Currently available in beta, the new service is said to support small businesses throughout the device management life cycle
Apple Business Essentials is currently available in beta in the US. (Credit: Apple Inc.)
Apple has introduced a new service in the US called Apple Business Essentials that combines device management, round-the-clock support, and iCloud storage into flexible subscription plans.
The new service targets small businesses having a workforce of up to 500 employees.
Apple has also unveiled a new Apple Business Essentials app to let employees install apps for work and for requesting support.
The US-based tech major claimed that the new service will help small businesses save precious time as they expand.
The service, which is available in beta, supports small businesses throughout the device management life cycle, from the setup of devices to onboarding of employees and device upgrades. All these are handled while providing strong security, secure data storage and backup through a dedicated iCloud account for work, and prioritised support, said the company.
Apple expects to have the service fully available in the spring of 2022.
Apple enterprise and education marketing vice president Susan Prescott said: “Small businesses are at the core of our economy, and we’re proud that Apple products play a role in helping these companies grow.
“Apple Business Essentials is designed to help streamline every step of employee device management within a small business — from setup, onboarding, and upgrading, to accessing fast service and prioritised support, all while keeping data backed up and secure, so companies can focus on running their business.”
IT personnel of businesses can configure settings and apps for groups, individual users, or devices with the help of the ‘Collections’ feature within the new service.
According to Apple, Collections pushes settings like VPN configurations and Wi-Fi passwords automatically whenever employees sign in with their work credentials to their corporate or personally owned device.
Collections will also install the new Apple Business Essentials app on all the employees’ home screen, where corporate apps assigned to them such as Microsoft Word or Cisco Webex can be downloaded.
Apple Business Essentials is claimed to enable IT managers to enforce vital security settings like FileVault for full-disk encryption on Mac, and Activation Lock to safeguard devices that could be lost or stolen. The service is said to ensure that the devices are not turned off by mistake.
Apple said that when employees use a personal device at work, a feature called ‘User Enrollment’ creates cryptographic separation for work data. This will make sure that the data of the employee is private while company data is secure, said the tech major.
Last month, Apple unveiled the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips for the company’s MacBook Pro notebooks.