Apple Business Essentials is a subscription service that brings together device management, 24/7 support, and cloud storage. It enables small business to manage every iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TVs throughout the business.
$8.25
per device, per month
IBM MaaS360
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
IBM MaaS360 is a mobile security offering developed by Fiberlink, acquired and owned by IBM since early 2014.
$4
Per Client
Pricing
Apple Business Essentials
IBM MaaS360
Editions & Modules
Fleetsmith Managed
$8.25
per device, per month
Essentials
USD 4.00
Per Client
Deluxe
USD 5.00
Per Client
Premier
USD 6.25
Per Client
Enterprise
USD 9.00
Per Client
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Apple Business Essentials
IBM MaaS360
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Free unlimited trial for up to 10 devices
Device Intelligence free for unlimited devices
iOS/tvOS devices free during beta period
Fleetsmith is well suited for companies with a lot of Macs, Mac minis, Apple tvs, etc., that are all over the place (different offices, states, countries, floors, remote employees, etc). It makes the management of these central where it would be almost impossible otherwise.
Enrolling bulk devices through the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) is simple, straightforward, and quick. Multiple methods for device enrollment are available, including barcode scanning, email, and manual entry via the platform. App synchronization between Apple Business Manager (ABM) and the MaaS360 platform occurs swiftly. Additionally, app distribution and removal are efficiently managed on the platform.
Fleetsmith does a great job of being unobtrusive on managed devices. After initial deployment, one might never know it’s there except when it prompts to enforce a software update.
Fleetsmith has sensible defaults and relatively few decisions for the administrator to make; for most applications and configurations, it’s sufficient to enforce a minimum version. For more complex use cases, I suggest falling back on Fleetsmith’s ability to install tools such as Puppet and run arbitrary shell commands.
We were told that this was in the works and it would be implemented at the beginning of the year 2019. That has still not happened and whenever we ask about this functionality we cannot get a good answer.
Management of devices that are already in the field—we were told that in order to use Fleetsmith as we would like (pushing apps to devices) we would have to get each device and set them up from a Mac.
After attempts to reset a passcode sometimes a phone will become disabled. When a phones IOS is locked their is no way to successfully send a passcode without wiping the phone
Need an easier way to change the email if you create it wrong and the phone is already deployed. Sometimes the selective wipe does not always work as it should.
Rock solid solution with highly accessible support when needed. We do not want to interact with MaaS360 on a daily basis but when an issue occurs we are always able to find resolution due to the various support resources we have access to
It's very simple to use. Sometimes a little too simple, so it can be tempting to fiddle around or tweaks settings that might have annoying downstream impacts. But it's easy to rollback or disable changes anyway. My only wish is that each option set should have its own deeper explanation about the impact of the options on real-world users or security concerns.
Having years of experience with MDM and experiencing the evolution of the granularity of the functionality MDM's have had to evolve, no MDM is ever "easy" to use. MaaS360 rises to the top however, because zero day changes are always ahead of the competition. A huge benefit with MaaS360 and IBM's approach to supporting these changes is that they seldom change configuration work flows. Competing Vendors always arbitrarily change workflows which requires a significnat ongoing learning curve in order to maintain technical competence
Fantastic support. I have had a few queries on how to go about doing things in the best way and the support at Fleetsmith was always very quick to reply and with excellent advice and detail to solve the problem and lead is into our best use of their product.
MaaS360's phone support has been decent the few times I have used it. In addition the person who on-boarded us has been available for additional questions after the process was over. However IBM could do a much better job in creating a user-friendly search engine and white-paper database to help people find topics. Right now finding info is more based on searching through white papers themselves.
To implement IBM Security MaaS360 with Watson, follow these steps: Set up the platform, enroll devices, configure policies and settings, monitor and manage devices. Implementing it can help organizations to securely manage and monitor the use of mobile devices and related resources in their networks, improving security and productivity for their users.
I include Samsung Knox as a competitor in this field because you can have a similar setup with any Samsung devices purchased through a reseller as well. We have gone down this route for a few devices that have needed to be Android and the difference between the two platforms is night-and-day. Apple Business Essentials Manager is much easier to use and manage.
Intune claims to be free, but if you need certain features you actually have to pay for it. So the "free" claim does not fly. In addition, pushing policies can take hours with Intune. In comparison with IBM MaaS360, where policies are changed within minutes. The usability and versatility of IBM MaaS360 is no match for Intune
Lesser cost for managing device, instead of getting more manpower to do it manually.
Lesser security threats (which will cause financial damage) as all devices are configured according the the company security policies, such as firewalls, media management, app security updates.
MaaS360 has helped reduce the costs associated with managing and securing mobile services, like the cost of IT support and the cost of replacing lost devices.
MaaS360 has helped our remote sales team make sure they always have the latest information hence reducing any miscommunication with the customer.
