In the late 90s, Ben Greiner recognized a need for technical support among creative professionals in the Chicago area. His one-on-one service and technical consultation was very popular with independent artists and small creative agencies who did not have in-house technical management. Ben’s services allowed his clients to focus on being creative and to forget computers, so he named his shop just that—Forget Computers. Besides the size of his clients, their use of Mac hardware meant they didn’t have many service options. “You hardly ever see articles about Mac-based managed service providers,” Ben said. So with a busy phone and a full schedule of house calls, Forget Computers met a very obvious need. But for Ben, he had a clear problem—how could Forget Computers grow and still maintain the integrity of such a personal level of service?
Expanding the niche
Forget Computers is now a team of six specialists, and they manage over 70 clients, totaling about 600 machines. All signs point to more aggressive growth for the company. “We need to grow efficiently, and to that end create a strong foundation for growth,” explains Ben. “Providing exceptional value and customer support to our clients is our core strategy, and Jamf Pro is how we execute on that strategy.”
Before Jamf Pro was in place at Forget Computers, Ben and his team struggled to maintain a reasonable schedule. “We juggled onsite visits with weekend and evening system work,” he said. “And it got really tough.”
Many of the machines serviced by Forget Computers are laptops, and scheduling them to be in one place for maintenance and updates defeated the advantage of their portability. Jamf Pro’s remote management tools allow Forget Computers to execute effective absentee service. The Self Service software portal enables creative professionals to fetch software updates when they need it, and keeps Ben and his team from requiring these clients to be at a specific place at a certain time.
With client locations that range from one user to as many as 50, Forget Computers heavily utilizes Jamf Pro’s “awesome” policy-based deployment and asset management tools.
The niche, enriched
Jamf Pro enables Forget Computers to execute their core strategy, but Ben has also recognized ways to expand his service offerings.
“When new Jamf Pro features are released,” Ben said, “we try to determine if this is something our clients can use—if there is a product we can build from the new functionality.”
By applying their unique brand of service, Ben’s team creates new ways for their clients to forget computers— like reducing energy costs.
“We have a new ‘Get Green’ campaign,” Ben said. “So while we’re updating or installing new software, the Jamf Pro is also changing energy saving settings.”
As the functionality of Jamf Pro has grown, it means more to Forget Computers than new management tools.
In a market where Mac-based managed service providers are rare, clients find the offerings from Forget Computers exciting indeed. In a much- needed market niche, Jamf Pro allows Forget Computers to operate with the high degree of service integrity and attention to its customers that Ben Greiner has come to call business as usual.
Where Are They Now?
All is well with Ben Greiner and his team at Forget Computers, who have continued to develop their special niche and grow as a company. Jamf Pro is still their engine of choice, which is now hosted on Linux—allowing for fast growth and more flexibility in their environment. Ben said his team is always delving deeper into Jamf Pro, constantly thinking about how they can leverage it to provide a more positive experience for their clients.
*Jamf Pro case study follow-Up: March 2012
Growth and customer care
The company has expanded from six to ten specialists; breaking their team down to eight engineers, one administrator and one business development analyst. Despite their growing customer base, Jamf Pro has helped maintain a small support staff by simplifying routine work. In the last year, they have added two engineers and over 200 computers, bringing them to 800+ Macs under management —and that number is steadily rising. Ben said at this point they have the ability to add even more Macs before they need to hire again, putting them in a solid position for client growth. But some things never change; like their desire to provide the highest possible level of support and integrity when it comes to customers. With Jamf Pro, Ben said this just gets easier.
“We’ve been able to spend more time acting as a consultant rather than just going onsite and getting bogged down with the task on hand,” said Ben. “We’ve let Jamf Pro handle those repetitive, mundane tasks and we spend more time with the client. That builds the relationship.”
Looking to the future, Ben said they’ve been preparing for iOS and are seeing growth in this area. They have also recently released RobotCloud.net, a product that uses Jamf Pro to provide Mac and iOS management to other IT professionals. RobotCloud.net allows IT Professionals to leverage the power of Jamf Pro, in addition to the skills and resources developed over the years at Forget Computers.
But their main vision for the future is simple: to continue the company’s steady development alongside the success of the Apple platform in the enterprise, and to leverage Jamf Pro for stronger customer engagement.
“Jamf Pro has allowed us to grow our client base probably more quickly than we’ve grown our own company. We keep getting more efficient, yet we need fewer people. I think we’re a pretty lean, mean, 10-person firm and I don’t think we could do that without Jamf Pro.”
Jamf Pro has allowed us to grow our client base probably more quickly than we’ve grown our own company. We keep getting more efficient, yet we need fewer people. I think we’re a pretty lean, mean, 10-person arm and I don’t think we could do that without Jamf Pro.