Case Study – Manchester Metropolitan University

Moof have been working with Manchester Metropolitan University for over 4 years delivering a managed service to the Universities Jamf Pro instance that runs their macOS estate of over 1,000 devices. Matt Hicks, one of the Universities IT managers, was kind enough to take some time to discuss the services Moof provide to the University:

What was the problem that you were trying to solve when you engaged with Moof IT?

When I got involved in the End User Computer project back in 2015, I quickly realised while the university had a good standardised windows platform across the university the same could not be said of the Apple Mac Platform.

After some careful analysis I realised MMU IT simply did not have the capability to manage the existing Apple Mac estate, and the projected growth. One option would have been to hire additional staff, budget permitting, the other was to completely outsource the Apple Mac platform to a third party.

In the end after weighing up the options I decided to outsource the Jamf Pro element of the solution with the internal team delivering the day to day macOS support.

Cost/benefit analysis has shown this to be a sound strategic decision.

What did the initial Jamf Pro project look like?

The University needed to create a standardised macOS platform that could be centrally managed to deliver a great teaching & learning experience.

Initially Moof took the time to understand MMU, what our needs and challenges were and then plan a solution to meet these. They could have just provided an off the shelf service, but what they produced is very bespoke to our needs.

Included in the initial Jamf build was:

• Jamf Pro instance creation
• Over 140 applications
• Bespoke settings & configurations for the applications to allow for a great teaching experience
• Infrastructure configuration
• Network/wireless configuration
• Security settings
• On-going solution for patching

What do Moof deliver on an on-going basis?

They deliver remote Jamf support, an annual Jamf upgrade project and are with us twice a month to deliver pro-active Jamf Pro support.

Part of the monthly support is the patching of a number of core applications critical to teaching and learning. every month Moof centrally updates the apps, release them to a patch pilot group and then once we have verified no ill effects, these patches/updates are released into the wild.

What has it been like working with Moof?

We are now in our 4th or 5th year with Moof IT and have built a really good relationship with them; they feel like an extended part of my team who care just as much about MMU as I do.

We are very happy.

If you’d like to know more about the services we provide either around Jamf Pro or our wider Apple focused IT support services, please get in touch: hello@moof-it.co.uk