Customer snapshot
The Access Group provides business management software to more than 160,000 small and mid-sized organizations in commercial and non-profit sectors across Europe, the U.S., and Asia-Pacific.
- Industry: Software development
- Scale: 1,000 applications across 9,000 global endpoints
- Team size: Six-person EUC team
- Device landscape: 90-10 Windows-to-macOS mix
- Environment: Hybrid environment with cloud-joined devices and hybrid identity via Entra
- Key constraints: Security requirements, Intune limitations, and IT resources
Challenge
A few weeks into a new job as Head of End User Computing at The Access Group, Jimmy White saw an opportunity: The team needed to bring order to an Intune-driven application environment that had become difficult to control and secure. As he and the team worked to minimize admin rights and improve governance, it became clear that the existing model was highly manual, inconsistent, and hard to scale.
Admin rights issues had led to application sprawl
The team found a large volume of software across the estate that was not being controlled or licensed properly, including unapproved applications.
Manual Intune upkeep strained the team
Applications were being deployed through Intune, but packages became stale. Keeping them current required significant manual effort. Workarounds such as WinGet and scripts added complexity rather than solving the problem.
Slow Intune application delivery led to inconsistent, frustrating experiences
The team noted there was no way to predict the timing for when Intune-deployed applications would appear for employees. “We found that Intune could be frustratingly slow,” Jimmy said. “There was no repeatable experience we could give users.”
Patching pressure to address CVEs
The cyber team needed the EUC team to patch apps quickly to address vulnerabilities as they arose across the environment, requiring ongoing manual work.
Solution: Application Workspace
The Access Group evaluated multiple options before selecting Recast Application Workspace in a cloud deployment model. According to Jimmy, one of the biggest draws was the size of the application catalog, along with the ability to request additional applications easily.
Practical rollout
The team started by testing the model on its own applications, then migrated packages from Intune into Application Workspace to expand deployment more broadly. “Because it was so easy to set up in Application Workspace, it didn’t really take the guys very long to do,” Jimmy said. “I think we did most of that work in a week.”
Results
Recast helped The Access Group simplify application packaging and deployment, improve patching responsiveness, and reduce day-to-day friction for both IT and end users. “It’s been received well internally,” Jimmy said. “We’ve reduced the level of complexity and improved our security posture as well.”
Notable vulnerability reduction with automated patch response
During a +59% Chrome-related spike in February 2026 and a +54% .NET-related spike in March 2026, Application Workspace auto-remediated both with zero intervention from the team, sustaining 97% application health throughout.
“We invested in Application Workspace so that CVE events like these would stop being incidents and start being telemetry,” Jimmy said. “February and March were the proof. Two major surges neutralized, zero change windows, zero user impact, zero tickets—and the team stayed focused on the work that actually needs a human.”
Faster, more flexible application packaging and deployment
Application Workspace is easy to configure, which enables the team to put scripts together and deploy them from the workspace faster and more easily than through Intune.
Self-service software access
Commonly used applications are placed in the Application Workspace catalog, so users can get what they need quickly without opening a ticket or waiting on Intune to deliver the application.
A simpler operating model for more confidence and capacity
Recast aligned with the team’s goal of reducing complexity. “I’m a big fan of keeping it simple,” Jimmy said. With a simpler approach and data that proves the latest versions of applications are deployed properly, the team can focus less on firefighting and more on forward-looking engineering work.
Today, Application Workspace and Intune provide the backbone of application management and third-party patching for the EUC team at The Access Group.
