Imad's Blog

If you've spent any time managing Microsoft Intune, you know that packaging applications can become repetitive and time-consuming. Between creating .intunewin packages, writing installation commands, configuring detection rules, and keeping deployment information organized, the process often involves several different tools and a lot of manual work.

After packaging countless applications myself, I decided to build something that streamlines the workflow.

Meet DeployForge

DeployForge is a free Windows application designed to simplify the process of preparing applications for Microsoft Intune.

Instead of jumping between multiple utilities and documents, DeployForge brings the most common packaging tasks into a single, modern interface.

Features
📦 Create Microsoft Intune (.intunewin) packages
⚙️ Generate installation and detection commands
📝 Organize deployment information in one place
🚀 Reduce the time required to prepare applications for deployment

Whether you're packaging a single application or managing hundreds of deployments, DeployForge helps eliminate repetitive tasks so you can focus on more important work.

Why I Built It

As an IT Manager, I regularly package applications for Intune. Over time, I found myself repeating the same steps over and over again.

DeployForge started as a personal productivity tool, but I realized other IT professionals could benefit from it as well. My goal was simple:

Make application packaging faster.
Keep everything organized.
Provide a clean and easy-to-use interface.
Offer it free to the community.
Who Is It For?

DeployForge is built for:

Microsoft Intune Administrators
Microsoft 365 Administrators
Endpoint Administrators
Systems Engineers
Desktop Support Teams
IT Professionals who manage Windows devices

If your organization uses Microsoft Intune to deploy applications, DeployForge can help simplify your workflow.

Download DeployForge

DeployForge is available as a free download.

Download:
https://imad.ai/projects

We hear it constantly: AI is coming for our jobs. So when I stumbled on a study that actually measured what happens when real employees start using AI at work, I had to dig in. The results surprised me and they paint a far more hopeful picture than the headlines do. The study, Generative AI at Work by Brynjolfsson, Li, and Raymond (2025), followed 5,172 customer support agents at a Fortune 500 company.

Each agent got access to an AI assistant that offered real-time suggestions, recommended responses, and pulled up relevant documentation while they helped customers. The question the researchers wanted to answer was simple: does AI actually make people better at their jobs? The short answer is yes. On average, agents resolved about 15 percent more customer issues per hour once they had AI in their corner.

They handled conversations faster and juggled more of them at once. But here's the part that really stuck with me: the biggest gains didn't go to the top performers they went to the newest and least experienced workers. Some of them became up to 30 percent more productive. The AI was essentially bottling up the instincts of the company's best employees and handing them to everyone else, helping rookies perform like veterans in a fraction of the usual time. And no, the AI didn't replace anyone. People stayed in charge of every customer conversation and decided for themselves whether to use the suggestions.

Even better, they were learning from it: when the tool was temporarily switched off, the employees who'd been using it kept performing well. The knowledge had stuck. Customers were happier too fewer of them asked to escalate to a supervisor, and employee turnover dropped.

This is exactly the kind of evidence I find encouraging. AI here wasn't a threat it was a coach. It made work more efficient, helped people grow their skills faster, and supported employees instead of sidelining them. If this is what AI in the workplace can look like, I'm a lot more optimistic about where we're headed.

Source: Brynjolfsson, E., Li, D., & Raymond, L. (2025). Generative AI at Work. Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Most people think research is something that happens in universities or laboratories. In reality, research plays a role in many of the decisions businesses make every day. Whether a company is launching a new product, improving employee satisfaction, strengthening cybersecurity, or adopting artificial intelligence, research helps leaders make informed decisions instead of relying on assumptions.

From Guesswork to Informed Decisions

At its core, business research is the process of gathering and analyzing information to reduce uncertainty. Rather than asking, “What do we think will work?” organizations use research to ask, “What does the evidence tell us?”

For example, a company considering a work-from-home policy might conduct employee surveys, analyze productivity metrics, and compare results across departments before making a decision. The goal is to replace guesswork with data-driven insights.

Understanding Applied vs. Basic Research

One of the first concepts introduced in business research is the distinction between applied research and basic research.

Applied research focuses on solving a specific business problem. Examples include:

- Determining whether security awareness training reduces phishing incidents.
- Measuring employee satisfaction after a policy change.
- Evaluating whether AI tools improve workplace productivity.

Basic research, on the other hand, seeks to expand knowledge and understanding without addressing an immediate business decision. For example:

- How do humans build trust in artificial intelligence?
- What factors influence employee motivation?
- How does technology affect decision-making behavior?

Both types of research are valuable, but applied research often drives the day-to-day decisions organizations make.

Turning Data into Business Intelligence

Businesses generate enormous amounts of data every day. However, data alone has little value unless it can be transformed into meaningful information.

Consider this progression:

Data

- 25 employees clicked on a phishing email.

Information

- Most of the clicks occurred in departments that missed cybersecurity training.

Intelligence

- Additional training should be targeted toward those departments to reduce future risk.

This process of converting raw data into actionable intelligence is one of the most important functions of modern business research.

The Growing Role of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is rapidly changing how research is conducted. AI can analyze large datasets, identify patterns, summarize information, and generate insights far more quickly than traditional methods.

Organizations now use AI to:

- Analyze customer feedback.
- Predict purchasing behavior.
- Detect cybersecurity threats.
- Identify operational inefficiencies.
- Support strategic planning.

While AI is not a replacement for human judgment, it is becoming a powerful tool for helping businesses make faster and more informed decisions.

Knowledge Is a Business Asset

Another key lesson from business research is that organizational knowledge should not remain locked inside individual employees’ minds. Companies that document processes, capture lessons learned, and share information effectively are better positioned for long-term success.

This concept, known as knowledge management, ensures that valuable expertise remains available even when employees change roles or leave the organization.

Final Thoughts

The organizations that thrive in today’s environment are often the ones that make the best decisions. Research provides the foundation for those decisions by helping leaders understand problems, evaluate opportunities, measure outcomes, and adapt to change.

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, the ability to collect, analyze, and act on information will become even more important. Technology may change, but the fundamental principle remains the same:

Better information leads to better decisions.

I recently built a new internal Windows utility called AutoApp Installer by imad.ai. A lightweight onboarding and deployment tool designed to simplify software installation during laptop setup and rebuilds.

The app uses Microsoft Winget behind the scenes but provides a clean GUI experience instead of manually typing PowerShell commands.

Current features include:

Search Winget applications
One-click silent installs
Department-based install profiles
Installed application scanning
Portable

Example profiles:

HR PC
Finance PC
IT PC
Default PC

Built with:

C#
WPF
.NET
Winget

This project started as a quick onboarding idea and turned into a useful internal IT deployment utility.

If you or your children have used McGraw Hill (mheducation.com) platforms, it’s time to update your security settings.

A significant data breach has been confirmed following a Salesforce misconfiguration. This incident has led to the public exposure of over 100GB of data, affecting millions of users.

The Details:
Discovery Date: April 16, 2026
Date of Breach: 10/04/2026

Total Impact: 13.5 million unique email addresses
What was exposed: Names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses.

Why this matters: Even "limited" data sets provide fuel for sophisticated phishing attacks and identity theft. Inconsistent data across records often means hackers are piecing together profiles of users from multiple sources.

What you should do now:
Change your password for McGraw Hill and any other site where you use the same credentials.

Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all educational and personal accounts.

Be on high alert for suspicious emails or texts breached phone numbers often lead to a spike in "smishing" (SMS phishing) attempts.

Stay vigilant. Protecting your digital footprint starts with staying informed.

#DataBreach #CyberSecurity #PrivacyAlert #McGrawHill #InfoSec #IdentityProtection