Accenture’s global workforce is highly mobile, performing work-related tasks on multiple types of company-issued and personal mobile devices. This requires Accenture to keep company-related information secure on those devices with a mobile device management (MDM) solution. When Microsoft released its new MDM solution called Intune, Accenture became interested because the product offered new capabilities that would improve the user experience.
CLIENT CASE STUDY
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Microsoft Intune
Accenture and Microsoft collaboration takes Intune to the next level
OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE THE MOBILE WORKER EXPERIENCE
MIGRATING TO
MICROSOFT INTUNE
An evaluation of Microsoft Intune led Accenture’s internal IT to decide to migrate from the current solution to Microsoft. One deciding factor was that in addition to traditional MDM features, Intune also offered mobile application management (MAM). MDM places an agent on a mobile phone and manages the phone, enforcing encryption and use of a PIN. MAM, on the other hand, is being designed to provide secure use of the Microsoft Office suite without requiring full device control. MAM is currently in pilot, and planned for release in early 2018.
The internal IT team also found it favorable that Intune provided a more integrated experience with Accenture’s suite of Microsoft productivity tools; enables secure access to many Accenture mobile applications without requiring root-level access; and includes a separate mobile application catalog that does not require device enrollment to access it. It is hoped that these advantages will also address a population of employees concerned about broad company access to personally owned devices.
What also surfaced during IT’s evaluation was that heavy demand from Accenture’s highly mobile workforce and Accenture’s scale would require Accenture to collaborate with Microsoft to help raise Intune to the next level. Additional features were needed before being able to migrate approximately 110,000 registered devices from the current MDM solution to Intune. Such features included forced check-in to receive updates or policy changes; auto-enabling a user during migration to Intune; and enabling display of custom Terms of Use message during enrollment. Key up-front efforts involved extensive MDM functionality testing and production configuration. Testing validated that Intune could meet Accenture’s information security needs as well as the needs of employees. This involved testing functionality on a wide array of mobile phones types and operating systems, which presented numerous challenges to work through.
A series of pilots followed that captured feedback and helped to further confirm functionality. When it came time to start the migration across Accenture, IT used a third-party product that automated the migration from Accenture’s existing MDM solution to Intune, greatly simplifying the transition for employees. Migration was also aided by rigorous project management and detailed problem tracking generated by the ServiceNow platform, metrics from the third-party tool, close collaboration with Microsoft and a new, visual online support experience. This thorough preparation enabled Accenture to migrate all 110,000 devices in just six months.
LARGEST DEPLOYMENT
Accenture’s adoption of Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) has made it the largest deployment of Microsoft’s EMS product, with approximately 140,000 Accenture employee devices and 450,000 identities managed as of January 2018.
The traditional MDM option provides Accenture employees with secure use of Microsoft Office on mobile devices that prevents sharing with native apps. Content moves to Microsoft Office via one-way flow. Microsoft Outlook Mobile was deployed as a secondary e-mail app. The upcoming, lighter-touch MAM option is designed to enable secure use of MAM-enabled Accenture mobile applications, while blocking native e-mail apps.
New capabilities are improving the Accenture mobile worker experience:
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INTEGRATED
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ENHANCED USABILITY
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NEW APPLICATION CATALOG EXPERIENCE
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SIMPLIFIED MOBILE APPLICATION ACCESS
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SECURE
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Accenture employee feedback has been positive, especially around the new capabilities. Employees can check Accenture e-mail, calendar and contacts on the go. They can chat with colleagues via Microsoft Teams or join conference calls using Skype for Business. Employees can reserve office space and report time and expenses using new and enhanced apps. They can also download and watch videos from Accenture’s Media Exchange with another app. Going forward, Accenture continues to collaborate with Microsoft on the MAM product, as well as evolve MDM features for enterprise needs.