DPG Media
Antwerp, Belgium
An ambitious organization with ambitious goals
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, DPG Media can trace its roots back to the 1800s. Today, it’s a diversified media company with operations in publishing, broadcasting, and digital media. Located in three countries and with over 5,000 employees, they maintain a robust international portfolio such as radio, TV channels, newspapers and magazines with brands like VTM, Streamz, HLN, de Volkskrant and Qmusic.
What this requires is an enterprise management solution to match their ambitions. After realizing their previous mobile device management (MDM) solution wasn’t meeting the needs of their diverse group of brands and industries, DPG Media set a goal to look for a more suitable alternative. After carefully comparing several MDM solutions Peter Loobuyck and Karel Geerts, System Engineers at DPG Media, together with Wim Plat, IT Architect, found Jamf and were engaged to help with updating, improving and creating a future-proof Apple ecosystem.
At a Glance:
- With over 5,000 employees globally, DPG Media has made modern work technology a priority
- 2,100 macOS devices managed with Jamf Pro and Jamf Connect
- Jamf training courses and Jamf Nation, the worlds biggest Apple admin community, makes it easy to achieve Jamf’s full potential.
“When I first saw the iPhone I knew that it was going to be big. The only other thing that gave me the same reaction was Jamf."
Peter Loobuyck System Engineer, DPG Media
The main goal of DPG Media’s Mac devices was to speed up the enrolment, deployment and delivery processes. This is a big challenge, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, considering the vast amount of devices needing to be brought up to date and then managed — all without IT touching the devices.
That’s where Peter Loobuyck says that Jamf has come in to help alleviate some of the stress involved in such a large project.
The ‘Jamf effect’
Peter Loobuyck had tried and tested many different management solutions in previous jobs and had known about Jamf for over ten years; he was immediately convinced that Jamf would be the perfect solution for DPG Media. Not only was he impressed by how easy it was to manage devices globally, but with as big as the organization is, he knew that maintaining security compliance was a big factor to consider as well.
Even before the global pandemic, DPG Media employees were in a hybrid work environment. Mac devices were up to then designed to be bound to an Active Directory to get authenticated. While migrating their Macs to Jamf, DPG Media decided to also move to a secure solution that didn’t require the classic AD bind but does sync password compliance through their iDP solution. Hence Jamf Connect to provide the perfect solution for the modern workplace. Karel Geerts also emphasized the benefits of moving away from AD bound Macs to Jamf Connect, as they were previously running into password sync issues or devices losing their binding, which was causing major pain points for the IT department.
“I would hesitate to say that Jamf and Apple should only be used in the graphic and editorial industries, because Jamf is powerful enough and lightweight enough to work perfectly for any industry.”
Peter Loobuyck System Engineer, DPG Media
A solution for admins and end users
Once Jamf was implemented, the inventory management and realtime reporting capabilities were a great asset to management teams. Instead of needing to constantly ask IT for new numbers, they now get notifications in their inbox with everything they need to run reports whenever they like. For a media group with many different brands, Self Service has also been a game changer. The varying magazines, TV stations, radio stations and other teams can access the resources that are applicable to them and can immediately get what they need to seamlessly continue their work. And not only can everything be tailored to specific teams, but Jamf allows everything to also be branded, making company tools recognizable and cohesive, which upholds the elegant user experience that employees and admins expect.
“If we hadn’t informed users we were migrating their device to Jamf, they wouldn’t have known anything was different, which speaks to the seamless end-user experience that Jamf can provide.”
Karel Geerts System Engineer, DPG Media
More than just management
Another factor Peter Loobuyck notes as a huge benefit of Jamf is the training and networking that goes along with it. Not only does he have a great appreciation for the concise, applicable information that’s covered in the training, but he’s found an invaluable sense of community with Jamf Nation. Being able to talk to other IT admins and technology professionals about wins, pain points and even just to chat has been a crucial reason to love Jamf.
Looking to the future
When the roadblocks and hurdles brought on by the pandemic will be removed, Karel and Peter will start looking at DPG Media’s next steps, which include completing the full migration to Jamf for all devices and potentially bringing a fleet of iPad devices into the fold, which Jamf may help facilitate.
“We’ve only started using Jamf and the possibilities are practically endless. From here we can only go up.”
Karel Geerts System Engineer, DPG Media
See how you too can use Jamf Pro in your organisation for advanced device, app and inventory management
Explore how your company can use Jamf Connect for authentication and identity management.
Want the PDF version of this case study?
Download PDF