New starters now get a fully configured Mac automatically, and Tone can recover and reset any device centrally ... even ones locked by former employees.
Like many creative agencies, Tone had bought its Apple Mac equipment ad hoc over 15 years, with no central system for setup or management. Every new Mac meant a manual setup from scratch: installing apps, configuring settings and getting the machine ready one step at a time, with no consistent baseline configuration and no central record of how devices were set up.
That lack of a central system created a bigger problem, and one that's common in agencies with informal handover processes: when employees left the business, some devices stayed locked with no record of the passwords, leaving Tone unable to access or reset its own equipment.
Kit gets bought project by project, freelancers rotate in and out, and setup often falls to whoever has some free time rather than a dedicated IT process.
That works fine for a couple of Macs. Past that, it starts costing real time on every new starter and creates a security gap every time someone leaves.
It also increases the time to productivity for a new hire if they’re left hunting around to figure out what they’re missing and get it installed.
Tone's situation is a fairly typical starting point for a design or creative agency at this stage of growth.
I worked with Tone's team to define exactly what a new starter needs on day one. From the apps and cloud services they use, to the fonts, printers, wifi and browser bookmarks that make a machine feel ready to go. Together we built a baseline configuration and rolled it out through Mosyle MDM, one of the leading Apple MDM platforms.
We started with a small pilot of three new starters before extending it across the rest of the business. I then trained the team so they could run the day-to-day themselves once the system was in place.
The rollout took three weeks from pilot to completion. Tone now run around 15 Macs on the system, with more being added as the team grows. They're self sufficient with me on hand if they need assistance.
"It has been a pleasure working with Jon. His knowledge and support mean that we now have a consistent, simple and streamlined onboarding process for new devices.
Throughout the project, his willingness to guide and answer any questions has given us the ability to manage the day-to-day ourselves.
Turning what felt like a complicated system into something we now feel confident using.
The whole experience has been efficient, professional and hassle-free, and we'd have no hesitation in recommending him."
If your business uses Apple devices, like Macs, iPads or iPhones and you're managing them one at a time, let's talk about how Device Management could save you time and money.
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