To simplify paid content (Apps / Books) Apple introduced the Volume Purchase Program (VPP), which makes it very easy to centrally purchase and distribute content for employees. The Volume Purchase Program was available in America for some time now, but recently Apple added several additional countries, including the Netherlands. For a complete list of supported countries take a look at the VPP Site ! Once enrolled for the Apple Volume Purchase Program you need to configure the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager for VPP. In this article I’ll go into the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager configuration in combination with the Apple Volume Purchase Program (VPP).
VPP Company Token
Start to sign in to the Apple Purchase Program site and select “Account Summary”, to open the detailed account information and display the “Managed Distribution” section.
Within the account summary page scroll to the section “Managed Distribution” and select Download Token to retrieve your VPP token:
A file will be downloaded, which contains your VPP Company Token. Open the downloaded file with a text editor and copy the content to your clipboard, you’ll need this VPP token within the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager later on. After you retrieve the VPP Company Token we need to switch over to the XenMobile Device Manager console and update the settings.
XenMobile
Start to sign in the the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager console and select Options > iOS > VPP Company Token
Enter the VPP Token you previously retrieved through the Apple VPP Site, to connect the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager with your Volume Purchase Program. Now we are ready to deploy corporate purchased content (Apps / Books) to enrolled iOS devices. Let’s proceed and buy a example application.
Volume Purchase Program
Switch over to the Apple Volume Purchase Program website and select a program you’ll want to purchase. Enter the required (partially) content name in the Search button, select the Media Type / Category and click search. A search list with all possible content will appear.
For this demonstration I’ll purchase 2 licenses for “Beter Spellen 2012”
Browse to “Purchase History” to view corporate content and licenses which are available:
The purchased application will automatically appear within the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager Console.
Applications
Switch back to the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager console and select the Applications Tab. You’ll notices the previously purchased application “Beter Spellen 2012” is already available within the applications tab.
Go ahead and open the application to verify the purchased licenses are visible within the application.
Assign the application to a deployment package so it will be available within the corporate App Store. Let’s take a look at our iOS Device and try installing the corporate purchased application
Enterprise AppStore
On your enrolled iOS device open the Enterprise AppStore and select the application “Beter Spellen 2012”.
Citrix XenMobile Device Manager will push the installation request to your iOS device and within moments the corporate purchased application will appear on the home screen.
Now the application is installed let’s take a further look at the VPP License with the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager.
VPP License
If everything went correct you’ll noticed a license is issued to a corporate user
If you need to revoke the license select the user and click Dissociate.
Confirm the Dissociation of the VPP License and watch the notification on your iOS device.
Summary
With XenMobile 9.0 I’m only able to configure the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager for VPP and unfortunately not the Citrix XenMobile AppController. Hopefully the VPP integration will also be available for XenMobile App Edition customers in upcoming releases. Usually I prefer to display all applications through the WorxHome store and remove the XenMobile Device Manager Enterprise Store. To make use of the Apple Volume Purchase Programs, applications need to be delivered by the Citrix XenMobile Device Manager, so users will end up with two corporate app stores.
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