Apple Deployment Programs
Volume Purchase Program for Education Guide
Overview
The Volume Purchase Program (VPP) makes it simple to find, buy and distribute apps and selected books !
in bulk for your institution, so you can provide great content to your students, instructors and staff
members. And through the VPP Store, you can get special pricing for certain purchases of 20 or
more apps.
Program features
Volume purchases
The VPP is a scalable solution for managing your institution’s content needs. Choose from thousands !
of apps in the App Store or the Mac App Store across a broad range of categories, from geography and
mathematics to science and history and so much more. The VPP Store allows you to purchase world-class
apps in volume for both Mac and iOS devices. Books and textbooks are also available from the iBooks
Store. iBooks textbooks provide a rich and engaging user experience, giving your students entirely new
ways to learn. With the VPP, it’s easy to equip a large group of users with the learning materials they need.
Managed distribution
Managed distribution is a feature of VPP that lets you distribute apps and books to managed devices or
authorised users, and easily keep track of what content has been assigned to which user or device. To
benefit from managed distribution, you can use Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Apple
Configurator 2 when distributing purchased apps. With managed distribution, apps that are no longer
needed by a user can be revoked and reassigned to a different user or device within your institution, so
you retain full ownership and control of purchased apps. Once books are distributed, they remain the
property of the recipient and are not revocable or reassignable.
Multiple payment options
Multiple payment options are available when you make a purchase on the VPP Store. You can use a purchase
order to get VPP Credit that can be redeemed on the VPP Store, or complete your transaction with a
credit card.
Institutions can get VPP Credit using a purchase order, just as they can when buying any other Apple
product directly from Apple or from an Apple Authorised Reseller.
1
You can purchase VPP Credit in specific
dollar amounts to be delivered electronically to the VPP account holder.
Special education pricing
Since the VPP allows developers to offer special pricing for education institutions, you can receive a 50 per
cent discount for certain app purchases in quantities of 20 or more.
Apple Deployment Programs | Volume Purchase Program for Education Guide | November 2015 1
Availability
The VPP is available in the following countries or regions: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the
United Kingdom and the United States. Books are not available in the VPP Store in Canada, Germany, Hong
Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
What’s new
Easily distribute apps directly to devices
Now you can deploy apps directly to iPad and Mac. It’s that easy — there’s no need for an Apple ID on the
device you are distributing apps to. Your students can get up and running in no time, whether or not the
device is assigned to a user.
You can assign and distribute apps directly to iPad and Mac using your MDM solution and Apple
Configurator 2. And for existing deployments, you can seamlessly migrate from user-based to device-based
app assignment.
Preconfigure apps and settings
Apple Configurator 2 is a free Mac-based tool that allows you to quickly configure large numbers of iOS
devices via a USB connection, supplying them with the settings, apps and data you specify for your
students, employees or staff members. With Apple Configurator 2, you can assign apps — including newly
assigned apps and app updates — to your devices, and anyone using the device has access to the newly
added apps.
Distribute apps across multiple countries
With multinational app assignment, you can now use your MDM solution to distribute content to devices
and users in any country or region where the app is sold through the App Store. For example, an app
purchased from a VPP account in the United States can be distributed to devices or users in Brazil, as long
as the app is available through the App Store in Brazil.
How to purchase, distribute and manage content
Enrol
The VPP is part of the Apple Deployment Programs (ADP). To get started, complete the online enrolment
process and create an ADP account. You are responsible for agreeing to the terms and conditions for each
program you access within ADP and for setting up additional administrators for your institution. You’ll
need to provide contact information for someone in your organisation who can verify that you are
authorised to enrol on behalf of your institution. Apple reserves the right to determine the eligibility of the
administrators you select.
To enrol, go to deploy.apple.com. You’ll need to provide:
•
Contact information, including an address, phone number and email address. The email address you !
provide should be a work email address associated with your institution. This email address will be !
used to create your ADP Apple ID for signing in to the program. Consumer email addresses such as !
Gmail and Yahoo Mail are not accepted.
•
An ADP Apple ID. After submitting your contact information, you’ll receive instructions for completing
the Apple ID setup.
•
A verification contact. This individual must be able to verify that you have the legal authority to sign !
for and bind your institution to the VPP for Education.
Apple Deployment Programs | Volume Purchase Program for Education Guide | November 2015 2
•
Institution information. Enter your institution’s address, including the postcode. Choose your institution
from the list, or if it isn’t listed, provide the full institution name.
•
An Apple customer number or tax registration information, where applicable. For the United States !
and Canada, you’ll need to provide your existing Apple customer number or supporting documentation !
to be exempt from tax. If you don’t know this number, contact your purchasing agent or finance
department. For institutions in the European Union (EU), you’ll need to provide your VAT registration
number to make tax-exempt purchases, as applicable.
