Yes..It is very much possible and widely used..
You can acheive this in 2 ways
1.Put all the Laptops in 1 group and Modify Liveupdate policy for that group..So that they can launch,schedule and download updates directly from internet..
Anyways first it will check the SEPM--if its not there then it will connect to the internet.
2.Add Location ( Location Specify Policy)--And add requirement as If Client can not connect to Symantec Endpoint Manager the other rules will apply.
in the other rule you can edit the policy so that the clients can directly connect to the internet.