How Autotrader Keeps The Mac Fleet Patched & Compliant with Zappl

As the UK’s leading automotive platform Autotrader connects millions of car buyers with retailers and private sellers. Behind the scenes, its teams rely on macOS devices across multiple locations — creating a complex and varied set of application patching requirements.

The Challenges of Mac Patching

With around 1,200 Macs across different locations and departments, keeping applications patched was becoming a real challenge.

There wasn’t a dedicated application patching solution in place, so much of the work was being done manually. That took time, compliance levels were lower than they needed to be, and there was no simple way to make sure applications were patched within the timescales required for security and industry certifications.

The Solution

Zappl was deployed securely through the existing Jamf MDM, so there was no need to change the way the Macs were already being managed.

From there, the IT team could decide what needed to be patched, when it needed to happen and how much flexibility users had before an update became required. It also gave them a greater insight into what applications were installed on the Macs, and additional  support was needed.

A tailored, staggered approach also spread background update checks across the entire Mac fleet, helping to minimise the impact on the company network.

Set it up, then let Zappl do the work

Once the initial configuration was complete, much of the day-to-day patching became automated.

Instead of the IT team spending time manually chasing application updates across the Mac estate, Zappl could take care of the process and only require ongoing management when something needed to change.

“Managing a fleet of over 1,200 Mac devices required a tailored approach. While initial testing revealed some limitations with the tool's deployment code for our specific environment, the team was exceptionally open to making development changes to fit our exact requirements. Their willingness to adapt the solution for us has given us the granular control over patching that we needed.”
—  Jeff, Autotrader

The Results

Once configured, patching now runs automatically with minimal upkeep. The IT team now has granular control over how its Macs are patched, all delivered through Zappl with no downtime or loss of productivity.

The result has been better application compliance across the Mac estate, less manual work for IT and a patching process that works around users rather than against them.