News

Apple, Deloitte Aim iOS at Enterprise

• By David Ramel
• October 3, 2016

Having pretty much conquered the consumer mobile space, Apple is teaming up with industry partners to tackle the next frontier -- the enterprise.

After earlier joining forces with IBM -- which recently declared server-side Swift to be "ready for the enterprise" -- Apple announced a pact with professional services firm Deloitte Consulting LLP to bring the company's mobile iOS operating system into enterprise use.

Deloitte is forming an Apple practice that will bring more than 5,000 strategic advisors to the task, providing a wide range of customer-facing functionality. This team will comprise developers, designers, strategists, architects and other industry experts who will provide new tools and conduct workshops as part of a new initiative to leverage new mobile opportunities, the companies said.

That EnterpriseNext initiative is designed to help organizations move to the iOS ecosystem, partly by developing enterprise apps that run on iPhone and iPad mobile devices.

The companies said the new program will provide:

• EnterpriseNext Value Maps for iOS to help them discover the highest impact possibilities for iPhone and iPad within their industries, align their mobile opportunities and prioritize digital resources.
• EnterpriseNext Workshops for iOS to quickly take ideas from prototype to custom-built iOS solutions.
• iOS architects, designers and engineers -- housed within Deloitte Digital Studios around the world – to help produce easily deployable, high-quality native apps that integrate seamlessly with existing business platforms.

The two-week workshops are designed to accelerate "an idea to prototype in Deloitte Digital studios and Greenhouses around the world," the companies said. "Workshops bring together innovative ideas focused on mobilizing tasks, processes and workflows on iOS in an immersive environment, pairing creative thinking with industry experts, iOS app developers, enterprise architects, and business leaders."

After a workshop is conducted and customer-specific prototypes are developed, the Deloitte team will collaborate to develop custom iOS apps for Apple devices and speed up their deployment. The development initiative will provide coders with libraries of pre-integrated solutions to quicken design and development of the apps, which will target areas such as ERP, CRM, analytics and HR platforms.

"We know that iOS is the best mobile platform for business because we've experienced the benefit ourselves with over 100,000 iOS devices in use by Deloitte's workforce, running 75 custom apps," said Deloitte exec Punit Renjen. "Our dedicated Apple practice will give global businesses the expertise and resources they need to empower their mobile workforce to take advantage of the powerful ecosystem iOS, iPhone and iPad offer, and help them achieve their ambitions, while driving efficiency and productivity."