Customer Snapshot
Industry: State government agency, supporting roughly 5,000 endpoints across headquarters and remote units.
Environment: Primarily Windows endpoints today, with plans to extend Application Workspace to their VDI platform and macOS fleet in upcoming phases.
Management stack: Hybrid Microsoft ConfigMgr and Intune environment, moving toward more modern onboarding with Windows Autopilot, leveraging use of the Application Workspace bootstrapper for baseline app delivery.
Priorities: Standardizing application delivery from scattered portals into a single workspace while continuing their ConfigMgr-to-Intune journey, improving app access for staff in low-bandwidth remote locations, and reducing the operational load on a small systems team.
What Made App Delivery So Difficult
Before Application Workspace, applications were scattered across multiple delivery paths: ConfigMgr’s Software Center, Intune’s Company Portal, and other channels. End users had to know which portal to open for which app, and IT had to maintain multiple packaging and deployment workflows.
“Managing applications that way was kind of difficult because we didn’t have those applications in one centralized location,” explains a Systems Administrator at the agency.
Key challenges included:
- Fragmented app delivery: Applications lived in both ConfigMgr and Intune, with no single catalog for staff.
- Manual packaging with a small team: Custom apps were packaged by hand, without a dedicated packager.
- Third‑party patching pain: Keeping common apps up to date across a distributed environment was difficult and time‑consuming.
- Slow, unpredictable installs from Company Portal: Baseline apps for new devices didn’t always install in a reliable sequence and could take a long time to appear, creating friction for new staff and extra work for IT.
At the same time, the team needed to support staff working in remote locations with low‑bandwidth connections, which made traditional content distribution even more challenging.
Solution: Building a Centralized, User-First Application Layer
The state agency selected Application Workspace to become their centralized application layer alongside SCCM and Intune. This move unified delivery, self‑service, and patching without ripping out existing tools.
Working with Recast’s onboarding team, they:
- Migrated their catalog into Application Workspace: In roughly three months, the team moved their app workload from SCCM and Intune into Application Workspace and cleaned up duplicates across environments.
- Centralized 186 applications: The agency currently manages 186 applications through Application Workspace, with about 30 specialized apps maintained as custom packages in the platform for specific user needs.
- Leaned on the Setup Store for third‑party apps: The Setup Store catalog, which covers over 7,000 common applications, became the primary source for standard software, dramatically reducing manual packaging effort.
- Adopted DTAP stages (dev / test / prod) for safer rollout: Application Workspace’s stages let them bring in non‑IT users early to test applications in development, then move them through test and production with clear control.
- Standardized how users access apps: Smart Icons are pinned to desktops and the Start menu, making it easy for staff to find and launch what they need without hunting across portals.
- Prepared for modern onboarding and remote sites: The team will soon use the Application Workspace bootstrapper to install their baseline apps during imaging, and longer term to support a move toward Windows Autopilot.
Results and impact
Although the rollout wrapped up recently, the state agency is already seeing meaningful benefits for both IT and end users.
1. Single workspace, smoother app experience
Staff now have a single, branded workspace instead of bouncing between Software Center, Company Portal, and other tools. As the IT SysAdmin explains, Application Workspace both “streamlines their application packaging as well as… end user interactions. It’s going to make it much simpler for end users who no longer need to jump to different portals for different applications.”
In the first month after launch, user feedback has focused on how “fluid and smooth it is compared to the Config Manager portal and Company Portal,” along with how quickly applications download to devices. That improved responsiveness helps IT reduce friction around app installs and is already driving a noteworthy drop in software-related tickets.
2. Stronger third‑party patching with less manual work
Third‑party patching was one of the agency’s biggest pain points. “Patching third party applications is always, you know, a pain. But having the Application Workspace Setup Store catalog really helped,” stated the SysAdmin lead.
With most common apps covered by the Setup Store, the team can focus their limited time on the ~30 specialized applications that truly require custom care instead of rebuilding packages for everything. Plus, maintaining custom applications in Application Workspace is much simpler than other packaging methods.
3. A more scalable packaging model for a small team
Application Workspace uses visual workflows and phased staging to remove the scripting bottleneck. Now, IT team members can build packages without needing advanced coding skills. The platform also automates testing by routing apps to non-IT users early in the process. This validates real-world performance before production, prevents bottlenecks, and makes rollouts predictable for everyone.
For a “small shop,” that flexibility is key to keeping up with demand without adding headcount.
“Application Workspace is going to streamline our application packaging and end-user interactions. It makes it much simpler for people to get what they need without jumping between different portals. And it’s not just third-party patching. We can stage apps for VDI, bootstrap freshly imaged devices, verify VPN, map network drives, and more. It’s a big tool, and you shape it to fit what your organization needs.”
- Systems Administrator, state agency
Looking ahead
The state agency plans to extend Application Workspace beyond its current Windows footprint. Next phases include rolling it out to their VDI platform and macOS fleet, and deepening their use of built‑in dashboards and application insights so more of their day‑to‑day work happens in a single, centralized portal.
As the lead SysAdmin summarizes, they see Application Workspace as “a very powerful tool” with far more potential to still unlock for the agency and the IT team behind the scenes.
Reach out today to take a tour of Application Workspace and its capabilities for your organization.
