Presentation

This section of the wiki helps you answer questions of why LoanShark, and what does LoanShark do on a high level.

Interested in upcoming presentations on LoanShark? Checkout the presentations section on this page.

Why LoanShark?

Having a loaner pool is one thing, managing that pool is another thing, and making sure your loaner pool is not depleting is a whole other task.

When a loaner device is issued, the person who handles the loaning devices has to manually keep checking on the loaner device. Sometimes even having to manually reach out to the user to ensure return of the loaned device. In some cases, people will just ignore those reach out attempts and keep the loaned device for all eternity.

LoanShark makes it easy to keep tabs on your devices and locks the user(s) out when the loaning period expires. The experience is easy and pleasant for both the loaner and the user receiving the loaned device.

From an End-User Perspective

For the end-user the process is fairly simple:

1. LoanShark gets installed on the system

• Most likely a configuration profile will be applied to this system as well.

2. Employee/User who is issuing the loaned device will configure LoanShark
3. End user will receive the loaner with LoanShark enabled.
4. User will get a notification every day of the time remaining on the loaning period.
5. When loan period is under 15 days remaining, the notification will include an option to request an extension.

• If the user clicks on this notification, they can select how long they want the extension for. It will then open an email with a pre-populated subject with the extension request length through their default mail application.

6. When the loan period expires, the user will be greeted with a Lock Window with an auto-log off of 1 minute, unless configured otherwise, and contact information for the person who issued the loaned device.

From an Administrator Perspective

For an administrator, it is easy to know what the user needs/wants

1. Administrator receives request for loaner
2. LoanShark is configured after authenticating to LoanShark using the Jamf Pro API or a passphrase (0.3+)
3. Hand off loaner to end user
4. Wait for the return of the device, or an extension request via. Email.
5. Perform extension request if desired, or let it expire.
6. Receive loaned device
7. Remove LoanShark Preferences, and restart the process again.

From a Loss Prevention Perspective

Having a loaner pool can be costly, so preventing people from keeping your devices past the expiration period is key.

These features will help prevent device loss:

• Automated expiration
  • If a device is known to have expired, you can trigger a command through LoanShark to force expire the loaning period on ALL users.
• Ensure assigned user is user currently logged in.
  • You can create a script that gets the current assigned user, checks against the current logged in user, and set it to expired if another user is logged in.
    • This would only affect users who are not the assigned user.
• Getting loan status

Presentations

Want to know more about LoanShark? Checkout these articles, presentations, and links on LoanShark:

Upcoming Presentations

• Oct 2019 - Philly MacAdmins Monthly Meetup
• Nov 2019 - JNUC Github Gallery (Thursday)