Apple Mobile Device Management Made Easy With Bushel ~ KrobKnea

Mobile Device Management for Small Business

Bushel—created by JAMF, the makers of the Casper Suite—is a mobile device management solution aimed at a different sort of person whose task is to manage devices in a workplace.

JAMF envisaged a system for people who had IT as a task, not as a career. The sort of person that, perhaps, manages IT devices within a business in addition to their primary role.

Setup, Manage and Protect With Bushel

Mobile Device Management Simplified

Bushel has been designed to make it easy for everyone to set up, manage and maintain their Apple devices. What's more, this can be done at any time and from any location.

Bushel is a simple, intuitive way for non-technical people to manage Apple devices.

Bushel streamlines the setup process so that even the simplest of steps do not become time-consuming and it is no longer necessary to configure devices individually, which is time consuming in itself.

Even mobile devices can be managed, with Bushel, through its remote management functionality. This enables the configuration of work email, Wi-Fi settings, distributing apps and resetting passcodes.

Bushel recognises not only the importance of devices themselves but the importance of company data. This is protected securely and can be removed, with just a click if a device is lost or stolen, ensuring the security of your information.

Bushel Functionality

Device Inventory

Device Inventory gives visibilty to:

Serial numbers
Device assignment
Settings configuration
Installed apps
Device model
Date added
Hardware addresses
IP addresses
UDID of each device

Through a web-based dashboard and control panel, Bushel provides an overview of the status of applied email accounts, security settings and deployed applications.

The device name, operating system version, serial number of the device and more, means no more managing inventory on a spreadsheet. This one is always up-to-date.

Bushel can monitor the storage available across the devices meaning that any storage issues can be addressed long before they become an issue.

When it comes to warranty status and extended coverage availability, Bushel manages those as well. Asset information can be exported to a spreadsheet for easy importing into popular accounting and asset management packages.

Distributing Apps

Bushel enables you to distribute specific apps to enrolled devices

For anyone tasked with managing even a small number of devices, any duplication of work is not only repetitive, it's tedious and it is not a smart use of time.

If it takes 30-minutes to configure a device, having to then configure another dozen devices will take you the rest of the day. No good at all if IT is not your primary role.

Bushel installs any defined free apps on OS X and iOS, from the Mac App Store and iOS App Store, respectively.

It does this all at once to make the managing of apps painfree. For apps that are paid, an enrolment into Apple's Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) means you can distribute and manage these, too.

Furthermore, any app purchased using the VPP can be revoked from one device and moved to a new device.

Email Configuration Made Simple

Pre-configure email accounts across devices and make it easy for you and employees

Configuring email accounts is a bind, even for those familiar with the process. Just entering a username, password, email address, incoming mailserver, outgoing mailserver, and more, takes time.

Now repeat that across multiple devices to take even more time.

Alternatively, have Bushel configure company email accounts across all of your devices. This works with IMAP, POP3, GoogleMail, Yahoo! Mail and even Microsoft Exchange accounts.

Wi-Fi Settings Sorted

Configuring company Wi-Fi settings and distributing to all enrolled devices

Like email, Wi-Fi can be a pain to maintain.

Bushel helps you configure devices to automatically join your secure wireless networks. Supporting WEP, WPA and WPA2 security, there is no limit to the number of networks that can be added through Bushel.

Not only can you save your staff from having to type, and get wrong, multiple secure passwords. You can roll out super-secure Wi-Fi passwords without inconveniencing any of your colleagues.

Device Security

Bushel helps to protect your valuable hardware assets as well as company data

Apple products are renowned for their ease of use and longevity. They also retain good resale values, are desirable in their own right and are an attractive proposition to thieves.

Perhaps more worrying than the cost of the device itself is the cost to your business, and reputation, should any confidential information be compromised following a loss or theft.

Bushel protects your hardware and your reputation as any device that is lost or stolen can be locked remotely or even completely wiped.

Bushel goes further with the option to require passcodes and to control the length of time before any device automatically locks.

Apple Device Enrolment Program (DEP)

For any business, whether it has remote-working employees or not, a key benefit of Bushel is the ability to configure company devices without the need to physically touch them.

Through the Apple Device Enrolment Program (DEP), it is possible to automate the enrolment of a device and to skip basic setup screens in order to streamline the device activation process for new users or for users of new devices.

This means that your employees can be up and running with the minimum of fuss and that frees up your time to manage all of the company devices.

Device Management

Enrol both desktop and mobile Apple devices in Bushel

Bushel is a web-based system that can be accessed wherever and whenever you need to manage any of the company devices.

A fully-responsive web-app, Bushel provides an attractive interface to convey key information to make managing multiple devices a seamless experience.

Pricing

Bushel is free for the first three devices and then US $2.00 per month, per additional device thereafter. There are no contracts or commitments so you can cancel at any time, no questions asked.

You can read more information about pricing and sign up for a free Bushel account at bushel.com.

Conclusion

For some businesses, IT responsibilities are split between employees to save money, regardless of their IT experience. If managing a number of devices at work is a task outside of your core role, you have the potential to save lots of time with help from Bushel—without exhausting the budget.

For the setting up, the roll out of applications, email and Wi-Fi functionality and the management of device security, Bushel's web-based dashboard and control panel does an extraordinarily good job of simplifying complex tasks.

With it's flexible approach on device enrolment and management with a monthly per-device nominal subscription, if you want to reclaim your evenings and weekends and concentrate on what you are employed to do at work, Bushel is invaluable.

KrobKnea