Best Practices, Managed Services

3 Reasons Why Endpoint Management Solutions are Better than RMM

May 21, 2020

Two men discussing interface solutions while looking at a smartphone and laptop in a modern office setting.

Reason #1: It’s best to Focus on the User Experience

Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools cater to the IT professional, marketing heavily towards IT Managed Service Providers. Endpoint Management solutions, such as Microsoft Endpoint Manager and VMware Workspace One, instead focus on the user experience and the organization as a whole.

Even though we’re an IT Services Provider, we’re dedicated to the user experience so we elect to use the tools that are designed for this purpose.

Key resting on a computer keyboard symbolizing user experience and organizational control in endpoint management solutions.

Reason #2: The Organization Should Own the Solution, not the MSP

If you have transitioned from one Managed Services Provider to another, you understand that it’s a multi-step process and one of the aspects that can often complicate this change is the RMM tool in use.

If your organization has invested significantly in automation through an MSP’s RMM, you may end up having to narrow your options to small list of MSPs using the same tool. And even then, some service providers insist the configurations are their intellectual property and will remove it as part of the contract termination. We’ve seen this happen too many times.

For these reasons, we use Microsoft Endpoint Manager and VMware Workspace One subscriptions, which our customers can own directly. If your organization moves to another MSP, you can continue using these Endpoint Management solutions or seamlessly uninstall them without any lingering issues or ongoing costs.

Frustrated young woman with hands on her face sitting at a desk with computer, reflecting challenges of RMM tools in IT management.

Reason #3: RMM Tools Don’t Play Nice with Other Management Tools

Many RMM tools directly modify the registry, group policies, or make other changes on Windows operating systems that do not rollback cleanly even after being uninstalled. This leads to stability issues when transitioning to another management solution or a provider that uses a different RMM tool.

Rather than directly modifying system settings, Microsoft Endpoint Manager and VMware Workspace One use the Configuration Service Providers interfaces to properly implement policies to Windows desktops. This leads to a more stable operating system when transitioning management systems or service providers.