Case study

Company Access Setup: iOS and Android

Company Portal mobile apps

Microsoft created the Intune Company Portal apps as an integral part of Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility & Security product (EMS). Companies using EMS for mobile device management provide these apps to their employees, which enable them to enroll and manage their personal devices, install company apps and store apps, and get access to documents. In exchange for these benefits, users were required to allow their company to ‘manage’ their device. The device would be required to adhere to IT MDM policy--i.e. use a passcode, encrypt the device, etc. IT would be able to take remote actions on the device as well. For instance, if the device was lost or stolen, the employee or the IT department could remotely force a factory reset of the device in order to protect company data.


In the first year or so of the product, Intune was seeing low enrollment and service usage numbers for the Company Portal. Companies were buying EMS licenses but their employees were not moving enroll their devices in large numbers, in order to take advantage its benefits. User feedback from lab studies, app store reviews and customer conversations showed that users found it very difficult and confusing to enroll. The enrollment workflow was long, complicated and presented users operating system dialogs with intimidating language: warning users that their IT department could erase their device, see personal content on their device, etc. The warnings were a serious barrier for users—so not surprisingly, many users decided to not take the risk and avoided enrolling all together.


Company Portal mobile apps

To combat these concerns for users and increase adoption and service usage, my team looked for ways to simplify the workflow and give more assurance to users about exactly what their IT department could see and do on their device. We also clarified the Company Portal’s value proposition and softened the language. The resulting solution was the Company Access Setup workflow, modeled after new-device set-up workflows (OOBE)--The device asks you one question or has you perform one task per screen until you get to the end of the flow. These workflows are usually clean and simple with illustrations and provide progress indication.

I designed the Company Access Setup workflow to be transparent and show the user what steps would be required and when they were completed. All users have to do is tap ‘begin’ or ‘continue’ and walk through the flow. I worked with our UI text writers to make the language friendlier, and to demystify what their IT admin could and could not see on the device. We released the new enrollment workflow and within a couple months saw 12-15% increase in enrollment through the Company Portal.

The Device Experiences team continued to improve the experience of adopting Company Portal and device management. Some users are now willing to trade autonomy for the ability to get work done on their mobile device… Since then, however, the Intune team has realized that a majority of people have a genuine and persistent dislike for having their personal device managed by their company. Microsoft, and the rest of the MDM industry, is turning their focus on app and data management, in lieu of device management, as a less invasive strategy for securing company data—while still allowing workers access on personal mobile devices.

Deliverables: Sketches, workflow, wireframes, prototypes, usability findings, visual design, design specs, fit & finish review on the app builds.


Company Portal app