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Skype for Business Online with Intune Now Includes Mobile Application Management

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Bring your own device has become a pervasive IT paradigm lately. Although it’s nice because it means that employees are shouldering the costs of up-to-date tools, it also means that there’s a huge range of devices connecting to the IT infrastructure. For many companies and industries, there are very specific ways company data can be handled. To reconcile these two modern IT struggles, Microsoft has a product called Intune.

Microsoft Intune has the ability to manage specific apps that company employees use to access their company data. Currently Intune can manage Office and storage apps, but now Skype for Business has been added to the pack. This new inclusion for Skype for Business now adds confidence to the business chat tool. Now sensitive data and communications can occur on Skype for Business without worrying about who can access the data and what they can do with chats.

With more business being done in chat applications, Microsoft has continued to differentiate themselves as the serious enterprise company. Companies who work with sensitive data need to know their communications are being protected. Email has been around for so long that there have been sufficient improvements concerning security and data protection. Now the same level of security and protection is coming to Skype for Business.

How will this change for IT administrators?

If your company currently uses mobile app management (MAM) through Intune, now you can also add specific policies to Skype for Business. Microsoft has several different settings and level of management that IT admins can adjust to your preferred level of security. When an employee leaves your company, you can now wipe corporate data from their Skype for Business apps, in addition to all the other company managed apps and data. If your employees are bringing their own devices, then a policy can be set to require specific software versions of the host OS. For example, you can restrict Skype for Business to be installed on jailbroken iOS devices or require a minimum OS version.

How will this change for Skype for Business users?

Users will not see any changes unless their IT staff makes changes. There are a few different changes your IT could make, which include requiring a PIN to be entered before the app can be used, preventing or reducing copy and paste, and if you leave the company your IT staff can prevent you from accessing your old Skype for Business chats. If you use your own device for work, then it’s possible your IT staff has required specific OS version to use Skype for Business. This means Skype for Business could stop working on your device until you upgrade your OS or stop jailbreaking your phone.