Apple School Manager (ASM) is a web-based portal which allows school IT managers to deploy and configure Apple devices (Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPod and Apple TV) from a browser. While Apple provides some built-in integration with your student information system (SIS), those users will have Apple ID’s created with new account credentials. Apple provides for federated authentication to allow students and teachers access to Apple devices with their school domain credentials. Your SIS and AD data need to meet certain requirements to take advantage of federated authentication.
The ReadWrite Digital Integrator ASM Agent automates the integration and ongoing update of data from your SIS (e.g. PowerSchool) and Active Directory (AD). This facilitates federated authentication and ensures students and teachers can access their device using the same credentials stored in AD in conjunction with roster data from the SIS. It bridges the gap between ASM federated authentication requirements and your data. Some of the benefits of the ASM Agent include:
- Unattended data integration. Set it and forget it. Once the job is configured, it just runs. Email notifications will let you know if it requires your attention.
- Email addresses do not need to be in the SIS. In most cases, AD will be the source of truth for email. The ASM Agent will combine AD email for students and staff with SIS data for import into ASM. If all or some emails are in your SIS, that’s ok too.
- Data validation. ASM validates data and the import will fail under certain circumstances. This is common in areas like the import of classes. The ASM Agent validates data before sending to ASM, ensuring successful imports.
- Custom rules and data sources. Sometimes your data rules and sources are not neatly aligned with a standard configuration, the ASM Agent can accommodate any such needs.