Schwarz Digits prepares multi-purpose devices and workstations in minutes with Windows 11 Enterprise, Microsoft Intune

As part of the company’s dual studies/cooperative education program, Schwarz Digits needed to equip student workers with company devices for office, school, and personal use. By moving to Windows 11 Enterprise, standardizing the browser on Microsoft Edge, and managing the IT environment with Microsoft Intune, Schwarz Digits is helping its next generation of employees.

Delivering high-quality IT services and infrastructure to a massive enterprise

With its supermarket, retail chains, food production, and recycling services, the Schwarz Group, which includes Lidl and Kaufland, proudly plays a part in the daily lives of millions of people across Germany and around the world. Approximately 7,500 specialized Schwarz Digits employees provide Schwarz teams with the greatest possible digital sovereignty through a full portfolio of unified IT services including device management and patching, application development, server infrastructure, and data backup and storage, all of which meet Germany’s high data protection standards. They’re also responsible for introducing modern technology to optimize existing processes and generate new efficiencies, especially those tied to performance and security.

“We always try to have the newest technology on the market because we’re a big company, and when you wait too long, you lag behind and are faced with the challenge of managing out-of-date systems,” explains Dennis Rösch, an IT administrator tasked with endpoint, device, and cloud management at Schwarz Group. “Having older technology also makes it more difficult to implement new features and be as innovative as we could be otherwise.” 

The desire to adopt the newest technology while meeting employee and market demands brought Schwarz Digits to Microsoft cloud services and Windows 11 Enterprise, which it’s using to support multiple work scenarios on one ready-to-use device for each employee—starting with the freshest faces in its workforce.

Empowering the next generation of workers with cloud-managed devices on Windows 11 Enterprise

Among Schwarz’s 575,000 global employees is a subset of hundreds of student workers in a dual study/cooperative education program. The competitive and cutting-edge opportunity allows students with an interest in IT, business administration, and technology to alternate between three months of learning industry theory at a university and three months of hands-on training within the company. “Over a period of three years, the practical part of the program is coordinated to students’ field of study and they are part of different projects and teams so they can deepen their knowledge and get immersed in our company culture,” says Natalie Felicitas Fleck, Junior Professional, IT Marketing at Schwarz Digits. This model equips them with sought-after practical skills and project experience, which will not only prepare but propel them into their dream careers. 

Schwarz Digits was charged with giving devices to its student workers that have flexibility across office, school, and personal usage. It sought to optimize the onboarding process so that the students could dive right into the program and smoothly transition between its three modes. Whether they were accessing company documents, completing school assignments, or streaming a TV show, Schwarz Digits also had to ensure company data and networks remained protected. “The inherent challenge with this is securing sensitive data on the company-owned devices without sacrificing user experience,” says Rösch. 

This led Schwarz Digits to provide the student workers with cloud-managed Windows 11 Enterprise devices. “We opted for Windows 11 Enterprise not only because it’s newer but also because it’s designed for cloud computing,” says Rösch. “The settings are all consolidated, it’s highly secure, and it will help us remain current for years to come.”

Schwarz Digits uses Windows Autopilot to set up and provision each device running Windows 11 Enterprise, making distribution easy and seamless for students to get started with their new device. “With Windows Autopilot, all of the necessary applications and secure settings are deployed on the device, so it’s all ready for use when someone gets it for the first time,” says Rösch.

We opted for Windows 11 Enterprise not only because it’s newer but also because it’s designed for cloud computing. The settings are all consolidated, it’s highly secure, and it will help us remain current for years to come.  Dennis Rösch: IT Administrator - Schwarz Group

Identifying and expanding the benefits of Windows 11 Enterprise across Schwarz Group

The speed, stability, and security of the Windows 11 Enterprise devices have impressed student workers and IT staff alike. Schwarz Digits also values the plethora of features available for improving student workers’ experiences, such as large application icons, a comfortable touchscreen experience, and Snap layouts for viewing multiple app windows in a single screen. “With Snap layouts, it’s much easier to collaborate and work remotely on one screen because you can work with more information at the same time and share that content at once during company meetings,” describes Rösch. “Students also like the improved touchscreen functionality and find it smoother to work with while at university, including for taking notes more efficiently during lectures.”

