As a new leader on the product team for Microsoft Managed Desktop, I've been talking to our software engineers about the service, and invariably we end up discussing hybrid work. For everyone that is looking forward to spending time back in the office, there's another one who has flourished working remotely. The way we work is changing – and for IT admins, we want to change the work to be done.
I sat down with my colleagues from the Microsoft Managed Desktop team, Josh Pointer, General Manager of Engineering, and Beverley Ashton, Director-lead of the Customer Acceleration Team to get their takes on the state of work today, and the way our service fits into this new landscape.
Lior Bela: I'm curious how you think about the service from our customers' viewpoint.
Josh Pointer: What I hear a lot is that the workplace experience today is the endpoint. I've had people on my team for over a year that I've never met in person. It's tough. But one thing that we think really helps is working hard to deliver a good experience. Giving end users the tools they need to do a good job – and providing the user with service that makes doing that job seamless – that's culture, that's experience, and that's what we're doing with Microsoft Managed Desktop.
Beverley: The best thing I heard was a customer who said they call it "Microsoft Magic Desktop."
And that's from an IT service pro. Of course that's a great soundbite, but we wanted to get to the "why" – I have an idea, we are proud of the way the service works – but hearing that the pain of enterprise endpoint management – maintaining a "golden' image, gearing up for patch Tuesdays, pulling all-nighters during "zero day" events – was eased, relieved, erased – that means a lot.
Josh: The software isn't getting smaller – it evolves to offer new features and meet new needs, like hybrid work. The customer estate isn't getting smaller – or simpler –mergers and acquisitions mean combining systems, combining philosophies. Some enterprises have had to have a "make do" approach with limited resources – all of these point to increasing complexity. And it's not a race with a start and an end. It's the way of the world.
So there's a "clean start" kind of feeling with Managed Desktop. The idea was consolidating identity and management and security and taking that off the customer's plate would have long-term value. And then letting us manage that complexity – letting Microsoft manage Microsoft products – it has a lot of appeal.
Beverley: That clean start approach showed up for a customer where we had existing hardware that we flashed from their own 'Golden image' to Microsoft Managed Desktop and users said they could feel the difference – same computer, but a better experience.
Lior: I'm calling that the "inspiring experience."
Josh: a lot of it is just un-breaking the experience – but yeah, that's my point – if you have the ability to give someone a lighter machine - if you can make it boot faster instead of telling them to turn it on and go get a coffee – that's the experience I have on my cell phone, on my tablet…that's the experience we want to deliver, that customers want for their people
Beverley: When younger employees are interviewing for positions, that's the experience they expect. Customers don't want to lose talent because of their tech. But it's hard to do well while also working on the business challenges, and security, and all the routine maintenance of large estates.
Lior: We'll have to come back to some of these topics I feel there's a lot here, but let's keep it a blog and not a book – thank you both for your time.
For more information about the Microsoft Managed Desktop service reach out to your Microsoft rep or visit aka.ms/mmd - and know that we'll have more to share with you soon.
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