Intune Account Portal has merged with the Office 365 management portal

Last year we began moving Intune Account Portal functionality to the Office 365 management portal. This move is now complete (May 26, 2016) and the Intune Account Portal has been retired.

Users and Groups are managed in appropriately named tabs whereas purchasing and subscription management is now under Billing.

Depending on how you purchased, you will access software downloads at either the Volume Licensing portal or the Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal.

Be sure to update your bookmarks.

Read more about the move in our Microsoft Intune blog or go directly to the new Office 365 management portal with your existing credentials.

Source: Microsoft Blogs

How to reset your MDM authority in Microsoft Intune

When starting with Microsoft Intune, you must setup a MDM (Mobile Device Management) authority to continue. This MDM authority can be set on Microsoft Intune (using the SAAS solution), ConfigMgr (using the hybrid solution) or Office 365 (included with Office 365 commercial subscriptions). During a hybrid installation (which is ConfigMgr connected with Intune) the MDM authority was already set to Office 365. That way it isn't possible to connect it with ConfigMgr.

Unfortunately the only way to reset your MDM authority is to call Microsoft Intune support and wait 5 business days at maximum to get the job done. After that it can be configured for Intune or ConfigMgr again. Hope that Microsoft can simplify the process in the future, so that people can do it themselves. Very annoying to wait several days, when you know the action can be done within a few minutes.. 

When the reset has taken place (there may be no devices enrolled within Microsoft Intune), you can set the MDM authority again. Just make sure to choose the right one this time :-)

Note: Microsoft mentions that the reset is done in US only, so no luck for EMEA people who want to have a quick result.

Update: In the end it took almost 6 (!) days to reset the MDM authority. My project is delayed 2 months because of this.

Contact details:
Microsoft Intune support
Contact Assisted Phone Support for Microsoft Intune

Feature Comparison with Mobile Device Management for Office 365

Since this week built-in mobile device management (MDM) is available for Office 365 commercial plans. With MDM for Office 365, you can manage access to Office 365 data across a diverse range of phones and tablets, including iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices, without the need for Microsoft Intune. The built-in MDM features are included at no additional cost in all Office 365 commercial plans, including Business, Enterprise, EDU and Government plans.

 

Office 365’s MDM capabilities work to keep your data safe in three ways:
-Conditional Access: Setup security policies to ensure that Office 365 corporate email and documents can be accessed only on phones and tablets that are managed by your company and are compliant.
-Device management: Manage security policies such as PIN lock and jailbreak detection to help prevent unauthorized users from accessing corporate email and data on a device when it is lost or stolen.
-Selective wipe: Remove Office 365 company data from an device while leaving personal data in place.

When looking at the Feature Comparison, there are big differences seen between Exchange ActiveSync, MDM for Office 365, Intune Standalone and Intune + ConfigMgr (Hybrid). This Feature Comparison can help to decide which solution offers the functionality needed.

When looking for protection beyond what’s included in Office 365, you can subscribe to Microsoft Intune, part of the Microsoft Enterprise Mobility Suite, and receive additional device and application management capabilities for phones, tablets and PCs. With Microsoft Intune actions such as cut, copy, paste and save as to applications can be restricted as well, keep corporate information even more secure.

Nice to see that Office 365 has MDM capabilities from now on!

Source: Office Blogs

Installing Microsoft Office 2013 Customer Preview

Today I installed the new Microsoft Office 2013 Preview. Because the existing Office 2010 installation on my Windows 8 Release Preview device, I choose for a upgrade. The installation is done in a few minutes and a reboot is needed afterwards. Then the new functionality can be used. The following tiles are available after installation:

 

Just notice that Lync 2013 is installed by default now, no other installation is needed for that. Programs that are still exists after the upgrade are:

• SharePoint Workspace 2010
• Office Picture Manager
• Lync 2010

As far as I can see everything works fine after the upgrade. Nice to see that Microsoft Office 2013 will have support for Touch devices, SkyDrive, Yammer, Skype and Cloud services now!

Microsoft Office 2013 Customer Preview has arrived

Yesterday a new Office has arrived. It's called Microsoft Office 2013.

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the customer preview of the new Microsoft Office, available at office.com/preview.

The next release features an intuitive design that works beautifully with touch, stylus, mouse or keyboard across new Windows devices, including tablets. The new Office is social and unlocks modern scenarios in reading, note-taking, meetings and communications and will be delivered to subscribers through a cloud service that is always up to date.  

The new, modern Office will deliver unparalleled productivity and flexibility for both consumers and business customers. It is a cloud service and will fully light-up when paired with Windows 8

While the full lineup of offerings and pricing plans will be announced in the fall, Ballmer discussed three new Office 365 subscription services. When available, each new subscription offer will include the new 2013 editions of the Office applications. In addition, subscribers will receive future rights to version upgrades as well as per-use rights across up to five PCs or Macs and mobile devices. More about new functionality HERE

MSDN members can download Office at CLICK

Office Language Packs and other downloads at CLICK

Nice to see that Microsoft Office 2013 will have support for Touch devices, SkyDrive, Yammer, Skype and Cloud services now!