Airwatch (or any iPad MDM)- anyone here use or heard of it?
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An associate asked me if I know anything about Airwatch. Their company has it deployed to 20 iPads and they spend around 10 hours a week troubleshooting problems with it.
The most notable recent problem was they were trying to push out a PDF price sheet to all devices, only two of them picked up the price sheet.
Anyone have any suggestions of other MDMs they've used with iPads and had good success with?
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Curious product. Will do more reading on it ...
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I think this begs the question, why not just have the sheet in something like dropbox? That seems like overkill just to share a file.
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Know the name but have never used it.
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They use the MDM to lock down/out the appstore, prevent internet access from the device, and track unit location.
They can also use it to disable the device in case of theft (most likely, employee theft).
It uses a 3G/4G data plan, and to keep the company from having huge data plans, they prevent the use of internet over their plan.
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@Dashrender said:
They can also use it to disable the device in case of theft (most likely, employee theft).
I hate it when people steal my employees.
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@Dashrender said:
They use the MDM to lock down/out the appstore, prevent internet access from the device, and track unit location.
They can also use it to disable the device in case of theft (most likely, employee theft).
It uses a 3G/4G data plan, and to keep the company from having huge data plans, they prevent the use of internet over their plan.
Ya I get the use for that, but just seemed like a lot to push a file.
I've seen people say this is free but I've never used it or seen if it works well
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@johnhooks said:
@Dashrender said:
They use the MDM to lock down/out the appstore, prevent internet access from the device, and track unit location.
They can also use it to disable the device in case of theft (most likely, employee theft).
It uses a 3G/4G data plan, and to keep the company from having huge data plans, they prevent the use of internet over their plan.
Ya I get the use for that, but just seemed like a lot to push a file.
I've seen people say this is free but I've never used it or seen if it works well
If they were only pushing a file I agree, but they really do need to lock the devices down so the end users aren't using it inappropriately.
I'll take a look at the Meraki option.
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@Dashrender said:
@johnhooks said:
@Dashrender said:
They use the MDM to lock down/out the appstore, prevent internet access from the device, and track unit location.
They can also use it to disable the device in case of theft (most likely, employee theft).
It uses a 3G/4G data plan, and to keep the company from having huge data plans, they prevent the use of internet over their plan.
Ya I get the use for that, but just seemed like a lot to push a file.
I've seen people say this is free but I've never used it or seen if it works well
If they were only pushing a file I agree, but they really do need to lock the devices down so the end users aren't using it inappropriately.
I'll take a look at the Meraki option.
ThanksI just signed up for a demo with the Manage Engine MDM. It's free for up to 25 devices and 1 technician.
https://www.manageengine.com/mobile-device-management/pricing.html
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Thanks - currently I'm not being paid to look into this. So now I'll need to remember these if they decide to hire me.
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@aaron said:
I've always considered MDM to be more of deployment of app/settings to the system. Not files. That seems odd to me.
Using these like mobile terminals for factory or field workers - the need/desire to send pricing guides, build specs, etc seems highly desirable. You definitely don't want to require that access to the internet be required each time you want to look at this information.
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I use Meraki. It's pretty basic. I'm happy with it for free but I doubt it will solve your problem. I think a lot of issues are at Apple's end and how restrictive they make their OS, as a lot of these MDM solutions appear to work much better on Android devices.
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@Dashrender said:
You definitely don't want to require that access to the internet be required each time you want to look at this information.
Does dropox for biz or one drive for biz have an ipad app that allows downloading locally?
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@Breffni-Potter said:
@Dashrender said:
You definitely don't want to require that access to the internet be required each time you want to look at this information.
Does dropox for biz or one drive for biz have an ipad app that allows downloading locally?
They have a sync client - but I have no idea if you can force those apps to download upon publishing a document there.
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Personally, is it not up to the field engineers to DL the material they need before heading to site?
"Oh sorry customer, the files I need are not with me"
"Well why? Whose fault is that"
"Our IT Department" -
These are plumbers. They don't visit the shop daily. They work out of their trucks and get their assignments electronically.
So no, they wouldn't necessarily have the ability to download something while at the office.
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Can they not download at home before heading out for the day?
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Why the push to put the onus on the end user to do a task as simple as syncing/pushing a file to remote device?
This places a burden on them unnecessarily that would allow them to fail. We can or at least should be able to do something as simple as push a file to a remote device with little effort.
@Breffni-Potter said:
Can they not download at home before heading out for the day?
Let's assume for the moment that they can't connect to the WiFi at home, primarily because there is no reason for them to since they aren't allowed access to Safari or the app store, so there is no reason for them to be on any WiFi. The same would go for plugging it into their computer at home.
Don't think of this as an iPad, think of it as dedicated black box with a screen that's only function is to provide the function the company wants.
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@Dashrender said:
Don't think of this as an iPad, think of it as dedicated black box with a screen that's only function is to provide the function the company wants.
Seems like a custom app would be best for that, then.
