RyanSpoonerJCB There is a lot here to unpack so I'll start with the good news:
Good news:
- In co-management, you can slide the Client apps slider all the way to Intune, and still use CM to deploy apps. When the Compliance Management and Client apps sliders are all the way to Intune, CM agent still listens to CM for these workloads. This allows you to move the apps at your own cadence, and start deploying using both Intune and ConfigMgr.
- You can configure Company Portal to show apps being deployed by Software Center. By making this change, your users can start using Company Portal today, and combined with my point #1, users will have a single console from which to pull down their apps - whether deployed via Configmgr or Intune. And when the Windows Package Manager integration is complete, these will also be available through Company Portal, since they are being deployed via Intune.
So to the first point in your post about little value, this is huge user value that they have one app (Company Portal) to launch to pull down any apps, regardless from where IT made it available.
Other answers to specific questions:
- I answered bullet 1 in my answer #1
- Today, to deploy Company Portal, we are still using Store for Business. As part of the whole integration, we are also looking at other avenues to make it available. More to come on that in the linked FAQs above.
- Information on updating apps is available in the linked FAQ above.
- The solution will be available very soon as private preview, and the public preview a little later this year. The timeline is available in the linked FQ above. But to your point of the solution isn't yet available but Store for Business is still going away next year, yes that's correct. Once this solution is available in public preview, it'll be in all tenants - not need to sign up. So you can start working with it immediately.
I'll let Bryan Keller correct anything I mis-stated, or add any color commentary.
Microsoft