Crispin Porter + Bogusky

Constant innovation

The award-winning ad agency of Crispin Porter + Bogusky—based in Miami, Florida—is a self-described factory. Not one that cranks out mass-produced product, but rather one of constant innovation where each new “product” defines them and their future. They succeed by taking creative risks that few others are willing to take and they push technology as far as it can go.

David Norris, the Macintosh Administrator at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, describes a few of the technology challenges facing their IT staff, including the management of scores of network printers and supporting over 400 mobile users—some of whom are on the road for months at a time.

Mixing and matching printers

Crispin Porter + Bogusky has a large number of printers that serve a wide variety of users. Managing them efficiently had become difficult.

“When we first started using our own method for handling network printers we felt like we had it under control, but after a year of aches and pains we decided to implement a complete Mac client management system for a more holistic approach to our environment. We chose Jamf Pro,” said David. “We’ve been really impressed with Jamf Pro’s ability to push out printers. We often rearrange and repurpose printers depending on our needs. Jamf Pro helps us roll out all of the changes with the forgiveness of letting us undo anything along the way.”

David and his team have regained the ability to deploy printers strategically. This helps them balance the needs of the entire staff with the needs of those watching the budget. David also looked to Jamf Pro to meet the challenge of supporting so many remote end users.

Catching up with mobile users

“Three-quarters of our users are on laptops and some are traveling for months at a time,” said David. “Even though we asked other software developers to include a central server approach in the next release of their management products, they limited their improvements to pushing software. Jamf Pro is the only product that responds to all our needs. Jamf Pro not only pushes software, it allows us to support printers, work with UNIX commands, and has a complete approach to scheduling support and maintenance within a central server like we wanted. Jamf Pro is simply the best—if it wasn’t we wouldn’t use it.”

Now Crispin’s remote end users obtain all of their updates on their own when they log in. IT no longer has to chase down users or manually track who’s current, and users no longer have to announce their return to the office to the IT department.

"Our biggest challenges are that we work as if we are a 24-hour operation, that a majority of our users are mobile, and that we have users on the road for months at a time. We’re excited about Jamf Pro because by using policies, all of our users are able to receive printer, software, and security updates at login. It’s really great. No more scheduling nightmares—they’re getting updates themselves."
— David Norris