Apple Business Manager (ABM) is a powerful tool that lets you manage the Apple devices in your business. It’s not a new app—it was introduced in 2017—but it has become more useful in the past couple of years thanks to improvements to its features and functionality. There are several aspects of ABM that make it a valuable tool for companies of all sizes:
Apple Business Manager
Apple Business Manager is a free enrollment portal that allows you to view and manage your devices, apps, and other business assets that are associated with your Apple ID. With apple business manager, you can upload assets such as apps and ringtones or create custom bundles of apps for easy distribution. When an employee activates their new device on the corporate network, they’re prompted to download any assets from their profile in ABM rather than having to manually download them from the App Store or iTunes Store. This saves time and ensures that all employees are getting the latest version of each application they need at work.
Because it connects directly to Apple’s servers, ABM offers seamless integration between iTunes Store accounts (which are managed by individual users) and MDM profiles (which are managed by IT). For example: if someone purchases an app using their credit card instead of company funds or credentials, this transaction won’t show up in IT’s purchase history unless you’ve set up explicit rules requiring these kinds of transactions to be included there; likewise, when someone sets up their iCloud account without IT involvement (like if they have multiple devices), it will only appear once per device/account within an MDM profile rather than being duplicated every time a user syncs their iPhone or iPad with iCloud again which would increase costs for both parties involved since there could potentially be hundreds of duplicate entries depending on how many devices each employee owns.”
Advantages
With apple business manager, you can:
- Manage the devices used in your company with ease.
- Keep information secure and make sure it’s only available to authorized users.
- Use a single account for all of your devices and employees, no matter how big or small your business is.
Enrolling your company in Apple Business Manager
To enroll in apple business manager, you’ll need to create a new Apple ID if you don’t already have one. You can easily do this by going to https://www.apple.com/.
Once you’ve created your account, you’ll be asked to provide some information about your company—including its legal name and address (as well as its registered tax ID).
If you’re a freelancer or sole proprietor, you’ll need to provide your personal information instead. You’ll also be asked for the name and email address of an additional person who should have access to your Apple ID.
Managing corporate devices with ABM
To manage your devices with ABM, you must enroll them and then manage them.
You can enroll devices in apple business manager by using the “Enroll Devices” action from the sidebar menu in the Admin view. You’ll see a list of your enrolled devices when you select “Devices” from the sidebar menu or click on the “Devices” tab at any time. You can also use this option to bring up a list of all current users and their associated devices, as well as new users who are waiting to be added to an organization’s device management account.
Managing an enrolled device is as simple as clicking on it in any view within ABM (including Device Enrollment Program). A drop-down menu appears with several options: Update Profile—Update device information such as name and model number; Reset Passcode—Reset passcode if lost or forgotten; Erase All Data—Erase all user-specific data from this device; Cancel Action—Cancel changes made since last login session; Permanently Deactivate This Device—Permanently deactivate this device from further use within an organization’s inventory until reactivation is requested again later down the road someday when needed again somehow someday maybe?
Issues with ABM
ABM is not available in all countries. While Apple Business Manager is available in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and some other regions around the world, it may be unavailable if you live elsewhere.
Additionally, some features of ABM—including Apple School Manager—are not available in all regions. If you’re trying to set up a school device with ABM and aren’t sure whether your school qualifies for this feature or any other aspects of ABM’s services and benefits, contact them for assistance with enrollment first before attempting enrollment yourself through another channel such as iTunes Connect or Setup Assistant on an iOS device running v12 or higher (or macOS 10.14 Mojave or higher). You cannot use ACC to manage devices that are not enrolled in the program; likewise, if you attempt to enroll using iTunes Connect instead of Setup Assistant on an iOS device running v12 or higher (or macOS 10.14 Mojave or higher), you will receive an error message stating “This iPhone [iPad] isn’t eligible.”
With Apple Business Manager, you can easily manage your business’s Apple devices.
With apple business manager, you can easily manage your business’s Apple devices. You can do the following:
- Set policies and manage devices from a single place
- Manage Apple services and apps for users—allowing them to install only specific apps on their devices
- Set and enforce user settings for privacy, security, usage restrictions, and more
- Manage devices and content remotely—including wiping (erasing) lost or stolen devices
Conclusion
In summary, apple business manager is a great way to manage your company’s Apple devices. It offers many advantages over other options like Apple Configurator and JAMF. However, it does have some limitations as well.