Apple Deployment Programs

Apple DEP and MDM – what does it mean?

The Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP) is a free to use Apple Program that allows your Organisation to track and easily deploy iPads and Macs. The Device Enrolment Program, otherwise known as DEP makes the initial setup of your new Apple devices much simpler and allows your I.T. department to pre-configure your devices without even touching them, by using Airwatch Mobile Device Manager (MDM). 

This ensures that, when devices arrive, they can be unboxed knowing they are ready to run for your institution, meaning all users get the same setup on their device.

5 Things you need to know about DEP

Enrolment – firstly you have to pre-register and enrol your school or institution. This enrolment can take a couple of weeks so it’s worth doing even if you think about taking iPads into your organisation.

DEP is NOT MDM – when you enrol devices on DEP you can then link to an external Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution. We recommend Airwatch by VMWare. Using this solution, you can Geofence the devices, push new Apps or builds, block or brick devices and see what users are doing.

DEP is free – you can use DEP as a way to track your assets and, if you have a Sync cart such as Bretford, then you don’t need to pay extra for an MDM solution as you can configure the iPads via the Cart.

HardSoft DEP Authorised – we have been a full authorised Apple Reseller since 2008 and have become DEP authorised, which means we can log your devices for you. Our Apple DEP reseller code is 6DBD7F0.

DEP is not VPP!! – lots of acronyms there, but Apple also offer another Program called the Volume Purchase Program or VPP. If you enrol your organisation into the VPP then you can purchase Apps more cheaply – some are up to 50% cheaper.

Hardsoft recommends and will help you to enrol in both the DEP and VPP programs. These two programs enable your school or college to access cheaper prices for Apps and also manage your devices much more effectively to enable a smoother roll out of your devices.

We also recommend using Airwatch MDM which is either £4 per month per device or discounted to £2 per month for education. Airwatch gives your organisation total control over your devices and makes it much easier to push out new updates and programs without having to get all devices back into the office.