What is VIP IT, Inc.?
Name: VIP IT, Inc. |
VIP IT, an IT consulting and managed services company based in Los Angeles, has grown significantly since its inception nearly a decade ago. What started as a scrappy startup, with Justin working as employee number one alongside the company confounders, quickly evolved into a mature business.
Today, VP IT focuses on high-touch IT services for modern customers. Specializing in Office 365 implementation, mobile device management, cloud and hosted IT services, endpoint management, and more, VIP IT serves sectors like financial services, e-commerce, and next gen. Despite its growth, the company remains agile and adaptable, continually striving to provide innovative and efficient solutions for its clients.
Goals
Seeking a mobile device management solution was driven by the needs of one of VIP IT’s key clients, a fast-growing e-commerce business and women's retailer. This client faced significant challenges with its Apple devices — specifically iPads across a handful of retail locations, which were managed using a single shared Apple ID. As one can imagine, this setup led to complications, eventually resulting in bricked iPads that could not be updated. After months of manual recovery attempts through Apple and extensive headaches for both the VIP IT team and the client, they recognized the need for a more streamlined and effective way to manage these devices.
When the team at VIP IT started its search for an MDM solution, they quickly realized that most providers operated within the limitations set by Apple. This led them to focus less on the specific features that each solution offered and more on other important buying factors. One thing that immediately stood out with SimpleMDM was its up-front per-device pricing, which allowed the team to easily calculate and anticipate costs as clients grew. Other key factors in their decision included the availability of public documentation, making it easier for the team to foresee potential challenges and how to solve them, as well as SimpleMDM’s responsive and continuous support.
“The last thing that really made us go in with SimpleMDM was the fact that support was so responsive. [...] I remember when we were talking to support, we were getting responses from the same guy over and over again. And that was nice to have some kind of continuity to support.”
Solutions
VIP IT initially leveraged SimpleMDM to streamline and enhance device management workflows for its women’s retailer client as it began rapidly growing at both the corporate and store levels. When first implementing SimpleMDM, the VIP IT team proposed a complete overhaul of the retailer’s existing initial deployment process. Reflecting on this decision, Justin acknowledged that if they hadn’t made this change when they did, it would have been much more difficult for the retailer to scale at their intended pace.
Previously, when VIP IT purchased laptops from third-party retailers, it received the devices, set them up with a temporary Apple ID to download applications, and configured them before shipping them out to end users. This process could take up to two weeks, depending on the user location and device availability. With SimpleMDM, VIP IT streamlined the process using Apple’s Automated Device Enrollment. Now, devices are drop-shipped to end users with only the necessary configurations and settings.
When users receive a device, it is virtually ready to go. VIP IT has preconfigured settings and applications based on the predefined group the device joins at the time of enrollment. The company also created a preapproved list of applications automatically deployed to the devices. This process eliminates the need for manual application installation and the hassle of managing paid licenses with personal credit cards and Apple IDs.
When asked about other SimpleMDM features the company uses regularly, Justin highlighted Munki as invaluable for its automated Mac deployments. VIP IT uses Munki to deploy custom applications not available in the App Store or within the Shared Apps directory. This includes its remote management software and specific configurations for permissions related to it.
“Munki is amazing. It’s been really nice for our automated Mac deployments. Munki has been one thing that has been cool, especially as we’ve figured out how to work with it more.”
Outside of managing devices for its key retail client, Justin mentioned working with a few smaller retailers using iPads across multiple locations. For these retailers, VIP IT simplifies the setup process by requiring only a passcode and providing users with support information. For iPads used as retail kiosks, VIP IT configures Single App Mode to restrict usage to a single application. Additionally, the team leverages location tracking features for effective monitoring and troubleshooting, enabling them to remotely wipe and redeploy iPads if they are lost or stolen.
Since leveraging SimpleMDM and its powerful features to manage Apple devices, VIP IT has drastically reduced setup time and manual intervention, making device deployments significantly more efficient for both its team and its clients.
“Time is the biggest thing that SimpleMDM has given us. What used to take hours to set up a computer, we've been able to reduce significantly and turn those deployments into a one and done.”
To see how SimpleMDM can help you streamline and simplify your Apple device management workflows, start a free 30-day trial or request a demo.
