Badaz52 Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 Hi, Just after a little bit of advice really. I have been asked to take on the management of some 90+ iPads that we have on site. The iPads were originally managed by a performing arts technician who originally just managed iPads for Performing Arts but he allowed this to expand to other departments in the school in my opinion this was very short sighted as there are dozens of issues that now need addressing. The management of these devices was never the task of the network support team and as such was not factored into our job descriptions as an area of expertise that we would need. The performing arts technician has now left and so the management of the devices is now falling to the network support team as they are not replacing him. Now I know that "technically" as it is ICT it should be managed by there are a few issues that I believe need to be addressed first. 1. We need adequate professional training 2. The member of staff employed was paid a salary for administering Apple Products specifically, we are expected to do it for no additional pay 3. The member of staff spent 80% of his time managing the iPads which was around an additional 20 hours of work, we do not have the resource for this Just wondering how you would address this?
themightymrp Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 Was there any kind of MDM solution used for the management of these? Or was the previous person doing it all manually i.e. plugging each ipad into a PC/Mac to do updates etc? One of the schools I look after got 27 new iPad Airs over the Summer so I signed up for Meraki MDM management, its been a bit of a learning curve but management is much easier than I was anticipating - and they've already added support for iOS 9
Badaz52 Posted September 21, 2015 Author Posted September 21, 2015 Was there any kind of MDM solution used for the management of these? Or was the previous person doing it all manually i.e. plugging each ipad into a PC/Mac to do updates etc? One of the schools I look after got 27 new iPad Airs over the Summer so I signed up for Meraki MDM management, its been a bit of a learning curve but management is much easier than I was anticipating - and they've already added support for iOS 9 No MDM solution at all, it was all done manually without any connection to the AD curriculum network other than a dhcp lease.
Joanne Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 To be honest once you set them up properly, you will only need a few hours every couple of months when apple update iOS, they pretty much manage themselves once on an MDM. Although I'm buying an apple server for the 48 we have here mainly for app cache-ing.... Just tell them you'll do it but it might take a while. Best to do it properly and slowly than fast and not right. I've done a thread which may or may not help because of my incoherent ramblings about iPads... http://www.edugeek.net/forums/how-do-you-do/143645-ipad-setup-idiots-guide.html GOOD LUCK!
Badaz52 Posted September 21, 2015 Author Posted September 21, 2015 Is Meraki free always? or is it just for 100 devices?
Joanne Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 just 100 devices. It used to be free for as much as you could cram on it up until early this year.
themightymrp Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 It used to be free always, now its only free for up to 100 devices as you say. If you come in at under 100 iPads then I highly recommend Meraki. If not you may want to look into Apple Configurator but I think that needs to run from a Mac? Not really sure of those solutions. Any chance you have Office 365? They added an MDM option recently....
Badaz52 Posted September 21, 2015 Author Posted September 21, 2015 The Mac which is used to configure the iPads does use Apple configurator. We do have office 365 though but I wasn't aware of any MDM capabilities in it. I will have a look. Would you say it is reasonable for me to ask for a pay rise once I have got all of this in hand given that someone was employed specifically to do this previously and hasn't been replaced?
themightymrp Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 I don't think its unreasonable to ask at all, especially as you say they employed someone to handle it! In the Office 365 admin centre, look down the left hand menu for 'Mobile Devices'
CyberNerd Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 Would you say it is reasonable for me to ask for a pay rise once I have got all of this in hand given that someone was employed specifically to do this previously and hasn't been replaced? If you are lucky you will get some extra hours, but I can't see you'd get a pay rise to look after more computers. HR doesn't work that way. You are employed at a particular level mostly due to the amount of responsibility that you have. The amount of responsibility doesn't increase because the workload increases. If I was you I'd try and argue for extra hours (in the team, or by overtime), or drop something else.
Ephelyon Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 (edited) @Badaz52, I think I may know where you are... Testing: has "a certain person" mentioned in our e-mail correspondence in March put you up to this? [EDIT: Confirmed via PM.] Edited September 21, 2015 by Ephelyon
Ephelyon Posted September 21, 2015 Posted September 21, 2015 Just thinking about this in NJC terms... @CyberNerd is (unfortunately) correct in that increased workload isn't traditionally seen as increased responsibility in some JE schemes including this one, although this can sometimes be challenged by reference to the percentage of time expected to be allocated to particular tasks (this is normally on the front page of your JDQ unless it's a really old one, which AAAE5012 is if you're still on that). None of that stops you from querying it on a "common sense" basis by presenting information on your team's current workload and demonstrating how it would be affected (suggesting that you might need to drop something else, as mentioned above, is a possibility here too). In these trying times staff must surely do their best to cope with increased workloads - not replacing people who leave is a very common strategy in use these days and is understandable - but there is always another side to that and the employer should have regard to the amount of time that is actually available to colleagues, even with all the will in the world. Now, if the school can afford the non-free edition of (say) Meraki, that would make things a great deal easier. Appropriate professional training should also be provided as a matter of course. You'd see an initial spike in set-up time but the devices are a good deal easier to manage once the initial onboarding process is complete. That first block of work could perhaps be scheduled for the upcoming half-term holiday. If the school is unwilling to budge on both of these positions then you may need to seek union advice.
