Apple Business Manager (ABM) is a web-based portal that helps IT Administrators to manage devices, apps, and accounts exclusively from one central point. Being a comprehensive service, ABM provides the IT department with a platform for implementing zero-touch deployment of Apple devices, allocating purchased apps and books to those devices as well as managing roles in an organization. Using Apple Business Manager with mobile device management (MDM) solution makes it easy to enroll devices, deploy content and entrust administrative prerogatives. Being a consolidation of Device Enrollment Program (DEP) and Volume Purchase Program (VPP), Apple Business Manager lets enterprise IT to seamlessly deploy and manage iOS devices, Mac computers, and Apple TVs in your organization without IT departments ever needing to touch the devices.
Why Apple Business Manager?
Let’s take a glimpse at the fundamental characteristics of Apple Business Manager that help businesses streamline the administration of their Apple devices and apps, employing an uncomplicated user interface.
- Unification of Apple DEP and Apple VPP
Once you upgrade your organization to Apple Business Manager, the requirement of having separate logins for your DEP and VPP leaves behind forever. ABM confers a single sign-in portal along with a consolidated and convenient user interface that execute things more straightforward for less technical users.
- Managed Apple IDs
An Apple ID that your organization owns can be referred to as managed Apple ID and is used by the administrators to access the Apple Business Manager portal. While enrolling or upgrading to Apple Business Manager, you get a prompt to enter your organization’s website, which persists as the default domain for your Managed Apple ID.
- Deploying Apps and Books
Your organization can purchase and distribute public applications, custom business to business (B2B) apps and books in bulk and manage licenses for users through the ABM portal.
- Specifying MDM Servers based on Device types
In the former Device Enrollment portal, all newly-added devices are assigned to a default MDM server while in Apple Business Manager, admins can assign a default MDM server for each device types such as iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, and Apple TV.
- Managing roles in an organization
Apple Business Manager utilizes a computer systems security approach named as Role Based Access Control (RBAC) that authorizes your organization to assign and edit role permissions to multiple administrators.
- Self-directing Device acquisition order registrations for DEP
Apple Business Manager empowers administrators to register new device purchase orders to Apple DEP through an interface that provides options to associate both Apple customer numbers and Apple reseller numbers with an individual ABM account.
- Purchasing apps and books using Apple’s Volume Purchase Program (VPP) Credit
The hurdles encountered by businesses to purchase paid VPP apps owing to a credit card requirement are relics of a bygone era. Presently, companies can seamlessly buy apps and books with a Purchase Order (PO). The VPP credits acquired through a Purchase Order consequently gets added to the ABM portal. Following the Credit purchases from Apple, your content purchaser can utilize a secure inbox to view the records of your orders and download redemption codes.
Upgrading your organization — Paving the path towards Apple Business Manager
If you have enrolled in Apple Deployment Programs on or after February 26, 2014, you can upgrade your organization to Apple Business Manager from desktop Safari or Chrome. The supported browsers for enrolling your organization to Apple Business Manager are Safari version 9 or higher on macOS, Google Chrome 35.0 or later and Microsoft Edge version 25.10 or higher on Windows. Once you complete the upgrade process, ABM gets associated with your accounts, MDM servers, devices, server tokens, device orders and so on.
Following the enrollment in Apple Business Manager, an ABM manager with appropriate prerogatives can sign into the program website and associate one or more MDM servers to an account. The manager can incorporate specific devices to any of the MDM servers after which he can allocate the devices to the users with MDM. Upon the device activation, all the MDM-defined configurations, confinements and controls get automatically installed.
MDM integration with Apple Business Manager
With Apple Business Manager, you can supervise your Apple devices along while configuring them to be automatically enrolled in a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution. Apple Business Manager, in association with a third-party Mobile Device Management solution, amplifies the potential of Business mobility by seamlessly configuring device settings, managing Apple devices, purchasing and distributing applications and books in your organization. Mobile Device Management (MDM) enables you to monitor users and devices remotely, wirelessly deploy and manage apps, backup data, configure device updates and much more. Apple Business Manager automates enrollment of Apple devices into your MDM solution thereby streamlining bulk deployment of corporate-owned mobile devices with zero-touch configuration for IT.
Reshaping the future of businesses with Apple Business Manager
Staying mobile is vital to your business victory, wherefore you need of a device deployment program that blends with your current mobile device management suite whereby you can manage Apple device deployments, sustain corporate security and enhance enterprise productivity.
Now, let’s see the gains of upgrading your organization to Apple Business Manager,
- Security
The distinct features of Apple Business Manager work collectively contributing transpicuous user experience, and maximum security by introducing corporate controls, application deployments, device restrictions, and configurations the first time a device gets activated.
- Reduction of time and cost
Supports automated enrollment and configuration for your corporate devices, thereby considerably decreasing the time and cost for users and IT administrators.
- Easy configuration
Simplifies deployment and configuration of devices in bulk, without having to configure each device manually.
- Makes device management non-removable
Implements device management that cannot be purged by users.
- Look-back capability
Extends the capability to enroll and set-up existing devices purchased in the last two years.
Apple Business Manager supports device enrollment, volume purchases, and role administration across 64 countries currently. ABM’s multinational support for apps appropriates for assigning the licenses purchased through Apple Business Manager to users or devices in any country where the app is accessible.
