6 Reasons to Use Apple Business Manager

What is Apple Business Manager?

In short, Apple Business Manager is a simple and free web-based tool used by business owners and IT admins to enroll and see company owned Apple devices, apps/books and Apple IDs from one place. It centralizes device enrollment and volume app deployment so you can deliver work technology to your employees, no matter where they are located.

Paired with a mobile device management (MDM) solution, like Jamf, Apple Business Manager provides a comprehensive and efficient way to deploy devices. With these two combined, your business can automate and curate the perfect onboarding solution for your users. 

Why should you use it?

One major reason to use Apple Business Manager is to avoid company-owned Macs getting “locked” by employees via their Apple IDs. This is an issue we see regularly with new clients and unlocking those devices is not only painful, but quite often impossible.

The other reason is that using Apple Business Manager means that those devices are officially acknowledge as owned by your company (as opposed to a consumer). You gain more controls over security items on the devices that will allow your organization to meet certain security requirements or best practices. 

There is really no reason not to use Apple Business Manager because even if you cannot take advantage of the features today, it will set you up for success with company owned devices in the future. 

Have you heard of the new Big Sur OS?  Here's why you need Apple Business Manager before you upgrade to anything newer than Catalina!

6 Reasons to Use Apple Business Manager

1. It’s Completely Free! Every organization that uses Apple devices should get this set up immediately (just ask any Apple Engineer). 
2. Validate company-owned devices. Did you know Apple defaults all devices to consumer-owned? In order for a device to be seen as owned by your organization, you need to set up and enroll your devices in Apple Business Manager. 
3. Manage your devices. While Apple Business manager is NOT a device manager, it does have a record of all orders and serial numbers for your devices purchases under the organization.
4. Managed Apple IDs. This *new* feature allows you to keep business and personal accounts separate so employees can use built-in apps like Notes and iCloud. 
5. To purchase Apps and Books. Apple Business Manager allows organizations to buy Apps and Books for managed distribution which gives you finer control over the data in applications. And if the app/book has a cost, you can easily revoke and redistribute it.
6. To override Activation Lock. The truth of the matter is, people will use their personal Apple IDs to log into their iOS and Mac devices even when they're owned by your company. This will cause an issue if they don't log out before handing in the device during off-boarding. ABM allows you to override Activation Lock in conjunction with your device management software.

So the real question is, why aren’t you using Apple Business Manager yet?

It’s definitely something your business can do on your own, but if you want expert help, we offer a special service to help set up ABM for businesses that want to employ best practices for Apple Technology in business.