Badaz52 Posted September 21, 2015 Author Posted September 21, 2015 Thanks for the advice Ive a lot to think about. With regards to the MDM side of things, at the moment Profile Manager is used to lock down settings on the IPads. Do we still need to use this or does the MDM of choice remove this need? Also is MDM suitable for school owned devices too because it seems fairly BYOD by the looks of it but I literally have no knowledge of how these things work lol
themightymrp Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 I use Meraki only for school owned devices at the moment. It has all the settings for locking things down on the iPad, just like Profile Manager or iPhone Configurator (what I used to use). One feature I like is that I can push out the SSL certificate to our iPads to allow them to work with our schools web filter so that they don't keep popping up with certificate errors!
Badaz52 Posted September 22, 2015 Author Posted September 22, 2015 So in your opinion how would you handle this, would you flag up the increased workload first before agreeing to take training or would you do the training first? bearing in mind I have priced the training with accreditation of course which is coming out at nearly 4k lol
Joanne Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 You really don't need training.... especially not accredited stuff. If you go to them with that proposal they will laugh at you! I don't understand why people make a big deal out of iPads... yeah they are a pain to set up, but once it's done they require very little management.
Ephelyon Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Package it up. Workload is essentially a time issue and training takes time too. You can fit it all within the same context of the impact on the team. It may well end up minimal after some initial outlay, but then again - depending on how they're used within school - it might not. If staff are wanting new apps every week and the trolleys are never left charging properly, it can quickly become a pain in the backside...
Diello Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 You really don't need training.... especially not accredited stuff. If you go to them with that proposal they will laugh at you! I don't understand why people make a big deal out of iPads... yeah they are a pain to set up, but once it's done they require very little management. It's an additional OS, on a new type of device, with an eco-system that doesn't integrate easily with enterprise systems - it's exactly the sort of system I'd recommend insisting on training on before deploying. Half the problem in the past that School's ICT Departments have been accused of (rightly or wrongly) is winging things without proper training and due process. If the CPD Co-ordinator laughs at that sort of proposal for training, then they've made their choice re: the importance of the product. The big deal is a consumer product is being forced into enterprise environments with the attitude that ICT will just "magically" make it all work.
Joanne Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 It'd be cheaper to get a company in to set them up than send someone on 4k worth of accredited training is my point. From a SMT perspective, it would look ridiculous to spend that amount of money in one go. Just a warning is all, to not go for accredited! In my other school where I spend about 3 hours a week, I wrote instructions for a TA to set up the ipads. They aren't set up perfectly and I need to go over them and add them all to Meraki, but there are other ways around things. Just trying to give it a positive spin ya know?
Ephelyon Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Out of interest, could I ask where that £4K figure is coming from?
Badaz52 Posted September 22, 2015 Author Posted September 22, 2015 Diello is spot on, ICT departments are expected to work their magic regardless of how well the device can be integrated into the network. The problem here is the iPads we already have haven't been thought out or implemented all that well mainly because it was never a task assigned to the network team so teachers were allowed with some assistance from technician who was managing them to do what they like. The 4k figure is based on numerous training courses totalling 11 days: 1. Active Directory Open Directory 2. OSX Support Essentials 3. OSX Server Essentials 4. iOS Deployment in the Enterprise 5. iOS Support and Troubleshooting The accreditation is really for me, why should I take on an extra area of expertise and responsibility and not get something out of it?
Ephelyon Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 The first three would cover the Magic Triangle setup (plus other bits and bobs), which is only really needed if you're integrating Macs into a Windows network and you need to go for full-blown AD authentication and login on the desktop, mapping home drives and locking down the UI etc. Number 4 would be the most pertinent, with 5 as a nice-to-have on the side.
Valsh Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 As a few others have said, there's not much 'know-how' needed to manage ipads. It can just be time consuming, especially if you don't have a good MDM solution in place. Who doesn't love Apple Configurator?!
themightymrp Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 I agree with @Ephelyon - unless you have Apple Mac desktops and/or servers, you'd only get the benefit for the moment from options 4 and 5. Not to say the first 3 wouldn't be nice to have though! I have the second one purely because we have one small room of Macs for the Media department. But they are not entirely linked into our AD so never went for the Server Essentials.
Joanne Posted September 22, 2015 Posted September 22, 2015 Who doesn't love Apple Configurator?! LOL!!!
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