Switchers: easily switch from Android to Apple devices.

Digitalisation has significantly changed the way service companies operate. Every installation company today works with mobile devices. Work receipts are exchanged for laptops, tablets and smartphones. This certainly has advantages, but comes with a new challenge, as these devices also need to be managed and secured. Koomen Installatie uses Pro Warehouse's Managed Workplace for this purpose.

Pro Warehouse as implementation partner.

Koomen Installatie has been working with Kirema Cloud Technologies for years for their IT solutions. They recommended switching to Apple. Apple does not exactly have more features, it is just faster, safer and more efficient. The consultants for the ERP solution they work with also advised them to switch to Apple.

This is how they came to Pro Warehouse to explore switching from Android to Apple. Andrea Landeweer, director at Koomen Installatie says: 'I had no experience with Apple myself, but it doesn't matter to me what kind of devices we work on as long as my technicians can work well with them and it helps us in reporting to the customer.'

Android tablets had never been centrally managed. This made it an enormous task for the office manager at Koomen Installatie to prepare the devices when a new employee joined. Andrea continues: 'One requirement was really to make managing the devices better and less time consuming.' Based on the customer's requirements, we set out to find a suitable solution. Pro Warehouse provides a complete solution from hardware, software to support.

Managed Workplace.

Thus, we came up with the following solution: 'One of our solutions is Managed Workplace. Managed Workplace offers a complete Apple workplace, including software, device management and support, for a fixed monthly fee. This solution fits in well with all the customer's requirements'.

To arrive at the ideal final solution, questions are asked such as: What do you as a company want to achieve with this implementation? Who are the stakeholders? Which apps should be on it? And... What are employees allowed on the device, and what are they not? Security and usability are paramount when implementing new devices. We then always ask ourselves the question: What can we do to make it as safe as possible and not compromise too much in terms of usability?'

CIS benchmark.

After choosing a suitable solution, the baton was handed over to an Apple System Engineer at Pro Warehouse. Together with the customer, he draws a picture of what the ideal final solution would look like. 'We use the Center for Internet Security (CIS) benchmark to secure devices managed with Jamf. The CIS benchmarks can be found in a downloadable PDF consisting of hundreds of pages of quite complicated technical material. So we do not go through the list with the customer, but based on their requirements, we pick out the most important points. Together with the customer, we go through this list and make sure that we agree on what needs to be configured in terms of security. We then implement these conditions and monitor for checklist items that could potentially lead to security incidents. We then propose a consulting configuration based on the customer's requirements.'

'Basically, we see that it is often the same things that are important within the configuration, such as securing the device with an access code, displaying a message on the home screen showing that the device is remotely managed and the ability to reset the password.

They are often asked to store passwords centrally, in iCloud for example. This is a handy tool for consumers, but you have to be careful with this for business use. You do not want company or document passwords to end up somewhere in a private account. This would constitute a risk for the organisation.'

Save on costs.

Although Apple may seem more expensive at first, you actually save costs. Purchasing the devices is likely to be more expensive initially, but users have much less demand for support and are able to solve problems themselves. It also saves Koomen Installatie's back office a huge amount of time when an employee joins or leaves because the devices are managed centrally and all apps are controlled remotely.

Andrea, director of Koomen Installatie, says: 'What I was worried about is that people would have user problems because they are used to something else. This has not been the case. The iPads work very intuitively. The biggest advantage is that the device is pre-configured. Despite everything being tested beforehand, you do gradually come across a use case that we had not anticipated. Pro Warehouse is doing all it can to resolve it which gives me every confidence that things will work out. You just have to call and you will get help.'

Koomen Installatie is a company with a rich history.

It was founded in 1914 and based in Amsterdam. After WWII, they helped Schiphol and other companies in Amsterdam rebuild in the field of technical installations. During their peak years, Koomen Installatie had 100-150 employees. After shrinking to a company of 10 employees in the 1980s, today they are a company with around 50 employees. Schiphol has always remained their customer during these times. Koomen's ambition is to deliver quality within service, maintenance, renovation, expansion, consultancy and engineering. Technical installations are key to this. The company offers solutions in the areas of air conditioning systems, measurement and control technology, plumbing, electrical engineering and security.

Koomen Installatie's core business is providing field services. Within this industry, it is common to work with worksheets. The advent of mobile devices is having a major impact, making it possible to digitalise work orders.After this, they worked with mobile devices running on Android, but these tablets were ready for replacement. As such, the devices were still functioning, but defects such as short battery life or outdated software were increasingly causing frustration among technicians. This was enough reason to look for an alternative solution.