School Mobile Phones

[Mark182]

Going to cut a long story short, managing the school issued mobile phones to staff has landed on our desk. Looks like we are going to have around 20 - 30 phones after a review by SLT. Sometimes we can have a high turn around of staff and someone was meant to keep on top of the mobile phone address book on each phone. There is no way we are this manually.

 

We have been offered MaaS360, that's a full on MDM solution and a little pricey. Looks like all the phones will be smartphones (Iphones) - So my question is what does your school do you keep the address book up to date?

[TechMonkey]

We don't is the simple answer. We have an internal phone list that we keep up to date and people control their own phone and address book. We are looking at MobiControl by SOTI to manage devices that was very economical and I imagine that can edit address books.

 

Would it not be easier to add the mobile phone to the AD details and then when they hook up their Exchange account (presuming you use Exchange) it would be there?

[Mark182]

We don't is the simple answer. We have an internal phone list that we keep up to date and people control their own phone and address book. We are looking at MobiControl by SOTI to manage devices that was very economical and I imagine that can edit address books.

 

Would it not be easier to add the mobile phone to the AD details and then when they hook up their Exchange account (presuming you use Exchange) it would be there?

 

 

Office 365 here, although we are mid way through setting up our AD link upto office 365.

[rad]

Not sure if this works but a Google gives this option

Transfer contacts using iTunes

 

Transfer contacts using iTunes

If you don't use iCloud, you can use iTunes to transfer contacts from one iPhone to another.

 

Plug your old iPhone into your PC/Mac and open the latest version of iTunes.

Select your iPhone from the menu bar, click 'info' and make sure 'Sync Contacts' is enabled.

Click 'Sync' to sync your iPhone and all its contacts with your PC/Mac.

Once this is complete, unplug your old iPhone and replace it with your new iPhone.

In iTunes, select your iPhone from the menu bar, click info and make sure that 'Sync Contacts' is enabled.

Scroll down to the 'Advanced' menu, and make sure 'Contacts' is selected under the 'Replace information on this iPhone' submenu. This will wipe any contacts currently stored on your iPhone and replace them with your PC/Mac contacts, which should be the contacts from your old iPhone if you followed steps 1-3.

Click Sync to apply the settings and transfer contacts to your new iPhone.

[Mark182]

We did look at that but doesn't seem to be dynamic as we don't want the phones back every two minutes.

[sted]

i know its not the way youre supposed to do it but if you arnt using them for apps couldnt you just set them all up on the same itunes account and wouldnt contacts sync between them without any intervention?

[Mark182]

Not a bad idea but we don't have an IPhone ourselves, can you update the contacts via iTunes?

[sted]

Not a bad idea but we don't have an IPhone ourselves, can you update the contacts via iTunes?

probably

[Blue_Cookeh]

We give out the cheapest iPhones (5s last time I had to get some) we can get, on EE business contracts. These have Meraki MDM and are enrolled in DEP in case they're ever lost or stolen. Address books are kept up to date through our Exchange GAL.

[rad]

If you link them to the same iTunes account, then a facetime will go to all 30 of them, the sync of photos (if they turn it on) could be seen by all and text messaging wont work.

 

If you did this route, you can add contacts via iCloud.com

[Edu-IT]

Just out of interest, who do you issue mobile phones to in order to have 30?

[forkies]

Sip client into your phone system?

[Mark182]

Just out of interest, who do you issue mobile phones to in order to have 30?

 

Don't get me started on that. We got that number down as it was far higher. SLT, heads of departments, PE, P&G and x 2 of the ICT support staff have phones.....

[Edu-IT]

Don't get me started on that. We got that number down as it was far higher. SLT, heads of departments, PE, P&G and x 2 of the ICT support staff have phones.....

I’d love to know the justification behind heads of department needing them but its probably not for discussion. I imagine each one is costing about £10 a month too.

[Accura2k7]

Our class phones are all android, logged in to one accounts and syncs the Google address book, changes are easy!