By Lana Gates / 2 May 2019 / Topics: Devices Mobility Procurement Modern workplace
Facts at a glance
Client industry:
Manufacturing
Size of company:
200,000 employees
100 facilities in 29 countriesChallenge:
The client lacked a cohesive way to procure and manage Apple Mac devices.
Solution:
- Insight Managed Mobility
- Jamf Pro cloud-based mobile device management
- Apple Business Manager
Results:
- Productivity within 15–20 minutes of device receipt
- Fluid device procurement and enrollment
- Reduced management overhead
- Seamless app and configuration deployment
Solution area:
Insight’s Connected Workforce solutions are a suite of end-user compute offerings designed to simplify IT management while improving connectivity and collaboration.
To stay competitive, today’s manufacturing companies have to embrace digital transformation — not just in their production processes, but in their worker enablement too.
A manufacturing solutions provider with 200,000 employees across 100 facilities in 29 countries found itself struggling internally. Each of its locations had been empowered to acquire Apple Mac devices in whatever way they chose.
Post-purchase, each device went through a number of manual configuration touchpoints before it could be deployed. And one IT administrator had the job of managing 1,500 Mac devices across the enterprise.
The company had implemented Jamf Software Server as its primary Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution on premises. But the administrator hadn’t enrolled all of the Mac devices in the tool. Some roamed freely, presenting security risks.
Additionally, a good portion of the support tickets employees submitted centered on password issues between Active Directory and macOS. If Active Directory required user password changes every 90 days, for example, the security structure of the Mac systems prohibited their ability to process those requests, resulting in out-of-sync passwords and employee downtime.
The company needed to fix these issues to improve employee productivity and simplify device procurement and management. It reached out to Insight for help.
Our Connected Workforce team assessed the client’s IT environment and presented a list of recommendations to the company, including:
Aware of Insight’s knowledge and experience in managing Mac devices and expertise in shifting from on-premises solutions to the cloud, the client agreed with the proposal. We implemented Insight Managed Mobility, a comprehensive end-to-end solution, to secure and enable the enterprise’s workforce devices. It involved device acquisition through our procurement platform, device provisioning and MDM.
Enrolling the 1,500 Mac devices in Apple Business Manager and the Apple Volume Purchase Program streamlined device configuration and improved security. It also eliminated multiple touchpoints. The client gained confidence each device is configured in a standard way.
Moving the company from on-premises Jamf Software Server to the cloud-based Jamf Pro platform alleviated the problem of on-premises maintenance tasks, such as database backups and server updates. This freed the single administrator to focus on core management of macOS in the enterprise.
Jamf Pro simplified management of Active Directory password changes on Mac devices, as well as access to file shares and file services on premises. The solution mitigated the authentication issue and allowed the client to leverage identity management services.
The enterprise had already invested in Okta Adaptive Multi-Factor Authentication for identity management. Jamf Pro enabled the company to integrate with Okta instead of using on-premises Active Directory for identity management.
The client’s employee experience has improved greatly as a result of the company’s move to the cloud and its adoption of Jamf Pro. End users are now able to be productive within 15 to 20 minutes of receiving a Mac laptop.
Device procurement and workflow are extremely fluid. The deployment of Mac applications and configurations has become seamless. Management overhead of the IT environment has been reduced for the administrator. And the company continues to keep its competitive edge.
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