Airwatch (or any iPad MDM)- anyone here use or heard of it?
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@Dashrender said:
The device is connected to the internet solely through 3G/4G wireless service. The users (plumbers) are to access dedicated apps and assigned PDFs to get pricing information while in the field. The pricing index can be updated anytime remotely by management.
So back to my original question. I've just tested this with onedrive for biz and it works.
You can download these files to be available offline, so as part of their job, why can't the plumbers download the files when they have signal and the onus is on them to check that they have the right company information to hand before going on site.
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Airwatch is a rather difficult to use MDM In my opinion. Meraki is a much more simple to deploy and manage solution.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are things about Meraki I'd change too, but from everything I've dealt with Airwatch I'd much rather go with Meraki.
Pus Meraki is free
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Meraki is fine for really basic stuff, and free is nice. But in all fairness, we only deployed it after our 1st round of ipads were stolen, so I've not had a chance to test it much.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Airwatch is a rather difficult to use MDM In my opinion. Meraki is a much more simple to deploy and manage solution.
Now, don't get me wrong, there are things about Meraki I'd change too, but from everything I've dealt with Airwatch I'd much rather go with Meraki.
Pus Meraki is free
I don't have an iPad to test with - can you push files to the iPads?
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@Dashrender Yeah, to the bookstore on the ipad.
Specifically using the backpack function of meraki.
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@Breffni-Potter said:
@Dashrender said:
The device is connected to the internet solely through 3G/4G wireless service. The users (plumbers) are to access dedicated apps and assigned PDFs to get pricing information while in the field. The pricing index can be updated anytime remotely by management.
So back to my original question. I've just tested this with onedrive for biz and it works.
You can download these files to be available offline, so as part of their job, why can't the plumbers download the files when they have signal and the onus is on them to check that they have the right company information to hand before going on site.
My question is why? Why put the onus on the end user? Why not have a tool that tells me the file is on the device in question, similar to how use WSUS that tells us workstations have Windows updates on them?
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@DustinB3403 said:
@Dashrender Yeah, to the bookstore on the ipad.
Specifically using the backpack function of meraki.
Awesome - sounds like a possible solution.
Assuming they hire me to look into solving their issue, I'll suggest these options.
and most likely setup a trial or three. -
@Dashrender said:
My question is why? Why put the onus on the end user? Why not have a tool that tells me the file is on the device in question, similar to how use WSUS that tells us workstations have Windows updates on them?
I might be old fashioned, but if I go to site to do a job, I make sure I bring my toolkit.
Conversely, if these guys want to be paid and sell to clients, why would they not check that their tools are working and up to date?
Windows updates are something the end user should not touch or even be aware of. But the tools and data they use to do their job for their role, should be up to them.
If a user turns around and goes "Yeah we lost $500 worth of sale because IT screwed up" where-as the onus should be on them if they want those sales.
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Yes automated tools can help the users, but would your users really walk into a client meeting, open their app, only to find they have none of the data they need whilst standing there in front of the client?
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@Breffni-Potter said:
Yes automated tools can help the users, but would your users really walk into a client meeting, open their app, only to find they have none of the data they need whilst standing there in front of the client?
I've never actually touched these devices or seen them, etc.
I would assume before they were ever assigned to a tech that they had a copy of the price book. Further I would assume that in a good system, if the same filename is in use for an updated version, that the old one would only be deleted after the new one was completely downloaded to the device, then a process behind the scenes would delete the old one and put the new one in place.
In lieu of that, they would have newer file names (probably date based) that would allow the end user to pick the most recent price book. And a process through the MDM could be setup to delete old files after x amount of time.I don't have an issue with having the end user ensure they have access to a pricebook, it just may not be the most recent one.
There are just to many details I don't know to have a continued conversation.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
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.
The new Samsung devices can run apps in containers. ManageEngine's MDM can make the app run in the container also. It's pretty cool.
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@johnhooks said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
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.
The new Samsung devices can run apps in containers. ManageEngine's MDM can make the app run in the container also. It's pretty cool.
Someone posted about ATT coming out with a product that could split the mobile device into business and person, and bill for data use accordingly - what ever happened to that?
I'm sure this employer would care less about locking the device down if they can containerize their stuff and the data usage.
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@Dashrender said:
@johnhooks said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
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.
The new Samsung devices can run apps in containers. ManageEngine's MDM can make the app run in the container also. It's pretty cool.
Someone posted about ATT coming out with a product that could split the mobile device into business and person, and bill for data use accordingly - what ever happened to that?
I'm sure this employer would care less about locking the device down if they can containerize their stuff and the data usage.
Android had a couple apps that could do that (not split the bill though). You could password protect a second launcher with only certain apps and switch back and forth depending if you were at work or at home. I don't know if they still have that or not.
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I'd be tempted to replace the iPads with Windows tablets. A bit more expensive up front, and bulkier, but I feel you have so much more flexibility to control them under Windows.
Spending 10 hours a week to troubleshoot 20 iPads is just ridiculous and a huge expense.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I'd be tempted to replace the iPads with Windows tablets. A bit more expensive up front, and bulkier, but I feel you have so much more flexibility to control them under Windows.
Spending 10 hours a week to troubleshoot 20 iPads is just ridiculous and a huge expense.
Assuming I'm hired to work on this problem, I'll let you all know what the real problems are.
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@Dashrender said:
@Carnival-Boy said:
I'd be tempted to replace the iPads with Windows tablets. A bit more expensive up front, and bulkier, but I feel you have so much more flexibility to control them under Windows.
Spending 10 hours a week to troubleshoot 20 iPads is just ridiculous and a huge expense.
Assuming I'm hired to work on this problem, I'll let you all know what the real problems are.
Well if the Meraki Backback does not work, they could setup ownCloud and make that an allowed app. Then the tech just have to swipe right on the folder to have it sync again.
Not as magic as a full MDM that pushes the files successfully.
