Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune

Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences with SCCM and Intune co-managed scenario. Let’s learn more details about ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps. The Client apps workload change helps Intune deploy and manage application & PowerShell scripts on co-managed Windows 10 devices.

Co-management can manage Windows 10 devices with two device management platforms called Intune and ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM). As you can see in the below diagram, Microsoft’s strategy for device management is three (3) folded.

  1. Tenant Attach (More details about Tenant Attach).
  2. Co-Management Workloads (this post is related to Client App Workload).
  3. Cloud-Native Management.
Co-Management Tenant Attach - ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM – Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune

Client Apps Workload

Once you transition client app workload from co-management properties, I explained in the previous blog post – How to Setup SCCM Co-Management to Offload Workloads to Intune. You could manage apps and PS scripts from both SCCM and Intune.

  • Any available apps deployed from Intune are available in the Company Portal.
  • Apps that you deploy from Configuration Manager are available in Software Center.

NOTE! – Starting in ConfigMgr version 2006, you can configure the Company Portal to also show SCCM apps. If you change this app portal experience, it changes the behaviors described in the below diagram. I have explained this behavior in the below section.

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Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM – Pic credits to Microsoft Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune

Client Apps Workload is NOT Switched to Intune?

In a scenario, the device is already enrolled to Intune using group policy, but what if the client apps workload is not switched to Intune? As per my testing, the Intune application deployment won’t work on the Windows 10 co-managed device until you switch the client app workload to Intune. However, SCCM application deployment works as expected.

How to Change Co-Management Client Apps workload?

Now, let’s see how to switch the Co-Management Client Apps workload to pilot Intune or Intune.

  • Navigate to \Administration\Overview\Cloud Services\Co-management
  • Click on CoMgmtSettingProd.
  • Select the properties option from the ribbon menu.
  • Click on the Workloads tab.
  • Slide the Client Apps and switch to Pilot Intune or Intune.
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
  • Click on the Staging tab (Only if you selected the Pilot Intune option).
  • Select the pilot collection for the Client Apps workload.
  • Click Apply and OK.
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM

ConfigMgr Deployments

You can check the ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM) deployments from the device propertiesDeployments tab. This helps you to get the list of applications deployed to Windows 10 devices. I feel the below view could help analyze the application deployment details.

Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune

How to Check Co-Management is Enabled

This section helps to confirm whether Windows 10 device is co-managed or not.

Adaptiva
Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
  • You can also Confirm the co-management status from ConfigMgr Applet on Windows 10 device.
    • Co-management = Enabled.
Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune

Client Apps Behavior

This section will explain the Co-management deployment behaviors with Intune and ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM) and how the application and PowerShell script deployment behaves co-managed world.

  • Company Portal shows the applications deployed from Intune and Configuration Manager (a.k.a SCCM).
    • IntuneAvailable Applications deployed to users AD Group.
    • ConfigMgr Available applications deployed to users or devices collection.

NOTE! – To install & manage SCCM applications from the company portal, you need to have connectivity back to SCCM infrastructure via corporate network/VPN/CMG. The same applies to the software centers as well.

Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune
  • Software Center shows only the applications deployed as available & required from ConfigMgr (a.k.a SCCM).
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM
ConfigMgr Co-Management Workload Client Apps | SCCM

Tips & Updates

Also, there are options in client settings policies to enable either software center or Company portal for the following workloads.

Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune 1
WorkloadSettingBehavior
Client appsConfiguration ManagerYou can see only Configuration Manager client apps
Client appsPilot Intune or IntuneYou can see both Configuration Manager and Intune client apps
Office Click-to-run appsConfiguration ManagerYou can see only Configuration Manager Office click-to-run apps
Office Click-to-run appsPilot Intune or IntuneYou can see only Intune Office click-to-run apps

Resources

Author

Anoopย isย Microsoft MVP! He is a Solution Architect in enterprise client management with more than 20 years of experience (calculation done in 2021) in IT. He is a blogger, Speaker, and Local User Group HTMD Community leader. His main focus is on Device Management technologies like SCCM 2012, Current Branch, and Intune. E writes about ConfigMgr, Windows 11, Windows 10, Azure AD, Microsoft Intune, Windows 365, AVD, etc…

14 thoughts on “Software Center Vs Company Portal Differences SCCM Intune”

  1. Hi my org is testing out shifting client apps workloads but currently when set to Pilot or Intune, user collection deployments in Software Center are not being displayed in Company Portal. Only device collection based app deployments in Software Center are being displayed in Company Portal. Any help would be appreciated.

    Reply
  2. Hello, Do you know if it’s possible to deploy SCCM packages also on company portal ? (and not only SCCM applications)

    Thank you !

    Reply
    • This is what I tested I think –

      Company Portal shows the applications deployed from Intune and Configuration Manager (a.k.a SCCM).
      Intune โ€“ Available Applications deployed to users AD Group.
      ConfigMgr โ€“ Available applications deployed to users or devices collection

      Reply
      • Yes i can see in your article that you tested SCCM Application successfully but what about the SCCM Package ? (package and application is different in SCCM).
        In your screenshot, when you check the SCCM deployments associated to the device “Prod-Win20” i can see only “application” in the list (Type column).

        Thank you

      • Sorry … I got you now. I never tested packages. don’t know whether that is even supported or not. I don’t think so. I will have to check MS docs to get more details probably.

  3. You can run SCCM packages from Company Portal, and you will see them running in Software Center too.
    My guess is that Company Portal just “calls” Software Center in the background… nothing really special ๐Ÿ˜€

    Also, I found that I can also run Office Click-to-Run installation from Software Center while having the workload to Intune in my Intune Workload Pitoling clients. That’s kinda opposite to what MS is saying…

    In case you wonder, required application from Intune are installed to co-managed devices with the Client-App workload on Intune, even if the Company Portal is not installed on the PC.

    Reply
  4. Hi, I have moved the client apps workload to Intune and removed all the application deployments from Config Manager. But I can still see all the application in software center and company portal. It seems like the apps won’t get updated and disappear once I moved the the workload.
    Have you experienced anything like that before?

    Reply
  5. Hi.

    I have co-managed environment with SCCM and Intune. Currently in pilot testing with Intune.
    I have an issue with MS Office apps not showing in Company Portal. They are assigned to two user groups as available.
    Why are they not showing up?
    Have you experienced this?

    Reply
  6. Applications that are assigned to user collection (all users) are not visible in Company Portal. Its only available in Software Center. Not sure if MS supports this. I know that Anoop has already mentioned this that it should work. But it doesn’t. That’s why some experts has posted this query above. Has anyone got this working?
    More info:
    Application Installation Behavior = Install for System
    Logon requirement = Whether or not a user is logged on
    Allow users to view and interact with program installation = checked

    Reply

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