Submit your enrolment. After you submit your program enrolment form, Apple will review the information
provided and verify your institution details. If any information can’t be verified, you’ll be contacted so you
can review and correct it. Any tax information you’ve provided will be verified based on your region’s specific
requirements. You’ll be notified when this verification is complete, or contacted by Apple and asked to
provide additional information, if necessary.
Set up
Once your enrolment is complete, you’ll need to sign in to the ADP website, where you can create
administrator accounts for your institution. These accounts represent individuals within your institution
who are authorised by you to purchase apps and books through the VPP Store on behalf of your
institution.
Add administrators
Sign in to the ADP website and choose Administrators from the menu on the left. To add an administrator,
choose “Add Admin Account”. You’ll be asked to provide a name and an email address for your new
administrator.
You can create as many administrators as you like, and you can also allow administrators to create other
administrators. A large K–12 institution might want to have more than one administrator account per faculty
or building, for example. A large university might want to have more than one administrator account !
per department.
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Important information about your ADP Apple ID
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If you’ve already enrolled your school or institution in the Device Enrolment Program (DEP), !
you can use that same program agent account to enrol in the VPP. This agent account qualifies !
as an existing ADP Apple ID, so you are not required to create a new one. Simply log in to
deploy.apple.com with your DEP Apple ID, click Enrol next to the Device Enrolment Program,
and fill in the required information.
•
This Apple ID is unique to programs listed on the ADP website and cannot be used to log in to
the iTunes Store or any other Apple service.
•
If you’re already using your email address for an existing Apple ID, you’ll be asked to provide !
a new email address.
Note: If you have enrolled your institution in the DEP, you can enable these new administrators to manage
those services as well.
Select and purchase content
You can search for content, specify the quantity you want to purchase, and quickly complete the transaction
using VPP Credit or a corporate credit card. Using the administrator ID created for the program, log in to
vpp.itunes.apple.com/nz in your browser to access the VPP Store .
Step 1. Search for an app or a book. Select a media type — iOS apps, OS X apps or Books — to narrow your
search options. You can also type the name of the content or paste an iTunes link into the Search field to find
specific content. Click the Category pull-down menu to find apps and books by category. Universal apps that
work on both iPhone and iPad are identified with the universal badge ( ).
Step 2. Enter the quantity. Once you’ve found the content you’re interested in, select the name in the search
list, review the content details and enter the quantity you want to purchase.
Step 3. Select distribution type. Select “Managed Distribution” to assign, revoke and reassign apps to !
devices and users via your MDM solution or Apple Configurator 2. Or select “Redeemable Codes” to
download a spreadsheet of codes.
2
Learn more about download codes in the “Distribute and download”
section of this guide.
Step 4. Enter payment and billing information. Complete your transaction with VPP Credit or a credit !
card. You’ll receive a confirmation email from Apple telling you that your order has been processed.
Purchase history. Your purchase history is stored on the program website under your Account Summary.
Here, you can track the status of each transaction, refer to past purchases, view content you’ve purchased,
or download the current spreadsheet of redeemable codes. Your purchase history also contains other !
helpful order information, such as your order date, order number and purchase price, and the number of
apps or books procured.
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Important information about administrator accounts
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You’ll need to provide a work email address for each administrator account you create. The email !
address you provide will be used to create a new Apple ID.
•
If the email address you’ve provided is already in use for an existing Apple ID, you’ll be asked !
to provide a new email address.
•
The Apple ID used for ADP services cannot be used to log in to the iTunes Store or any other
Apple service.
Important information about content distribution
VPP account administrators can distribute content to devices and iTunes accounts in any country or
region where the app is sold through the App Store. For example, an app purchased from a VPP
account in the United States can be distributed to devices or users in Brazil, as long as the app is
available through the App Store in Brazil.
Distribute and download
To distribute content to users, you have two options. At the time of purchase, you’ll need to determine !
your distribution method: managed distribution or redeemable codes.
Using managed distribution
Using your MDM solution or Apple Configurator 2, you can distribute purchased apps and books to your
institution’s devices or authorised users. You also have the option to revoke and reassign apps to different
users, so your institution retains full ownership and control of purchased apps.
Step 1. Link your MDM solution to the VPP. To use MDM for distribution, you must first link your MDM
solution to your VPP account using a secure token. When you’re logged in to the VPP store, go to your
account summary and download a token to link your MDM server with your VPP account — then upload
this token to your MDM server to establish the link. You’ll need to install a new token on your MDM
server once a year.
If you’re using Apple Configurator 2 to manage devices and content, simply sign in to your VPP account !
in Apple Configurator 2. With iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, you can also preload apps for all your deployments
using Apple Configurator 2, saving network bandwidth and time.
