Microsoft Intune supports Zebra devices with Android Enterprise OEMConfig
Published Aug 23 2019 10:30 AM 27.3K Views
Microsoft

(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.

 

Zebra AE 02.png

 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.

 
 

Zebra AE 03.png

 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

Learn how to get started with Microsoft Intune with our detailed technical documentation. Don’t have Microsoft Intune? Start a free trial or buy a subscription today!

 

As always, we want to hear from you! If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, please visit our page on Microsoft Tech Community.

 

Follow @MSIntune on Twitter

 

 

9 Comments
Copper Contributor

This is great news - we're preparing to roll out around 300 Zebra TC52 devices using Zebra StageNow and Intune. We'll be looking to use OEMconfig along with the newly release firmware for these devices. We're really keen on using the Microsoft Managed Home Screen, but it lacks the ability to be able to provide access to system-installed (sideloaded) apps that are not installed via the managed Play Store (mainly Zebra's Enterprise Browser app, which we're using to deploy Dynamics 365 Retail Cloud POS on these devices). Are there any plans to make apps not installed via the managed Play Store (i.e. sideloaded apps) available to access on the Microsoft Managed Home screen?

Copper Contributor

We would like to have access to Data wedge  after enrolment.

Microsoft

Hey George and Kristian, we are working on it and access to system apps is coming soon. Keep an eye on the blog!

Copper Contributor

Hi! I'm also depending on this. We have plans to deploy an app using the scanner and DataWedge but can't right now since we don't reach it after Kiosk enrollment through Intune. When will this be released? Our deadline is already in a couple of weeks.

 

Also, I wonder if we really have to deploy our own developed apps at managed google play to make them available in the managed home screen. Seems like a non efficient way to make them appear.

@Jessica Yang , any update on this?

 

/Matttias

Iron Contributor

We've run into this same roadblock with CO dedicated devices and Datawedge today during an Intune pilot. 

 

Apparently the system menus show that Datawedge is not available/installed "for this user", which sounds like it relies on user affinity?  Is it even possible for Intune to work around this for dedicated devices without Zebra updating Datawedge first?

 

-Jesse

Copper Contributor

We managed to solve it by adding Datawedge in Intune as a client app of the type "Android system Enterprise app". The package name of the app is com.symbol.datawedge and must be entered in the Package name field. After that the Datawedge app was available in the Kiosk deployed Android unit. Tricky...

Iron Contributor

Thanks Mattias!  That's extremely helpful - I will look into it.

 

Thanks again!

Copper Contributor

Goodmorning all,

 

I will have Zebra scanners that I want to roll out with Intune. I want to use the enterprise roll out with the Microsoft Managed Home Screen.

That is working correctly. I have the apps I want on the Microsoft Managed Home Screen but I can't use the scanner anymore. Can anybody help me with this? What do I have to turn on  or install to get the scanner working again?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

Copper Contributor

@Mattias_Nyln  Thanks for the tip! I've confirmed that did work for us as well.

 

@Jessica Yang  What's the status of making system apps available within the Managed Home Screen?

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