Is anybody purchasing and deploying iOS Apps CENTRALLY in UK / Europe ?

[Lagogiannis]

Dear all,

I would greatly appreciate any feedback or advice from admins based in the UK or Europe managing iOS devices through Casper. Specifically about purchasing iOS Apps and deploying to managed devices.

As the Apple VPP program is not available outside the US, I was wondering what other ways there are to purchase Apps centrally and deploy to iOS devices.

The problem we are having is that currently users are using their personal Apple ID's to purchase Apps and then claim the money back from their departments. This means that the university ends up paying for the Apps while they are actually owned by the individuals. It also means that we cannot reallocate the software if we need to.

Any feedback or advice is welcome.

Yan.

[Cem]

We are all on the same boat here. We are hoping Apple to speed things up re-VPP in Europe and the rest of the world... Other than that I don't think there is a legit workaround.

[bentoms]

Tbh, I think the re-imbursement model is the way to go.

VPP allows you to centrally purchase apps in bulk, but once those VPP purchased apps have been redeemed they are then tied to the AppleID that redeemed the item.

You cannot revoke & then redeploy a license.

I gleaned the above from a recent conversation I had on the MacEnterprise mailing list.

I think, you may possibly be able to revoke VPP codes when using Configurator in some cart environments... But otherwise it's the above (I.e. for BYOD).

[tkimpton]

I was told by Apple (sorry forgotten his name)at the London JAMF conference to use iTunes gift vouchers. Problem with that is in the UK the tax man will see that as a perk and try and get his piece of the pie like always!

[Lagogiannis]

Thank you to everyone for the replies.

I will definitely look at iTunes gift vouchers, even if it is a temporary fix until the VPP program becomes available.

[TennaUA]

Hello everybody!

Unfortunately, vouchers won't work either because after buying 50 of them your account gets blocked - that is what we were told by Apple.

Again, unfortunately, it looks like there's no solution.

If anybody knows any update on this topic or hears any news, please do let us know here!

Thank ou!

[plawrence]

Contact Apple in advance of purchasing the gift vouchers and they can 'unblock' your domain so you can purchase gift vouchers in large amounts. Thats what we had to do. Speak to your Apple Account Executive or Systems Engineer.