Managing Apple Devices with DEP Enrollment

Most businesses have gone mobile, meaning it’s important to implement viable MDM solutions for the various mobile endpoints used by teams. Whether you have team members that bring their own Apple devices, or your company furnishes these devices for team members, the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) and Apple Business Manager (ABM) solutions are ideal for managing these products in a business environment.

Apple’s core MDM, the DEP software, allows administrators to easily provision, deploy, and manage these devices across an entire business, whether connected to the company WAN, an employee’s home office, or mobile Internet. Below, we’re going to look at the differences between these two variations of MDM software suites from Apple as well as discuss the advantages of Apple DEP.

Apple DEP Vs Business Manager

Both systems are part of a solution referred to as Apple at Work which enables organizations to administer Apple devices such as iOS, macOS, and tvOS systems, in large environments. DEP and Business Manger solve a once taxing problem that made serious integration and management of Apple devices in an organization a challenge.

Apple DEP considered the primary system for deploying and managing Apple systems – it simplifies setting up new devices with hands-free interaction and offers the option to manually enroll existing devices. During this process, devices are configured to company specification and enrolled in the system, enabling remote administration, regardless of where devices are connected.

The ABM service incorporates DEP, as well as a few other useful tools as part of a larger solution. In addition to DEP, administrators can access the Volume Purchase Program (VPP) within the ABM portal, making it simple to acquire and push out new applications to enrolled devices.

For businesses already using DEP to manage devices, upgrading to ABM is a simple process of signing into the Apple Business Portal and following the steps after signing in. Here, you can also enroll to become an Apple Business, which is the first step for accessing several useful products and services.

Uses of DEP

Once an Apple ID is registered for DEP or ABM, an administrator can begin to create and apply profiles for a variety of systems used around an organization. Existing devices may need to be manually enrolled, but new items can be immediately provisioned after first powering on the device with the proper applications and security configurations once Setup Assistant completes running.

With DEP, you will be able to:

Create Device Profiles – As a stand-alone solution, administrators can create a multitude of different profiles for different device types. This means that different departments can have devices tailored to their specific needs with security and application provisions. Too, products utilized by customers can be locked down with kiosk mode, preventing the possibility of tampering with company data. Once enrolled, devices entered to DEP are locked for continuous management by your organization.

Integrate with Active Directory – As most organizations are Windows-centric, DEP can be integrated into Active Directory for further control. Businesses using hosted Microsoft Azure services (or Azure Stack as part of an on-premise configuration) can pull in Apple enrollment information for managing supervised devices with certain Microsoft tools. This simplifies the process of administrating and troubleshooting Microsoft applications running on your organization’s Apple devices as well as managing instances of Office 365.

Utilize Hands-free Setup or Refined Setup Assistant – Prior to interacting with a device, it can be assigned a profile, or the initial configuration process can be modified by altering Setup Assistant for specific scenarios, whether an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, or Apple TV. This is helpful for scenarios where end users may require extra more control over a device to take advantage of certain functions. Admins can create refined profiles in DEP for these special cases, allowing for more flexibility during deployment.

Delegate Admin Responsibilities – With DEP, it’s possible to fine tune responsibilities for administrators which further streamlines management functions as well as increases security by restricting access to certain portions of the software. For example, certain departments or different offices may require slightly different configurations for their devices. As such, it’s simple to configure admins to delegate based on location, device, or other criteria.

Learn more about Apple DEP

Business that utilize Apple devices throughout an organization will benefit substantially by taking advantage of Apple DEP and ABM. At ConnectUs Corp, we recognize that each business is unique, requiring tailored setups to maximize the performance of different solutions on the market. Touch base by visiting our contact page – send us an email, give us call, or stop in at our Holland, Pennsylvania office.