completing the project as quickly as possible without compromising quality, security, or compliance.
It is also beneficial to highlight the nature of the work involved. In a standard SCCM to Intune migration with manual processes, technical resources spend a lot of their time in Intune click-click-clicking. With our automation tools, the technical resources allocated to this project, including our subject matter experts at Access IT Automation, were able to focus their time and efforts on complex, value-adding tasks.
An added bonus from utilising Access Capture’s automation capabilities was the automation of quality assurance and smoke testing of the new desktop Windows 365 build. This is in addition to the automation of application object creation in Intune and provides evidence of successful object deployment to endpoints.
To learn more about migrating your organisation from SCCM to Intune, download our whitepaper, An IT Professional’s Handbook to Endpoint Management. It explains the differences between SCCM and Intune, why now is the right time to switch, and how to make that switch a success.
