Dive Brief:
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Apple and Accenture are launching a dedicated iOS practice in an effort to change how businesses use the Apple operating system, the companies announced Tuesday. In locations around the world, Apple and Accenture experts will co-locate to work with enterprise clients on solutions for business operations.
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Apple and Accenture personnel — including visual and experience designers, programmers, data architects and scientists, and hardware and software designers — will design new tools and services to help businesses improve interactions with customers by iPhones and iPads.
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Part of the push is to allow for better iOS integrations with back-end systems and to create tools and "predesigned code" to work with data from IoT platforms in iOS apps.
Dive Insight:
Apple has been working hard to become a more integral part of the enterprise, pushing to get its products into more businesses as the consumer market becomes more saturated. Relying on companies like SAP, Cisco and Accenture — organizations with a longstanding presence in the enterprise market — Apple can boost its business ecosystem while remaining focused on consumer tech.
The company is also working with Box and several other smaller technology companies to make the iPad and iPhone a more appealing work tool. It’s all part of a broader recognition that by collaborating, tech companies can do a lot more to serve their enterprise customers.
One of the best ways to get products into the business is by tapping into the consultant ecosystem. Apple and Deloitte announced a partnership a year ago. As part of that partnership, Deloitte created an Apple practice with more than 5,000 advisors designed to promote iOS-based hardware, software and services in the workplace.
Like Apple, Microsoft and Google want to make bigger inroads into the enterprise as part of their long-term growth strategies. Google announced last week that it is launching a new enterprise service for businesses that will make it easier for them to adopt Chrome OS devices.
