What is Microsoft Intune?
Microsoft Intune is a leading cloud-based software that offers mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) to IT-intensive enterprises. It enables IT Admins to control how their organization’s Devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops are used. Enroll organizational Devices and retain full control of aspects like security, features, and settings.
With Intune, you can also configure company-specific or team-specific policies to govern personal Devices and applications used by your employees. It also promotes a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) culture by giving employees the option to enroll specific applications of their personal Devices into the Intune mobile device management software. Intune ensures that your company data stays protected by isolating organizational data from personal data using Azure AD.
How do you benefit from this integration?
The AssetSonar Microsoft Intune integration makes it easy to manage your Mobile Assets including Android, iOS, and Windows smartphones and tablets. You can even manage laptops that have an application store built in them.
Our integration combines the skilled IT asset management capability of AssetSonar with Intune mobile device management to give you a real-time status of where your Mobile Assets are, who’s using them, and when they need servicing or disposal.
Mass import your mobile device data from Intune and save time and manual effort required in populating the AssetSonar account for individual Devices.
Note: For every SIM-operated mobile device or tablet imported from Intune, AssetSonar tags the imported asset as a ‘Mobile Asset’. On the contrary, any tablet not operated using a SIM card will be tagged as an ‘IT Asset’ as such a Device does not have an IMEI/MEID associated with it.
1. Benefits of AssetSonar’s Microsoft Intune integration
AssetSonar’s Microsoft Intune integration offers convenience to all IT professionals at the helm of dedicated Intune mobile device management (MDM). Here are the benefits:
- Centralized ITAM database: AssetSonar imports data from various MDM software like Jamf, and Microsoft Intune, and SCCM. This way, you have a consolidated database of both Apple and Windows Devices used within your enterprise. It doesn’t matter which MDM tool you use to fetch IT Asset data, you can manage them all from a single space.
- Faster issue resolution: AssetSonar further integrates with ITSM solutions like Zendesk and Jira. You can access all your mobile Devices from within ITSM solutions, view custody, and vendor details to speed up ticketing and issue resolution processes.
- Non-intrusive MDM: Our hardware asset management software reduces security risk and facilitates non-intrusive MDM by importing data directly from the Microsoft Intune software deployed within your enterprise. Only the Mobile Asset details fetched by Intune are fetched into AssetSonar.
Let’s walk you through some basic steps on how to enable the Microsoft Intune integration in AssetSonar!
2. Enabling the Microsoft Intune integration
Note: You must have the role of a ‘Global Administrator’ in your Microsoft Intune Endpoint Manager account to enable the integration.
To enable the integration, follow the pathway: Settings → Add Ons → Microsoft Intune Integration → Enabled, and click ‘Update’.
This action reveals additional settings below. To proceed, click on ‘Add Credentials’ to add your Microsoft Intune Endpoint Manager account’s login information.
Here’s a glimpse of the dialog box that pops up:
Select the relevant Microsoft Intune account you want to configure the integration with, or enter the login details of another account and click ‘Sign in’.
Your integration has been enabled. You are now ready to pull up your Mobile Asset data from Microsoft Intune.
3. Syncing data with Microsoft Intune
3.1. Importing data
To import data from your Mobile Assets into AssetSonar, click on the ‘Sync Now’ button that shows up after enabling the integration.
You should get the following message once your sync is successful.
Clicking on the message directs you to the Asset Listings page. Here you can view all the Mobile Assets that have been imported.
If you wish to see more granular details on the system, hardware, software, and security configuration of each Device, click on the name of the Mobile Asset. You can see the relevant information by clicking on each of the tabs shown.
AssetSonar typically records a host of system and hardware data fields captured from your Microsoft Intune account. These are listed as follows:
- Name
- Management Name
- OS
- OS Version
- Serial Number
- IMEI
- MAC Address
- MEID (UUID)
- Model
- BIOS Manufacturer
- Total Storage
- Free Storage
- Intune Enrolled Date/Time
- Last Intune Sync Date
- Last Sync Date/Time
You can map the BIOS serial number of a discovered Device to the AIN of an existing Device as shown below:
The Software Details tab displays a list of software applications installed in the Mobile Asset.
Furthermore, the Mobile Security Information tab shows security details such as whether the Mobile Asset is jailbroken, supervised, and encrypted. It also displays the ‘Activation Lock Bypass Code’, which is only visible to the Administrator.
3.2. Scheduling syncs
You can always update your Mobile Asset data at a later time to reflect changes in your mobile device inventory.
Apart from manually syncing your data, you can also choose to sync it every 24 hours. To do this, select the setting shown below and click ‘Update’.
