Apple is invading the office with another big enterprise partnership
Apple announced a new partnership with Accenture, the consulting firm, on Tuesday. The upshot is that Apple will embed dedicated experts in iPhone and iPad technology with Accenture.
What that means: Accenture clients can get help bolting legacy big-company systems to modern iOS apps from Apple located at what Accenture calls "Digital Studios," starting at the San Francisco location.
Apple's experts include designers, programmers, and even hardware and software designers, according to the announcement.
A large part of Accenture's business is helping big established companies update their digital operations. Companies like that often have lots of older, clunky back-end systems, where valuable data can sometimes lie dormant.
You probably won't be able to download the apps that Accenture will help make for its clients, unless you work for one of these companies - they'll be in-house apps.
"We've seen an increase in development efforts within companies. In fact, in the last three years, the number of in-house iOS developers has doubled," Apple VP Susan Prescott told TechCrunch. "So the demand is definitely there, but enterprises still need great partners to reinvent workflows and tap into backend systems."
The announcement is the latest big partnership Apple has made with enterprise companies, a line item that's become more important as Apple looks for new sources of growth.
Apple doesn't break out enterprise revenue specifically, but in May, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that the company had been setting records.
"We set a new enterprise revenue record for the March quarter, and we expect this momentum to continue for the remainder of the year," he said during a conference call discussing Apple's first calendar quarter results. The fourth quarter of the year is typically the biggest spending season for enterprises.
And now Apple is fully embracing a classic sales approach by partnering with big IT consultancies to help it sell iPhones and iPads by designing custom business software for them.
Apple's deal with Accenture is one of several it's struck to target the enterprise segment over the past few years, following partnerships with IBM, SAP, and Deloitte.
The full announcement is below:
Accenture to Create Dedicated iOS Practice Within Select Accenture Digital Studios; Apple to Co-Locate Experts with These Teams
Cupertino, California and New York - Apple and Accenture are partnering to help businesses transform how their people engage with customers through innovative business solutions for iOS. The partnership will take full advantage of the power, simplicity and security of iOS, the leading enterprise mobility platform, and Accenture's capabilities as a leader in industry and digital transformation to help companies unlock new revenue streams, increase productivity, improve customer experience and reduce costs.
Accenture will create a dedicated iOS practice within Accenture Digital Studios in select locations around the world. Experts from Apple will be co-located with this team. Working together, the two companies will launch a new set of tools and services that help enterprise clients transform how they engage with customers using iPhone and iPad.
The experts will include visual and experience designers, programmers, data architects and scientists, and hardware and software designers.
"Starting 10 years ago with iPhone, and then with iPad, Apple has been transforming how work gets done, yet we believe that businesses have only just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do with our products," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Both Apple and Accenture are leaders in building incredible user experiences and together we can continue to truly modernize how businesses work through amazing solutions that take advantage of the incredible capabilities of Apple's technologies."
Pierre Nanterme, Accenture's chairman and CEO, said, "Based on our experience in developing mobile apps, we believe that iOS is the superior mobile platform for businesses and are excited to be partnering with Apple. By combining Accenture's vast digital capabilities and industry expertise with Apple's market leadership in creating products that delight customers, we are in a perfect position to help our clients transform the way they work."
The new iOS tools and services will take full advantage of the latest Apple technologies and tap into Accenture's leading digital and analytics capabilities.
New ecosystem services to help clients address the full range of iOS integration requirements to connect to back-end systems, leveraging Accenture's systems integration expertise and the unique iOS advantages built by Apple with key partners like SAP and Cisco.
Internet-of-Things (IoT) services featuring new tools, templates and pre-designed code to help clients take greater advantage of the data from IoT platforms in their iOS apps, putting more power into the hands of workers.
Migration services to help clients to quickly and easily transfer their existing legacy applications and data to modern iOS apps.
For more information regarding the Apple and Accenture partnership, please visit accenture.com/apple or apple.com/business/partners.