Blog Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 Shift Endpoint Strategy

Microsoft’s latest additions to the Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 suites are changing the conversation. This isn’t just a licensing update. It’s a chance to rethink endpoint management, support, security, digital employee experience, and tool consideration.

For years, organizations have paid for separate platforms for remote support, privilege elevation, certificate management, application management, device analytics, and endpoint experience insights. This approach made sense when Microsoft capabilities either didn’t exist, weren’t mature enough, or weren’t included in the licenses organizations already owned.

That conversation has now changed. For Microsoft 365 E3, the conversation expands with:

• Intune Remote Help
• Intune Advanced Analytics
• Intune Plan 2

And for Microsoft 365 E5, the value-adds include:

• Endpoint Privilege Management
• Microsoft Cloud PKI
• Enterprise Application Management

Gone are the days of paying for separate platforms. With these new capabilities, your organization can reduce overlapping tool spend. Simplify endpoint operations. Fortify security and endpoint governance. Consolidate the endpoint ecosystem. And get more value from the Microsoft licensing you already own.

Practical use cases for new endpoint tooling

So, what pain points do these new Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 capabilities help solve? Many IT teams are dealing with the same endpoint challenges every day, including:

• Too many remote support tools
• Too many users with local admin rights
• Too much time spent packaging and maintaining applications
• Complex certificate management for Wi-Fi, VPN, and device authentication
• Limited visibility into device health, performance, and user experience
• Tool overlap that creates unnecessary cost and operational complexity

The new capabilities directly address these issues.

• Remote Help reduces reliance on separate remote support platforms by giving support teams a more secure, cloud-based way to assist users.
• Advanced Analytics moves IT from waiting for tickets to identifying trends around slow devices, battery issues, startup delays, application performance, and overall user experience.
• Endpoint Privilege Management helps solve one of the biggest endpoint security challenges: users needing admin rights to do their jobs. Organizations can create controlled elevation policies for approved apps, scripts, and support scenarios instead of granting broad local admin access.
• Microsoft Cloud PKI simplifies certificate lifecycle management for Wi-Fi, VPN, device authentication, and other access scenarios while reducing dependency on traditional on-premises PKI complexity.
• Enterprise Application Management lessens the effort required to package, deploy, update, and maintain Win32 applications, improving consistency and reducing operational burden.

Individually, each capability solves a specific pain point. Together, they represent a larger opportunity to simplify the endpoint ecosystem, reduce risk, improve user experience, and rationalize tooling.

Entitlement doesn’t equal execution.

Of course, to truly benefit from these endpoint management tools, there is real setup and design work required. For example:

• Endpoint Privilege Management requires elevation rules, default behaviors, RBAC, reporting, and exception handling.
• Remote Help requires tenant configuration, role-based access, Conditional Access considerations, and client deployment.
• Cloud PKI requires certificate authority planning, certificate profiles, SCEP configuration, audit logging, and lifecycle governance.
• Advanced Analytics requires baselines, device scopes, anomaly detection, and reporting tuned to the business.

Remember: Turning on a feature isn’t the same as operationalizing it. Don’t let these capabilities sit unused. Even if you’re not ready to fully standardize them, evaluate them. Pilot them. Compare them against current tools. Identify where they can reduce cost, improve security, simplify support, or strengthen endpoint governance.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do this legwork alone. We help clients assess what they own, where tooling overlaps, and what can be consolidated. Plus, we can help you properly design, configure, and operationalize these Microsoft endpoint capabilities.

The licensing changes are important. But the bigger opportunity is turning entitlement into impact. If you have questions about what these licensing changes mean for your environment, where to start, or how these capabilities compare to tools you may already be using, reach out to an Insight specialist.