The system shows details of every sync that it does as follows:
‘Last sync date’ refers to when Mobile Asset data gets updated in AssetSonar, whereas ‘Last Intune sync date’ represents when the Mobile Asset data was last updated in your Microsoft Intune account.
3.3 Provisioning Pre-configured Devices from Windows Autopilot
AssetSonar allows you to provision pre-configured devices from Windows Autopilot so the relevant software applications will already be present and set up in a laptop when it is deployed to the user. The Windows Autopilot allows you to create enrollment configurations and sync them which enables you to enroll new computers with Intune without needing to manually set up your devices on site beforehand.
To use this feature, go to Settings → Add Ons → Microsoft Intune Integration. As you would already have set up the integration using the guidelines mentioned above, you will just need to check the option ‘Provision Windows Autopilot Devices’ as shown below:
A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm your credentials. Click on ‘Confirm’.
Once you click on Confirm, you will be redirected to the Microsoft dialog box to confirm your credentials. Once confirmed, click on ‘Update’ to save the settings.
To create and update both configured and unconfigured assets through Intune, click on ‘Sync Now’ and check the option box for ‘Schedule sync every 24 hours’. A glimpse of the option is shown below:
4. Syncing Devices based on type and ownership
AssetSonar also offers you greater control over the kinds of Devices you want to fetch using its Microsoft Intune integration.
You can import Devices from Microsoft Intune based on their:
- Type — IT Asset, Mobile Asset
2. Ownership — Company-owned, employee-owned
4.1. Syncing Devices based on the type
You can either choose to import only IT Assets, only Mobile Assets, or both from your Microsoft Intune account into AssetSonar. For this purpose, select the relevant option from the setting highlighted below:
4.2. Syncing Devices based on ownership
AssetSonar promotes the BYOD culture in your organization by making it easier to distinguish between company-owned and employee-owned Devices and managing them according to your company policies.
If you only wish to track the lifecycle and associated costs of company-owned Devices whilst allowing your employees to bring their personal Devices to the workplace, you can choose to only provision company-owned Devices from Intune.
Go to Settings → Add Ons → Microsoft Intune Integration → Sync Devices owned by:
AssetSonar uses the information fetched by Intune sync to determine and provision company-owned and/or employee-owned Devices as specified.
Note: You can also choose to provision Devices from Intune that have no ownership titles assigned to them by selecting the following option.
5. Detecting Deletion from Intune and Retiring Devices
5.1 Device retirement actions
AssetSonar allows you to take actions on the devices that are deleted in Microsoft Intune. If a user has previously retired an asset in AssetSonar, but it is discovered again during the sync, you can turn on the setting to make that device available again.
From Microsoft Intune Integration setting, check the box for ‘Make Retired Devices Available If Discovered Again’.
This can be the case if the retired devices are deployed to other departments or resources that can still make use of these assets.
5.2 Deleted devices actions
AssetSonar allows you to detect the devices that have been deleted in Intune and users are able to take actions on these devices. To avail this option, check the ‘Detect Deleted Devices from Intune’ setting.
To get detailed information on the devices that have been deleted in Intune, go to the Alerts detail page, and scroll down to MDM Sync Summary. Check the option boxes for ‘MDM Sync Summary’ and ‘MDM Assets Deletion Summary’ as shown below:
Once you have enabled these options, you will start receiving emails after every sync, giving you details on how many deleted assets were detected. Here is a screenshot of a sync summary email:
With this integration, you also get the option to automatically retire devices that have been deleted in Microsoft Intune. Check the box for ‘Automatically Retire Deleted Devices from Intune’ to turn on this setting as shown below:
Please note that if the deleted device is associated with multiple Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, it will not be retired in AssetSonar. Instead, on the asset detail page, a message would displayed with the following text:
‘The IT Asset has been deleted in Intune. Please retire this asset.’
Additionally, devices that are checked out in AssetSonar or are in maintenance mode will also not be retired.
Take your Intune Mobile Device Management up a notch with AssetSonar
With our Microsoft Intune integration, you can always keep tabs on the whereabouts of your mobile devices and answer questions like who has the custody of an iPhone 5S or where it is located. It enables you to schedule services on smartphones, analyze their usage trends, and conduct a thorough audit so you never lose track of the mobile devices used by employees in your organization.
Read more: Enhance Management Of Windows Devices With AssetSonar’s Microsoft SCCM Integration
Discover more with our additional out-of-the-box integrations
About AssetSonar
AssetSonar is the leading software licensing tool that integrates with Microsoft Intune. It is used by IT-intensive organizations and businesses all over the globe.
For more assistance, drop us an email at support@ezo.io.
