Apple announced this week that its SMB-focused device management program is open for business. Known as Apple Business Essentials (ABE), it was announced in November to bring enterprise-level IT support to SMBs. It provides a nice security blanket at a time of heightened cybersecurity concern.
Beyond security, it’s all about saving time and headaches for SMBs as they grow their staff and corresponding IT needs (think: smartphones for outside sales reps). It accomplishes all of these goals by letting SMBs enroll new devices and install/uninstall business apps in a secure way.
That includes employees’ own devices – prevalent in the BYOD era – and can cut hardware costs. The program lets SMBs control those apps remotely, and wipe them (along with sensitive data) in cases of employee turnover. It can even parse app management by divisions (think: sales vs operations).
“As these businesses grow, so do the demands on their time,” Apple VP of enterprise and education marketing Susan Prescott told TechCrunch. “If you have more employees, you’re likely to have more devices. And that can mean time dealing with managing those devices, whether it’s set up, being lost, etc. So we felt like we were in a position to help by providing a really easy solution that helps small businesses stay focused on running their businesses.”
Three Pillars
Going deeper on Apple’s program, it stems from the acquisition of Fleetsmith last year. The goal is to manage devices through the employee lifecycle including onboarding, support, and “offboarding.” It’s also built around three pillars which are device management, storage, and support.
Taking those one at a time, device management lets SMBs have corporate-level IT controls for a fleet of devices. This includes setting up users and groups that have custom settings and permissions, such as allowed apps and storage. The latter can be parceled strategically from an SMB’s overall allotment.
As part of the device management system, employees can bring their own devices, as noted. After all, lots of people own iPhones. In these cases, businesses can partition business sections of devices for backup, storage, and security. Then when they leave the company, those sections can be deleted.
Moving on to storage, this is built on iCloud, not surprisingly. Companies are free to connect to services like Google Drive and Dropbox, but only iCloud storage is included in the package. Other services need to be allowed at least, given that SMBs partners or customers may use them.
Finally, the support piece is available to business administrators as well as employees who run into issues. This is essentially offered as an extension of AppleCare+, Apple’s existing device support arm. And onsite service (think: repairs) will be deployed through Apple partners.
Peace of Mind
Back to the Cybersecurity angle , the timing is right for ABE, given the spike in ransomware attacks. Though Hollywood glorifies cyberattacks as advanced coding hacks with shadowy cinematic lighting, it more often happens in mundane ways like “social hacking” lazy employees with unsecure passwords.
In other words, the threat of cybersecurity attacks goes up as SMBs add more employees and thus more points of vulnerability. This can create weak links in the chain that are prone to security breaches. So the bigger the company, the greater the risk… not to mention higher stakes as SMBs grow.
That, combined with security holes from infrequent updates, can put businesses at risk. So a more formalized system of security and software updates is a smart approach for any SMB. And all the doom & gloom over cybersecurity in news media has made them realize that, which will raise demand for ABE.
As for pricing, the program is available immediately and priced based on quantity of devices and storage. It starts at $2.99 for one device with 50 GB of storage. It then steps up from there with the addition of storage, device volume and AppleCare+ (see above). These are minimal costs for SMB peace of mind.
