(This post is authored by Jessica Yang, Program Manager, Microsoft 365)
Microsoft Intune is delighted to announce support for specialized configuration of Zebra Technologies devices deployed with Android Enterprise (AE). Zebra Technologies is a leading manufacturer of ruggedized devices used by several industries such as retail, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, and more.
Today’s announcement is a result of our continued collaboration with Zebra and Google to support Android Enterprise management for Zebra devices using the OEMConfig standard, in addition to managing Zebra devices on Android device administrator, announced earlier this year.
Before you read on, you’ll want to refresh your knowledge of the OEMConfig configuration designer that we introduced earlier this month.
Getting started with Zebra OEMConfig
Zebra’s OEMConfig application provides management capabilities for Zebra-specific functions. With Intune support for Zebra’s OEMConfig app, your organization can use Intune to manage these settings as you onboard to hardware running Android Enterprise.
To get started, follow the instructions in the Intune documentation for OEMConfig to add Zebra’s OEMConfig app in the Managed Google Play store to your Intune tenant. Then use the configuration designer or JSON editor to customize the settings available to you. As Zebra updates their OEMConfig app, Intune will automatically pick up new management features for Zebra devices as they are released. For details on supported settings and usage, refer to Zebra’s OEMConfig documentation.
Screenshot of Intune console showing Zebra settings in an OEMConfig profile
The OEMConfig standard currently supports targeting a single policy to each device, with basic reporting. You may use the Steps feature in Zebra’s OEMConfig schema to organize your profiles. For example, you can create a Step that configures all network and connectivity-related settings, a second Step that configures user experience-related settings, then order the Steps so that they are executed in the order you want. In the future, we are partnering closely with Zebra to add support for multiple OEMConfig profiles on Zebra devices, as well as improved status reporting.
Microsoft Managed Home Screen
In addition to Zebra-specific settings with OEMConfig, Intune’s existing support for AE Dedicated devices allows you to configure OEM-independent Android Enterprise capabilities. You can combine OEMConfig and AE Dedicated device management with Microsoft’s Managed Home Screen for further kiosk lockdown and custom launcher capabilities. For example, the Managed Home Screen allows you to set a custom branded wallpaper for the device, or temporarily drop out of lock task mode for troubleshooting.
Screenshots of the Microsoft Managed Home Screen.
Next steps
This feature expands the breadth and depth of support for Android Enterprise in Microsoft Intune and enables ruggedized and specialized devices to take full advantage of the Microsoft 365 cloud. The continued partnership between Zebra Technologies and Microsoft Intune allows organizations using Zebra devices to benefit from unified endpoint management without having to modify their current management workflows.
We are excited to see more OEMs adopt this OEMConfig and encourage you to push your OEMs to support this standard, giving you more options for managing Android devices using Microsoft Intune. You can learn more about Intune support for OEMConfig here.
More info and feedback
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