Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage, and protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
Apple Business Manager (and Apple School Manager) is the source of truth for Apple device management. If a device isn’t in ABM, it doesn’t really exist for your fleet is concerned. While the web portal has improved over the years, it is still a web portal. It generally takes me longer to log in, approve 2FA, etc., than it does to actually search. This is why I was excited to come across ABMate recently.
About Apple @ Work: Bradley Chambers managed an enterprise IT network from 2009 to 2021. Through his experience deploying and managing firewalls, switches, a mobile device management system, enterprise grade Wi-Fi, 1000s of Macs, and 1000s of iPads, Bradley will highlight ways in which Apple IT managers deploy Apple devices, build networks to support them, train users, stories from the trenches of IT management, and ways Apple could improve its products for IT departments.
A native GUI for your ABM inventory
ABMate is an open-source tool that wraps the Apple Business Manager API in a native macOS interface. It is written in SwiftUI, so it feels right at home on your Mac. The premise is simple: instead of logging into Apple Business Manager to check a device status, you open ABMate. Because it communicates directly with the new Apple Business Manager API, it pulls data much faster than rendering the official portal’s site.
The app covers the core tasks you likely do every day inside of Apple Business Manager:
- Device Lookup: You can view the full details of a device, including model, color, OS version, and warranty status, just by looking it up via the serial number.
- MDM Server Assignment: If you manage multiple MDM servers (holdovers from M&A, etc.), moving devices between them in the web portal can be a pain. ABMate lets you quickly assign or unassign devices in the app.
- Bulk Operations: You can perform these actions on multiple devices at once without having to build or format a CSV file first.
Because this interacts with your corporate data, you will need to generate an API token in Apple Business Manager to use it. The app runs locally on your machine, so your keys stay with you, but you should always follow your internal security protocols when using third-party tools with production credentials.
You can download ABMate from GitHub. If you find it useful, I recommend giving the project a star to support the developer. Ever since Apple launched the new Apple Business Manager API, I have been amazed at some of the tools that developers are building!
Apple @ Work is exclusively brought to you by Mosyle, the only Apple Unified Platform. Mosyle is the only solution that integrates in a single professional-grade platform all the solutions necessary to seamlessly and automatically deploy, manage, and protect Apple devices at work. Over 45,000 organizations trust Mosyle to make millions of Apple devices work-ready with no effort and at an affordable cost. Request your EXTENDED TRIAL today and understand why Mosyle is everything you need to work with Apple.
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