Putting users in control of their hardware and software in a large enterprise organisation? Heaven forfend! Even if users could get their heads around the massive array of choices available, they’d make the wrong decision anyway. It took years for IT teams to gain precise control over specifying desktops, allocating VDI resources, and deciding which apps get installed where. Now is not the time to go backwards.
Right?
Kind of, but we are also moving into a new era of endpoint management. It’s an era where users can have choice and feel like they are in control, but only within the parameters that you set.
Endpoint Migration-Opoly: Part 3
This is the third blog in our Endpoint Migration-Opoly series, where we have been exploring the concept articulated in our Endpoint Migration-Opoly infographic, i.e., the huge range of technologies, decisions, influences, and risks that go into endpoint management and migration processes.
In the first blog, we focused on hardware, where we explored the trends of physical versus virtual desktop strategies in 2025. Here’s a sneak peek at one of the main conclusions: the view that users are being shifted to the cloud, and that doing so is the best approach, might not be as accurate as some people are trying to promote.
We switched our attention to software in the second blog with a focus on deployment technologies. Here, the shift is clearer, as organisations gradually (sometimes very gradually) move away from SCCM and towards Intune. And for a sneak peek into the conclusions of that blog: to get application management right, you also need to think about hardware and users.
In this blog, it’s all about users. After all, users are the people most impacted by changes. If something as simple as an app update or as complex as a company-wide VDI migration goes smoothly, the impact on users is significant. Positive, but significant. And if changes go wrong, resulting in downtime or slow performance, frustration, lost productivity, and rancour reign.
Car Leasing and Endpoint Management: Optimising the User Experience
So, how do we get to a point where IT departments retain control while giving users choice and… control?
We’re going to use a car leasing metaphor. In a car leasing arrangement, the customer has control of the car, i.e., where and when they drive it. They can monitor the car’s performance and decide the most suitable time to bring the car in for a service or a change of tyres. But they have to do everything within the terms and conditions set out by the car lease company.
A similar situation can be achieved with endpoint management. IT teams should continue to strive to provide users with the most suitable hardware for their needs. Having a good understanding of individual user behaviours is necessary to achieve this goal.
IT teams should also retain control over the software that is installed on end-user devices, especially the version of software installed. Again, accurately understanding software usage is essential.
From that point, however, it is beneficial to consider moving away from the traditional approach, including the approach to IT support and troubleshooting. So, like a car lease arrangement, adopting an approach that gives users more control over their device, including resolving problems and keeping it up to date.
How to Put Users in Control While Retaining Control
DEX (digital employee experience) should be at the forefront of endpoint management processes. In fact, DEX can replace traditional IT support and troubleshooting by empowering users.
You will need automation tools to achieve this goal, such as Access Capture and Access Symphony. With the right tools and processes, users can:
- See more information about their hardware, increasing the role users can have in optimising DEX.
- Access self-service fixes to common problems.
- Choose when to update and/or test applications.
- See how their device is performing to make the case for an upgrade.
Empowering Users
Right now, there are a number of key factors that influence the quality of DEX and EUC (end-user computing) in enterprise organisations. This includes automation and the use of cloud technologies.
With automation and cloud technologies now embedded in IT processes, we are moving into a new era in DEX. This will be an era of user empowerment, where users have increased choice and control within the parameters set by IT leaders.
DEX and EUC will be enhanced as a result. IT processes will be enhanced, too, as technical resources will have more time to work on value-adding tasks rather than tasks that users can deal with themselves when empowered to do so.
Empowered users are an exciting and innovation-driving era of DEX and EUC to be involved in.
