MINNEAPOLIS, May 07, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Managing 10 million devices for schools across the world, Jamf, the standard in Apple management, extends its commitment and leadership in education with a series of advances across its portfolio of products – Jamf Pro, Jamf Connect and the newly launched Jamf School. With a mission of helping schools succeed with Apple, Jamf has an education technology solution for any school of any size in the world, backed by its world-class support and Jamf Nation community.
Jamf School – Empowering Teachers with an Out-of-the-Box Solution
Today, Jamf announced the availability of Jamf School in the U.S., built on proven Jamf Cloud infrastructure with in-product access to Jamf Support. Created from Jamf’s acquired ZuluDesk technology, Jamf School will be coming to other countries around the world soon. Until it is available worldwide, schools outside the U.S. can use the existing ZuluDesk product, seamlessly switching to Jamf School once it’s available.
Jamf School is an Apple education technology solution purpose-built for educators. It wasn’t designed for the expert IT user; instead it was designed with an intuitive interface and workflows to empower teachers to seamlessly manage and use their Apple devices for creating an active learning environment. It joins Jamf Pro to offer schools a solution choice that best fits their needs. With the launch of Jamf School also comes powerful apps, including:
- Jamf School Teacher – The Jamf School Teacher app gives teachers the tools to manage their class and keep students focused. Teachers can create lesson profiles, communicate directly with students and instantly restrict websites, apps, the camera and more. Combined with Apple Classroom, teachers now have unparalleled ability to control and enrich the classroom experience.
- Jamf School Parent – Through this app, parents have the ability to guide their children’s use of apps and features on school-issued devices, helping parents ensure their kids stay focused and get homework done while at home. Parents can also easily set up recurring schedules based on days of the week, so they don’t constantly have to be monitoring usage.
- Jamf School Student – Students are given control over their own devices through Jamf School Student and are empowered to install apps approved by the school. Students can communicate with teachers, store documents in their personal iCloud Drive and more.
With the launch of Jamf School, schools now benefit from Jamf Chat Support, which is available directly within the admin console. This new fast path to getting questions answered is an addition to the already existing ticket support. Schools also have the option to upgrade to Enhanced Support, receiving chat, email, inbound phone support and escalated support with virtual screen sharing, troubleshooting and assistance.
"With Jamf School Teacher, I’m better able to manage students during my class. They are very aware that I'm in control of the lesson and remain more engaged,” said Francisco Quiñones, a teacher at Gordon County Schools. “Using Apple Classroom with Jamf School allows me to work more directly from my iPad and be able to access the screen view and other functions easily. I can instantly restrict access, monitor student screens and make sure they’re getting the most out of the lesson.”
Jamf Pro – Helping Complex Schools Scale with Powerful Workflows for IT
Jamf Pro is the market leader for IT administrators in education, with a range of powerful workflows and customizations. It has differentiated Mac management functionality, in addition to iOS and tvOS capabilities, and is recognized for its scalability, which is why hundreds of education customers are successfully managing deployments exceeding 10,000 Apple devices. Jamf’s increased investment and focus on education brings new key features to Jamf Pro over the next quarter, including:
- App request workflow – This workflow will provide teachers with a streamlined way to find and request new iOS apps for their classrooms. Teachers will be able to request an app right from Jamf Self Service, and IT will be immediately notified of the request, empowering teachers to get the apps they need faster.
- Jamf Parent app – As with the Jamf School Parent app, parents will have the ability to guide their children’s use of apps and functionality to ensure their kids stay focused while using their school-issued devices at home.
- Google secure LDAP workflow – The Jamf and Google secure LDAP integration will allow IT to leverage information in Google Cloud Directory within Jamf Pro to streamline the user login experience and target management tasks and the deployment of apps, books and security profiles.
- Leverage School Information System in Apple School Manager – Schools will be given the ability to leverage information stored in Apple School Manager, which originates from a school’s Student Information System – like grade, class or teacher information – to further target management tasks and the deployment of apps, books and security profiles. This capability is coming to Jamf School as well.
Jamf is in lockstep with Apple and is proud to provide day-zero support across its products so teachers and students are able to use Apple’s new features the moment they become available. With Apple’s latest release of the Classroom app, teachers can now manage student devices using their Mac, regardless of what kind of Apple device a student is using. Being able to support these types of new features across both Jamf School and Jamf Pro better empowers teachers and maximizes student engagement in the classroom.
“My department has four full-time employees, and we manage over 9,000 iPads as part of our one-to-one program,” said Brian Messinger, district coordinator of classroom instructional technology & student achievement, Sewanhaka Central High School District. “Jamf makes it easy for us to onboard and refresh devices for our students and teachers with zero touches from IT. Success at this scale would not have been possible a few years ago, and we’re very grateful to have a great team at Jamf behind us.”
Jamf Connect – Streamlining the Provisioning Process
In addition to Jamf Pro and Jamf School, Jamf also offers Jamf Connect for macOS to simplify the device provisioning process with a streamlined way to manage accounts and authentication in organizations that leverage cloud identity credentials, including the recently announced integration with Google Cloud – the dominant identity provider in education.
This summer, it will become available for iOS and integrate with Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Okta and Google Cloud, providing a seamless login authentication process and a fast, low-risk and predictable way to distribute iPads on the first day of school. Devices can be setup and configured before delivery, so once the student powers on and signs in with the school’s cloud identity provider via Jamf Connect, apps and settings are available in seconds without the risk of overloading the network.
To better serve its education customers, Jamf Connect now offers education-specific pricing.
About Jamf
Jamf is committed to enabling IT to empower end users and bring the legendary Apple experience to businesses, education and government organizations via its product portfolio and the 75,000 members of Jamf Nation. Today, more than 26,000 global customers rely on Jamf to manage 13 million Apple devices. To learn more, visit: https://www.jamf.com.
Media Contact:
Rachel Nauen
Jamf
(651) 587-8927
Rachel.nauen@jamf.com