How to Manage Multiple Ipads for Business – For many businesses, iPads are becoming one of the primary tools for work. This is especially true in industries like education, healthcare, and retail. It’s not too difficult to see why these industries love their iPads. Why wouldn’t they? It makes sense that schools would want to increase productivity by doing away with textbooks.
Likewise, patients would find their visits to the doctor much more pleasant if they didn’t have to make awkward paper-heavy medical forms out of printed materials. As for retailers, it only makes sense that they need the best technology at hand in order to show you everything that’s available on their websites.
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The right MDM solution provider helps a lot to manage multiple iPads in the corporate environment
A powerful and robust iPad MDM platform is one of the key elements in driving corporate data and device security, policy and compliance integrity, and configuration management. A reliable MDM solution like Scalefusion does more than just facilitating iPads configuration to reduce operating and support costs along with security threats. It also comes loaded with relevant and results-driven features like single app mode, multi-app kiosk mode, web filtering, network management, asset tracking, real-time communications, alerts and reports, device restrictions, reports & alerts, security policies, and many other capabilities that can empower the company IT admin to ensure total success in managing and making the most out of iPads at work.
Apart from that, Scalefusion as a wholesome MDM vendor has all the perfect processes for easy, secure, and quick device enrollment, simple configuration and provisioning through Apple DEP (Device Enrolment Program), and seamless application purchase, distribution, and management system with the help of Apple VPP (Volume Purchase Program), streamlined content management and other enterprise management options like support for supervised mode and so on.
Fix the business objectives: The first step about managing iPads in a corporate environment is to understand and evaluate the ultimate business objectives the company has in mind when it decides to bring in iPads for employees. Answer the question with clarity and validation – ‘why we need to deploy iPads in business’ and ‘how it will accelerate enterprise productivity and ‘will my employees really require iPads and how trained are they to use iPads’. Answering these questions will help the organizations define the business objectives behind iPad deployment and this, in turn, will help fix a practical strategy to manage and integrate iPads in the corporate environment.
Learn More: How to Lockdown iPad for Business Use?
Figure out the policies: Once the company fixes the business objectives and decides to deploy iPads in the workplace, the next step should be to figure out a set of policies around aspects like access control, usage, authentication, features and properties, security, and integration, which can be implemented in iOS for iPads in office. A strong role of the company IT team is necessary for setting the policies – this will help the company to understand if the business objectives behind deploying iPads in the corporate environment have been met with positive outcomes or if investing in the iOS implementation has got profitable returns.
Define provisioning and deployment: After defining the business objectives and figuring out a list of implementation policies, the next step is to roll out an execution plan. Before providing the iPads to the end-users, they need to be first enrolled through Mobile Device Management. The company after obtaining a secure APNS certificate can enable the iPads to communicate with these components via Apple’s Push Notification Server (APNS), which supports a constant connection with the devices by allowing them to receive commands about configuration, apps, and settings that the company defines.
Managing apps and configuration: When it comes to enterprise apps, the Apple App store has sufficient inventory that most are aware of. Companies with iPads for users are advised to use Apple’s Volume Purchase Program for enterprises to securely purchase apps (including organization-owned managed apps) in bulk, deploy and distribute them in selected iPads with relevant configuration options. Managed apps including sensitive enterprise information are more in the control of company IT who decides whether to publish them securely in the devices or wipe them from the MDM profile on demand.
Last but not the least, securing the enrolled, deployed, and configured iPads within the corporate environment is one of the most vital parts of managing them well. Company IT along with the MDM solution must ensure that iPad users have secure and controlled access to corporate resources, networks, and apps to support user productivity, work efficiency, and project completion.
An MDM solution provider for Apple device management simplifies and streamlines the entire process including fast enrolment, secure configuration, account, and policy set up, giving permissions and setting restrictions, managing apps, content, and data, securing corporate data and apps while offering contextual features and capabilities.
A master password.
You cannot put a master password to the iPad, it’s unsupported by Apple. So, we can look into an alternative.
Let the user choose a password for the iPad. You can always clear it remotely from Hexnode MDM. From the Management tab, select a device, and on the Action drop-down, select Clear Password. It’s simple as that.
Manage and lock iOS settings.
You can do that. You’ll have your own Hexnode MDM portal for managing devices. And on the portal, we have listed the iPad settings which you can change remotely or block user access.
Push wallpaper, files and screensaver.
You can push wallpapers over Wi-Fi. But, screensavers and files, no! We are working on it. Have a look at the ‘What’s Cooking‘ section to know more about the features which are under development.
As a workaround, you can use kiosk mode (‘single app kiosk mode’, to be accurate). With single app kiosk, you can launch an app remotely, an app which can create and display slideshows with the images on the device. However, with file management not available yet, you might need to add the images manually to the device.
Log in to iTunes with the stylists’ accounts.
With Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP), you can distribute apps to the devices (no matter the stylists are logged in to their individual iTunes accounts). They can purchase any app from iTunes if they wish.
IM system.
Anyone with an admin access to Hexnode MDM portal can send messages to the devices. Thus, if the front desk has access to the portal, a message can be sent to the connected device(s).
By ManageEngine
(365 reviews)ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus is an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution that gives enterprises the ability to harness the power of mobility. Improve employee productivity without compromising on enterprise security with features like mobile device management, application management, email management and device containerization. Available as both an on premise as well as a cloud offering, MDM has been developed keeping user demands and IT security requirements in mind.
By Miradore
Miradore is a cloud-based Mobile Device Management platform that provides a smarter way to securely manage both company-owned and personal Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows devices. With Miradore, you can stay up to date with your device fleet, automate device management across multiple operating systems, distribute business-critical apps, and secure your company data. Getting started is simple and always free, and when needed, you can unlock additional features with our two paid plans.
By Hexnode
Hexnode is an award-winning Unified Endpoint Management solution that offers overall device management and security solutions for both BYOD and corporate-owned devices. With a wide range of features such as application management, kiosk management, and containerization lined-up, Hexnode has got lots more in-store to satisfy its customer requirements. It supports iOS, Android, fireOS, Windows, Macs, and Apple TVs
By Avast
Complete online security for small offices that want robust, real-time protection against ransomware and the latest cyberattacks, for all business devices. Get multi-OS support for up to 10 devices – including PCs, Macs, iPads, iPhones, and Android mobile devices. Small Office Protection works effortlessly with your business existing hardware and devices, and theres no IT experience required to manage it
Conclusion
Many users, as well as companies, have been looking for a solution to manage multiple iPads. You can use your iPad as a browser by connecting it to Wi-Fi or you can connect it to a cellular network using a supported SIM card. This article has outlined the basic steps for managing your iPads by organizing them into a business environment.