As Rösch notes, “By using the latest technology and modern solutions like Windows 11 Enterprise, we’re creating a positive external image and driving positive impact to student workers in our program.” In fact, employees across Schwarz Group quickly noticed the advantages, so Schwarz Digits decided to roll Windows 11 Enterprise out to other teams in the company after solidifying the device management strategy with the students. “We first learned from our students to get the feeling of how products work and how best to provide our services and conduct rollouts,” says Enes Redzepovic, an IT professional at Schwarz Group. “We’re leveraging additional tools like Windows Update for Business deployment service and Endpoint analytics remediations. All of that together will be an improvement for the business in terms of system stability, visibility, and patching capabilities.”

Remotely managing and upgrading devices with Microsoft Intune and Entra ID

Schwarz Digits saw opportunities to simplify IT management for its teams while also benefiting the workers it supports. It adopted Microsoft Intune for managing the company-owned devices and Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) to help ensure highly secure access. Now, whether called upon by an employee or after proactively noticing an issue, Schwarz Digits staff can quickly reset a crashing device or deploy new software in a highly secure way even when an employee or student worker is offsite, as far as 100 kilometers away from the nearest support point for the company—capabilities it couldn’t achieve with on-premises solutions. “We have employees all over Germany and elsewhere in the world. Using Windows 11 Enterprise supported by Microsoft Intune and Entra ID makes it easier to change devices or bring new employees onboard because we’re not bound by a location,” says Rösch.

This setup also empowers employees to manage their own devices in accordance with Schwarz Group policies and, using Microsoft Intune, in a secure and straightforward manner. “This is the first time we’re distributing cloud-based, company-managed devices. If the company portal says a device is noncompliant, we direct users to a Knowledge Base folder on the desktop that gives them the information they need to resolve the issue themselves,” adds Rösch. “If it’s a bigger problem, they can call our support hotline.”

We have employees all over Germany and elsewhere in the world. Using Windows 11 Enterprise supported by Microsoft Intune and Entra ID makes it easier to change devices or bring new employees onboard because we’re not bound by a location.  Dennis Rösch: IT Administrator - Schwarz Group

Offering security with the flexibility to meet diverse user needs

Schwarz Digits has taken a layered approach to the endpoint security of its student worker devices. These layers include BitLocker, which encrypts whole volumes of data, including removable devices, and AppLocker, which allows only preapproved programs to download to given devices. “Because we’re talking about university students, we’re very aware that they might need to access files that, for example, their professors have shared via USB device,” says Rösch. “But because we’ve given them company devices, we need to make sure that access is highly secure and limited to the file types we expect.” 

Schwarz Digits also relies on Intune as a key security layer for these devices because student workers often travel between school, work, and home with their devices, which makes it particularly valuable to have the ability to lock down lost devices remotely. This is also one of the reasons the company recently made Microsoft Edge its sole supported browser. It needed a powerful and reliable endpoint management system for devices that are often on the move, and having Microsoft Edge also managed by Intune has been a big benefit. “Microsoft Edge has the same functions and extensions as our previous browser, and it was a critical part of preparing our cloud client,” says Rösch. “We have a lot of workloads used or managed by Edge. There will be more in the future as users learn they have one standardized browser to use and that if their application or website isn’t working there, it’s down everywhere.”

Outside of school and work settings, the devices are ultimately intended to become student workers’ personal devices. “These are company devices, but we feel it’s important to allow student workers to do things like download video streaming apps through Microsoft Store,” notes Rösch. “We’ve filtered out their ability to download executables that we haven’t scanned for security vulnerabilities, but by providing everything workers need on a single Windows 11 Enterprise device, we’ve made it easier for them to switch roles and come back to work after a break. And we can do that without compromising on security.”

Updating devices in minutes and being “ready for anything”

All new Schwarz-owned devices are loaded with Windows 11 Enterprise out of the box. By 2025, following a three-year hardware life cycle, Schwarz Digits will upgrade nearly 100,000 legacy devices across the company to Windows 11 Enterprise and be managing them with Microsoft Intune. “Installing or updating our on-premises devices usually takes more than an hour. But with our cloud-managed devices running Windows 11 Enterprise, it often only takes a few minutes to get a workplace ready for a user,” says Rösch.

For student workers who ultimately transition to full-time roles at Schwarz Group, official onboarding will be a simple, familiar process. The company hopes that by demonstrating its steadfast commitment to adopting modern technology through Windows 11 Enterprise, Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Intune, and other Microsoft cloud services, it will entice more student workers to apply for open positions. Existing employees will also experience an increase in mobility and computing flexibility, and Schwarz Group expects to reduce operating costs through increased scalability and less time invested in keeping its devices up to date. Concludes Rösch, “We have a history of working well with Microsoft and its technologies. As we shift everything to Windows 11 Enterprise, Schwarz workers can be confident that they’re ready for anything.”

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