Calgary Public Library's IT team was managing its Apple fleet with the original Apple Configurator 1.0 — imaging devices one at a time, tethered by cable, with no centralized record of which device belonged where. As the branch network grew, the workflow grew more painful with it. Bonita Burchat, Manager, I.T. Operations, reached out to RIPEDA in 2017 to find a better way — with Scott Stanley, Senior Manager, Information Technology, also helping bring RIPEDA into the library.
Used to bring devices not originally purchased through the library's Apple Business Account into Apple Business Manager (ABM).
Devices registered directly with Apple for out-of-the-box, zero-touch enrollment into MDM.
With every device in ABM, RIPEDA was engaged to manage the full fleet — customizing setup, apps, and user experience on every Apple device.
The engagement landed during construction of Calgary Public Library's new Central Library in downtown's East Village — a building later recognized by architecture press and named to The New York Times' "52 Places to Go" list. As the opening date approached, the library needed to expand its device fleet quickly: iPhones for the security team, and iPods for event ticket scanning at launch.
With the ABM foundation already in place, RIPEDA worked with Apple Retail to source and provision the new devices, enrolling them ahead of time so they arrived ready to use. Both device types were deployed and operational before the grand opening.
RIPEDA's first hands-on device management for Calgary Public Library was modest: three staff members needed iMac Pros to meet specific printing requirements. From there, the relationship steadily expanded. RIPEDA went on to manage over 100 iPads, iPods, and iPhones across both staff and patron-facing devices — and eventually the library's entire Marketing and Communications (Marcom) and Events team moved to Mac, more than quadrupling the Mac footprint at Calgary Public Library.
Calgary Public Library operated 19 physical locations in 2017, growing to 22 by 2026 — RIPEDA's device management scaled right alongside that expansion.
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Device imaging | Manual, one device at a time (Configurator 1.0) | Zero-touch enrollment via ABM |
| Fleet oversight | Ad hoc, branch by branch | Centralized under RIPEDA management |
| New device provisioning | Slow, manual setup per device | Devices arrive enrolled and ready to deploy |
| Central Library launch | No provisioning path for new device types | iPhones & iPods deployed and operational before opening day |
“Thanks to RIPEDA, we were able to support devices in a more secure and user friendly way, for both staff and our patrons. RIPEDA even setup and taught us to use our own internal Device Management for our internal IT team and staff devices.”
