The book is closed on 2019, and we’ve enjoyed a restful holiday season over these last few weeks. The end of December provided a well-deserved rest and recovery period for the team. We certainly hope that you were able to find some time to kick back and relax!
As we turn towards 2020, we’re excited about upcoming features for the App47 platform. First up: Group Containers.
We know what you’re thinking: what in the world are those?
Since starting App47 in 2011, we‘ve frequently been asked whether we’re compatible with Mobile Device Management (MDM) systems. We’ve written about this a number of times, and the answer has always been yes: we are 100% compatible with MDM deployments. However, in recent discussion with several customers, we’ve found a way to build on features delivered in 2019 to integrate closer with MDMs.
Let’s start our discussion of Group Containers with the user (where all good product stories should start). The first user in our story is the IT administrator, who typically has two objectives. The first is delivering a collection of internally-developed applications to their constituents (employees or third-party). This is what App47 does well. The second, and maybe more important objective, is to easily onboard those constituents when an MDM already exists or is being deployed.
Currently, asking the user to onboard their device twice doesn’t work when deploying to large, non-IT workforces. Things have to be easy.
To make the second step easier, using the App47 platform, the IT administrator will be able to generate a unique native App Store application (on both iOS and Android) for individual groups. They’ll also have the ability to customize the name, icon, and applications specific to a group. These applications can now be uploaded to the MDM server and pushed to the user’s device, meaning onboarding no longer requires sending emails, clicking on links, or doing other tedious tasks. Once the user is on board with the MDM, they can easily be onboarded with your favorite MAM solution as well.
When the end user opens the App Store on the device the first time, a simple user registration process is presented. Which process is presented depends on how you want the user to be deployed: email only, email and valid password, synchronized with your LDAP/AD password, or integrated with your SSO server. In other words, a wide range of options are available with App47, and we are always open to adding more. In our view, the onboarding process is not only key to security, but key to success. It must be secure and easy to use.
While this is an upcoming feature for App47, and definitely a work in progress, if you have ideas or questions about how this could work for your environment, please let us know via our Contact Us form, or email us at ideas@app47.com.
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Photo by sergio souza on Unsplash