Step 2. Assign and distribute content. Once you’re connected to your MDM server or Apple Configurator 2,
you can assign apps and books — including newly assigned apps and app updates — to devices and users
in a variety of ways, even if the App Store is disabled.
Note: You can only use an MDM solution to assign apps to users with devices running iOS 7 or later, and
OS X Mavericks v10.9 or later. Assigning apps directly to devices without an Apple ID requires iOS 9 or later,
and OS X El Capitan or later.
Distribute VPP apps to devices, no Apple ID required. With iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan, you can now !
assign apps directly to devices using your MDM solution or Apple Configurator 2 — no Apple ID required. !
This capability saves several steps in the initial rollout, making your deployment significantly easier and !
faster, while giving you full control over managed devices and content. After an app is assigned to a device,
it‘s pushed to that device via MDM or Apple Configurator 2, and no invitation is required. Anyone using that
device has access to the app. You’ll need one managed distribution licence per device for the apps you
assign. Refer to your MDM provider’s documentation to learn more about support for this feature.
Distribute VPP apps and books to users. You can use your MDM solution to distribute VPP apps and books
directly to users by sending an invitation via email or a push notification message. To accept the
invitation, users sign in on their devices with their personal Apple ID. The Apple ID is registered with the
VPP service, but remains completely private and is not visible to the administrator. Once users agree to
the invitation and accept the iTunes Store terms and conditions, they’re connected to your MDM server
and they can download assigned apps and books. Or you can silently install the app on supervised iOS
devices. To assign apps and books to users, you’ll need one managed distribution licence per user; apps are
available for download on each of the user’s iOS devices.
Apple Deployment Programs | Volume Purchase Program for Education Guide | November 2015 5
Type of app or book
Can be assigned to !
Mac computers
Can be assigned to !
iOS devices
Can be assigned to users
Institution-authored book
No
Yes
Yes
VPP app
Yes!
(OS X El Capitan or later)
Yes!
(iOS 9 or later)
Yes
VPP book
No
No
Yes
Choose between device-based and user-based app distribution. You can choose device-based app
assignment for shared deployments — when a device is managed by the institution or has more than one
user — or if you need to get a one-to-one deployment up and running quickly. With one-to-one
deployments, students can always personalise their device at a later time by adding their Apple ID. In
contrast, institutions can choose user-based assignment if students are bringing their own iOS devices or
using more than one device per person. In this case, the institution assigns apps to users’ Apple IDs. The app
appears in users’ purchase history for them to download onto any iOS device they own. In either type of
deployment, apps assigned via an MDM system can be revoked and reassigned as needed.
Apple ID. You can let students personalise their devices with their own Apple IDs even if you are assigning
apps directly to the device. With an Apple ID, each student can enrol in iTunes U courses and take notes in
iBooks. iCloud lets users store personal content — such as contacts, calendars, documents and photos —
and keep them up to date across multiple devices. iOS devices use iCloud to automatically back up app
data, photos and settings. iCloud also offers the ability to locate lost or stolen devices using a feature
called Find My iPhone.
Migration. MDM solutions can perform a silent migration from per-user VPP assignments to per-device !
VPP assignments. The device must be enrolled in an MDM solution. Refer to your MDM provider’s
documentation to learn more about support for this feature. If you previously purchased redemption codes
through the VPP, you can request to migrate these codes for use with managed distribution if the codes
are unredeemed or were redeemed through Apple Configurator 2. Previously purchased redemption codes
that users have already redeemed cannot be migrated.
To learn more about migrating codes, read Migrate from redemption codes to managed distribution in the
Volume Purchase Program.
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Device-based assignment
User-based assignment
Ownership model
Institution-owned
Student-owned
Use case
Shared or one-to-one deployments
Student-owned one-to-one
deployments, or deployments with
more than one device per user
Apple ID requirement
Optional
Required
Content type
iOS apps, Mac apps and institution-
authored books
iOS apps, Mac apps, institution-
authored books and iBooks books
Revoke and reassign content
Yes (apps only)
Yes (apps only)
Invitation process
No
Via MDM
Disable App Store on device
Possible
Not possible
Device management required
Yes
Yes
Device supervision required
No
No
Licence requirement
One licence per device
One licence per user
Apple Deployment Programs | Volume Purchase Program for Education Guide | November 2015 7
1
Apple Authorised Resellers can purchase VPP Credit on behalf of their customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
2
Once distributed, books remain the property of the recipient and are not revocable or reassignable.
© 2015 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iBooks, iPad, iPhone, iTunes, iTunes U, Mac and OS X are trademarks of
Apple Inc., registered in the US and other countries. iCloud and iTunes Store are service marks of Apple Inc., registered in the US and
other countries. App Store and iBooks Store are service marks of Apple Inc. IOS is a trademark or registered trademark of Cisco in the
US and other countries, and is used under licence. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks of
their respective companies. November 2015