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- MSIT needed to standardize Microsoft 365 and Intune management across multiple customer tenants without increasing headcount or operational overhead.
- Manual Intune configuration required technicians to spend two to three days building baseline policies, pulling senior engineers away from higher-value project work.
- Rapid growth through acquisition—including onboarding 47 inherited customers—created urgency to deploy consistent security controls (BitLocker, MFA, Defender policies) quickly and at scale.
- Managing Azure, AVD, Microsoft 365, and endpoint security across multiple tools risked portal hopping, inconsistent baselines, and reduced technician efficiency.
Solution
- MSIT standardized on Nerdio Manager for MSP as its single-pane-of-glass platform for Azure, AVD, Microsoft 365, and Intune management.
- Using Nerdio’s built-in baseline policies, the team created a repeatable “lift-and-shift” Intune framework that can be deployed across all customer tenants with minimal customization.
- Nerdio enabled centralized reporting and policy conflict detection, allowing MSIT to quickly identify inherited misconfigurations and remediate them during onboarding.
- Role-based access control (RBAC) and standardized workflows empowered Level 1 technicians to manage day-to-day Intune and tenant tasks, freeing senior engineers to focus on strategic projects and growth initiatives.
Overview
Managed Services IT (MSIT), a rapidly growing MSP headquartered in the Philadelphia region, specializes in Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD), Microsoft 365, Azure, and security-driven cloud transformations.
While MSIT had been a longtime user of Nerdio Manager for MSP’s AVD functionalities, the team was scaling rapidly into Microsoft 365 offerings with dozens of employees and aggressive growth through acquisition.
The team needed a sustainable way to standardize Microsoft 365 and Intune management across tenants without adding headcount or sacrificing margins.
When MSIT evaluated options focused primarily on Intune policy enforcement—such as Inforcer—the team found the functionality overlapped heavily with what Nerdio Manager for MSP offered without adding meaningful day-to-day operational value.
Ultimately, MSIT chose Nerdio Manager for MSP to turn its Microsoft 365 offerings into a secure and scalable revenue stream.
The challenge: Manual processes, inconsistent policies,
and limited scalability
As MSIT expanded its Azure and AVD footprint, the team identified a major gap: inconsistent or nonexistent Intune and security baselines across client tenants.
“In the early days of Intune, we’d have a technician off the desk for two or three days just configuring baseline policies manually,” said Yanick Rose, Cloud Team Lead at MSIT. “It took time to go through all those steps.”
Onboarding new customers—especially through acquisition—was even more complex. Devices had to be collected, joined to multiple tools, secured, and configured manually. Senior engineers were pulled into repetitive setup work instead of higher-value projects.
MSIT needed to standardize Intune baselines across all tenants, implement faster onboarding and offboarding workflows, and gain visibility into policy conflicts and compliance gaps.
The solution: Standardized baselines and lift-and-shift policy management
After attending NerdioCon and diving deeper into Nerdio Manager for MSP’s Microsoft 365 and Intune management capabilities, MSIT made Intune deployment a core part of its offering.
The team created a standardized baseline policy—including BitLocker encryption, MFA enforcement, and Defender configurations—and began using Nerdio to lift and shift that baseline across tenants.
Instead of manually configuring each tenant, MSIT now:
- Applies pre-built baseline policies out of the box.
- Makes one change and deploys it across all tenants.
- Uses reporting to detect policy conflicts and misconfigurations.
- Onboards inherited tenants with a consistent security framework.
“We got about 80% of the way there right out of the box,” said Brennan. “Nerdio gave us a head start.”
Scaling through acquisition: 47 customers onboarded in two weeks
The true test came when MSIT acquired another MSP with 47 customers—many lacking proper security, encryption, Intune management, or MFA enforcement.
Using Nerdio Manager for MSP as its endpoint and Microsoft 365 management platform, MSIT onboarded all 47 customers in just two weeks and standardized Intune and security policies across every tenant... all without having to travel on-site. “We can onboard multiple cities and states from our offices in Philly and Jersey,” said Brennan. “We don’t have to fly anywhere. We can onboard anyone in the country right now.”
The result? Rapid integration, improved security posture, and immediate cross-sell opportunities, all without needing to expand the team.
The results: Fewer tickets, higher margins, and stronger technician satisfaction
By standardizing Microsoft 365 and Intune management inside Nerdio Manager for MSP, MSIT dramatically reduced operational friction across its customer base. After migrating customers into AVD and managing their environments centrally through Nerdio, the team saw ticket volume drop significantly.
“Our tickets drop 30–40% just by migrating someone into AVD and managing it from Nerdio,” Brennan said.
The impact extends beyond operational efficiency. Intune is now a profitable, repeatable MSP service offering rather than just a security necessity. By productizing Microsoft 365 and endpoint management, MSIT unlocked a new recurring revenue stream while maintaining strong margins.
“Intune became a new revenue stream that we didn’t have before,” Brennan explained. “Now it’s a revenue cross-sell.”
Standardization has also reshaped how the team operates internally. With role-based access control (RBAC) and clearly defined baselines, Level 1 technicians now handle day-to-day Intune and tenant management tasks, freeing Level 2 and Level 3 engineers to focus on higher-value project work. Instead of pulling senior staff into repetitive configuration, MSIT keeps its experienced engineers driving strategic initiatives.
“All of our Level Twos and Level Threes are on projects,” Brennan said. “The Level Ones handle the basics in Nerdio—including some Intune management.”
That shift has improved employee engagement and retention as well. Rather than spending days manually configuring policies, technicians are challenged with higher-level work and broader cloud responsibilities.
“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback,” Rose said. “New hires tell us they’re being challenged here and getting more involved in higher-level project work.”
For MSIT, the result is a scalable operating model: fewer tickets, faster onboarding, happier staff, and protected margins... even while doubling in size over the past year.
A head start for MSPs entering Microsoft 365 and Intune management
For MSPs just beginning to operationalize Intune and Microsoft 365 management, MSIT sees a clear advantage.
As the company continues expanding across state lines and pursuing additional acquisitions, Nerdio Manager for MSP remains core to its differentiation. The ability to onboard dozens of customers quickly, reduce ticket volume, empower junior technicians, and protect margins gives MSIT a structural advantage over MSPs still managing tenants manually or juggling multiple tools.
For MSIT, Nerdio is part of the company’s competitive playbook for scaling smarter and growing faster. “If we left Nerdio,” Brennan said, “I think we’d have a revolt.”
Read the full customer story
See how MSIT standardized Microsoft 365 and Intune management
