Using Ipads for New employee orientation. Suggestions

Apple offers tools for managing and deploying multiple devices for both business and education environments. Start with these links:

http://www.apple.com/education/

http://www.apple.com/ipad/business/it/

Look into GoodReader. I specializes in showing and syncing PDF files. It handles many other filetypes including PowerPoint.

How destructive will these new employees be? The prior article suggests you get an mdm to manage your collection of ipads. This will make administration easier, but there will be a startup curve. Most of the mdm apps are web browser based so they work on any pc or mac. The simplest solution would be to install GoodReader on all the devices and let it sync your files. This opens you up to the students playing around with setting the background, downloading games, turning off wifi, etc.

PDF readers and Presentation software

GoodReader

-- With GoodReader on your iPad/iPhone, you can read virtually anything, anywhere: books, movies, maps, pictures.

-- sync with Dropbox, OneDrive, SugarSync and any WebDAV, AFP, SMB, FTP or SFTP server

-- The types of annotations that can be created and edited in GoodReader include typewriter text boxes, popup comments ("sticky notes"), text highlights, freehand drawings, lines, arrows, rectangles, ovals, cloudy shapes, text underlines, strikeouts, text insertion marks.

http://www.goodiware.com/

PDF Expert – the PDF handling app for the iPad. "It allows you to markup documents with highlights and handwriting, insert text and stamps, sign and even merge PDFs."

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-expert-5-fill-forms-annotate/id743974925?mt= 8

iAnnotate – turns your tablet into a world-class productivity tool for reading, marking up, and sharing PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint files, and images. Has a secure document edition designed for corporations.

http://www.branchfire.com/iannotate/

Edmodo

"Edmodo makes a teacher’s daily life easier by providing a safe and easy way for teachers and students to engage and collaborate for free, anytime, anywhere. "

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/edmodo/id378352300?mt=8

MDM -- Mobile Device Management

MDMs

Airwatch, Meraki, MobileIron, Profile Manager on OS X Server, or Zenprise

For a comparison see this page:

http://www.enterpriseios.com/wiki/Comparison_MDM_Providers

Airwatch

http://www.air-watch.com/

Apple Configurator and Apple Profile Manager

"Apple Configurator makes it easy for anyone to mass configure and deploy iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch in a school, business, or institution." Limited to Macs. Connects via USB cable.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-configurator/id434433123?mt=12

"Profile Manager lets you configure OS X and iOS devices so they�re set up to use your company or school resources and have the settings, apps, and books your organization requires. Profile Manager creates settings and preference bundles for devices and deploys them to devices via the Mobile Device Management (MDM) service." Requires OS X server.
http://www.apple.com/uk/support/osxserver/profilemanager/

GroundControl is an alternative to Apple Configurator. "Enterprise-scale iOS provisioning, update, supervision, intelligent policies...all in the cloud."

https://www.groundctl.com/

Meraki -- A free MDM [ expect lots of email and phone calls about upgrades ]

Read the product overview. Click on "get started now" to sign up.

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/systems-manager/?ref=YZRzCR

Video's on how to setup and use Meraki.

https://meraki.cisco.com/blog/2012/08/how-to-get-the-most-from-meraki-systems-ma nager/

MobileIron

http://www.mobileiron.com/

Zenprise

http://www.zenprise.com/

"teamviewer allow IOS support with real time screenshots function"

by CESNET

In addition to the management solutions, you could look into Box or Dropbox for syncing the files. Any time you update them, they will almost immediately be available in the updated form on the devices.

As for MDM, we use Casper Suite by JAMF Software.

Regardless of what softwares you choose to use, I recommend purchasing through the Device Enrollment Program (DEP). It makes configuration and management much faster.

we use this for where I work:

https://www.amtelnet.com/solutions/mobile-security/ipad-management-and-iphone-ma nagement/

it was easier to set up compared to some of the other ones we looked at.

Looks good, but they need to update their web site.

Apple iOS versions 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 based iPads and iPhones