What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Jamf School is managing devices in our classrooms. I was a campus tech at one point and we used it to help deploy software to our different devices, control where the devices were, and keep track of them. Because we are an iPad and Mac school district, we used Jamf School for device management, classroom management, and some student tools.
In the classroom, we used Jamf School to manage activities that the students were doing to keep them focused and engaged. We would use it to build a classroom for them so the teacher could control what they were doing on their iPads, watch them, engage with them, and work with them as they processed through the different steps that were assigned to them.
In addition to my main use case with Jamf School, we also used it for device management to remotely manage their apps, do updates on all of the Apple devices in the classroom, make sure that everybody was kept up to date, and keep track of where they were.
What is most valuable?
The best features Jamf School offers include the security that it provides and the ease of use of the classroom management, device management, and even deployment when we were doing enrollment and setup of the different devices. All of those things worked together really well.
Regarding the security features I found valuable in Jamf School, we appreciated the security features in regard to what we could enforce for configuring the different profiles on the different devices that we controlled in Jamf School. It allowed us to restrict certain uses and ensure that it was always on a secure Wi-Fi connection and that the end users were not getting to things they were not supposed to. We also had features of being able to set lockdown devices and restrict specific apps. Especially while we were doing state testing with iPads, it was very helpful because we could lock it down to certain features that we would use. Everything was encrypted, so we did not have any issues with concerns about privacy or security.
Jamf School has positively impacted my organization by reducing the hands-on touch of all the devices in all the classrooms. It allows our instructional capabilities for our teachers to do more because we are required to get information out to the students. They have to use certain software programs, and sometimes it is tough for some teachers to be hands-on in a classroom full of twenty-five iPads to ensure that the kids are on the right things. Using Jamf School, we were able to do that from a different level where they did not have to. It was what we called zero-touch deployment. From our side, we took care of it, and then nobody had to touch those iPads. As long as they were powered on, we could do that. We could even do some basic troubleshooting and different initiatives that we wanted to accomplish. It just made a possibility of digital classrooms. We were sure it was safe, we were sure that they could get the kids focused, and it gave them a more efficient learning space for the students to give them exactly the educational apps that they really needed when they needed them, and being able to keep them safe from any online risk of getting outside of anything that was not approved by it. It took the guesswork out of the devices for our staff and allowed the IT team to manage that and take that load off of the teacher's shoulders. It became more of an asset in the classroom, especially as we put in the initiative of no cell phones in the classroom, but this gave the kids the opportunity to still use technology but in a controlled manner, which was very important, especially nowadays.
What needs improvement?
Jamf School is so easy to use. Perhaps because I have been in the technology field for so long, it did not take a lot of training, and the training that Jamf does is amazing. The documentation and behind-the-scenes support is great. There is not really much I would say I would want to see improved.
If I had to think of even a small area where Jamf School could be improved, I think some of our more experienced users that know how to do custom scripting would appreciate it because we do have techs that also use Jamf Pro that get to that custom scripting, and sometimes in Jamf School, there is not really that same layer. If there was something they could do a little bit more to allow those that do have the capabilities to do some of that, that might be useful. It is also that Jamf School is mostly an Apple-first platform, but as our campuses are growing and more Chromebooks are becoming available, it would be nice if Jamf School was as good with the other platforms versus just Apple products.
Regarding app requests within Jamf School, I would appreciate it if there was something in there that would make it easier for the teachers to request apps more effortlessly. Instead of back-and-forth emails, if there was a direct feature for a teacher's app request, it would help. We have not really used that very much. Teachers can browse it, and maybe we are just not using it to the greatest ability, but as long as that app request feature was very easy for teachers to use, we would get more app requests quickly instead of them having to create help tickets.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working in my current field for eighteen years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding Jamf School's scalability, as our district continues to grow, the endpoints continue to grow, and the scalability has not really been negative. It has been very steady. It is built on an enterprise level, so it does not require us to get any additional hardware or anything, and our provisioning does not really change. Since it is distributed through our servers, we are not really having to spend any extra money as we continue to grow. The main thing is making sure that we are limiting the size of what we are pushing out for packages, but other than that, we have not seen any problems with it.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Jamf School is excellent.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before using Jamf School, we tried using MDM managing devices. We had Google Classroom we tried at one time. We tried Apple Classroom. We decided to switch to Jamf many years ago because the district was getting so large so fast, and we needed something more controllable. We needed something that we could get decent, good training with that would be reliable for our tech team to use. That was the reason we decided to go with Jamf. We started out with Jamf Pro and then eventually went down to Jamf School.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment from Jamf School. The return has been worth anything I have ever heard. We did not really get rid of any employees because of it, but it did allow our techs to not have to spend as much time in every single classroom touching every single iPad to update every iPad. If I could put it into a metric, I would say easily we save per campus tech over ten to fifteen hours a week just in maintenance, but not every single week. So let us round it to about forty hours a month saved in time that we have seen so far.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Jamf School, we did not evaluate other options. As soon as we were with Jamf Pro to start with, with some of our higher-up level capabilities, as soon as we found Jamf School, there was no question. Nobody else needed to be researched because we knew that it would be a great product.
What other advice do I have?
Regarding specific outcomes or metrics from using Jamf School, we absolutely saw fewer tickets and time saved because we are not having to have a campus tech go into every single classroom on the campus and touch twenty-five iPads per classroom to make sure that the updates were done. We were able to track down devices faster if they went off of our network and showed up. If an iPad was stolen and taken home, we would be able to lock that down so that once it hit a network at somebody else's house, we would lock it and make it a brick so they could not use it, which prevented some loss. That helped. Having teachers not having to touch things and giving the teachers the ability to lock student screens when there was some acting up saved time of trying to pick everything up and do all that. It was really cost-effective. I wish I could put it into numbers how much time we actually saved, but the saving grace of not having so many tickets of "I need this app installed on iPad one and iPad seven and iPad eight" was significant. We were able to do that much faster. It centralized that. Having that control panel allowed our Apple devices in the district to be maintained by IT and updates to thousands of devices instantly, which saved so much time for our techs.
My advice to others looking into using Jamf School is that the success of implementing it into your environment comes down to doing your prep work ahead of time. When looking to do it, ensure that you are doing things in the correct order and follow the suggestions of the Jamf implementation representatives. They are very good at giving the advice that you need on what to do to prep. Get prepared before you start so you are not spinning your wheels and wasting time once you have unboxed it. Because if you want to have a true zero-touch deployment so they can configure themselves out of the box, you need to have that preparation behind the scenes to get it ready. Also, know that the support that they provide and the training is great, and their customer support will back you up when you need that information. When you are giving this over to the teachers to use, the educators can use it on day one if you do the prep and the setup behind the scenes ready for them. It can cut your IT support tickets down a quarter to a half with those types of tickets if you do the preparation and set it up correctly. Do not just jump in both feet right ahead because it is there. Take the time to set it up correctly before you deploy it. I would rate my overall experience with Jamf School a nine out of ten.