Enterprise Connect - Is the 2 day on-site implementation really necessary?

[ooshnoo]

Wanted to get people's opinion on if the 2 day on site implementation of EC is really beneficial or even necessary. We're all IT people here, surely we're smart enough to figure it out ourselves. I mean we've seen the demo many times, and it's pretty straight forward. Management here really doesn't think it's necessary. bAsically, just give us the software and we'll call you if we have problems.

Did anyone here get anything out of the onsite visit?

[blackholemac]

I'm With you...I would rather have access to the software and file a paid case with AppleCare if we ran into stupid.

Unfortunately Apple refuses to sell it that way. That being said check out NoMad as it is striving to offer just that...an open source implementation that performs many of the functions of enterprise connect while being available for free. In our case I still have one more year doing traditional AD binding. I'll be honest I would rather have enterprise connect so I could file a paid support case but I like nomad more and more as I observe it .

[ooshnoo]

Yeah we've looked at NoMad ,but mgmt likes EC because it's directly from Apple and would be supported through our support contract.

[Look]

Pretty sure it's necessary to ensure Apple gets to be the worlds first trillion dollar company, other than that with proper documentation you wouldn't have thought so.

[gachowski]

Come on that isn't fair, The Enterprise support group wrote the app themselves and I am guessing they had an uphill battle to be able to release it to the public. It would not surprise me that corp Apple said they could only if they could promise that there were no support issue and negative feedback. I would also guess that theEnterprise support group feel making sure it's set up correctly and working correctly is the best way to ensure corp Apple doesn't rain on their app.

C

PS You also have to remember that there are tons of Enterprises that don't use Casper and don't particapte with all the cool Jamf Kids.

[dpertschi]

A number of folks have commented already that while the implementation takes little time, the Apple engineers have been plenty available to discuss anything else that’s on your mind while they are there.

Seriously, who couldn't benefit from a day of an SE on-site?

[ooshnoo]

So to answer my own question... my 2 day on-site implementation was done over WebEx and was completed in 90 minutes, with a few questions via email afterwards.

[mm2270]

@ooshnoo Well, that's interesting. So the big question is, did they charge the same amount to do a 90 minute Webex "setup" as they would to have someone travel to your site to do it? If so, that seems like a bit of a rip-off. My understanding of the 2-day implementation was always that it was primarily to cover travel and lodging expenses and the engineer(s) time. I hope you didn't have to pay thousands for a 90 minute Webex session.