Intro to Apple School Manager
Apple School Manager is a simple, web-based portal for IT administrators that works with your third-party mobile device management (MDM) solution so that you can easily buy content in volume, whether your organization uses iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
To learn whether Apple School Manager is available in your country or region, see the Apple Support article Availability of Apple programs and payment methods for education and business.
Below are some of the main features of Apple School Manager.
Automated Device Enrollment
With Apple School Manager, you can automate MDM enrollment and simplify initial device setup without having to physically touch or prepare the devices before users get them. You can automatically enroll devices into your MDM solution of choice, as long as the device has been added to your organization at the time of purchase—from Apple or from a participating Apple Authorized Reseller or cellular carrier, or through Apple Configurator.
Apps and Books
Apple School Manager works with your MDM solution, letting your organization buy content (such as apps and books) in volume, assign it to devices or users, and then install and update that content wirelessly, even if the App Store is disabled. You retain full ownership and control of apps you’ve purchased. You can even revoke and reassign apps to different devices and users—in any country where that app is available from the App Store.
Integrate with your Student Information System (SIS)
So you can quickly create user accounts with school rosters and classes, Apple School Manager also integrates with your existing environment. You can integrate with your SIS either directly or using SFTP. See Integrate Apple School Manager with your Student Information System (SIS) and Import accounts using SFTP.
Managed Apple IDs
Apple School Manager makes it easy to create a unique Managed Apple ID for each user in your organization. Managed Apple IDs are unique to your organization, and separate from personal Apple IDs you can create for yourself. A benefit is that IT administrators manage the services that a Managed Apple ID can access. Also, because Apple School Manager integrates with your existing environment, you can provide Managed Apple IDs to users using their existing organization credentials—for example, Google Workspace or Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD). You can integrate with Azure AD using either federated authentication or System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM), enabling users to sign in to Apple services with their existing Azure AD credentials. See Intro to federated authentication.
Certifications
To help you address any regulatory and contractual obligations, Apple maintains certifications in compliance with the ISO/IEC 27001 and 27018 standards. These certifications provide our customers with an independent attestation over Apple’s Information Security and Privacy practices for in-scope systems. See Apple internet services security certifications in Apple Platform Certifications.
Steps to deploy
Apple School Manager is a central element of modern device deployment for education institutions. See the Apple Deployment Guide for Education to learn more about the steps of deploying Apple devices successfully in your learning environment for both one-to-one and shared deployments.