Apple sees Deloitte on digital transformation

Gadget giant Apple has persuaded consulting firm Deloitte to dedicate 5,000 of its strategic advisors to flogging iPads to businesses.

That’s not how Apple is positioning it, of course. The official announcement says they’ve teamed up to ‘accelerate business transformation on iPhone and iPad’. As ever Apple doesn’t use the definite article or plural when describing its products, with the apparent aim of inferring they are people or natural phenomena rather than the pieces of equipment the rest of us know them to be.

This can all be categorised under the trending buzzword that is ‘digital transformation’, which many people have tried to define but few have succeeded. It seems to concern the movement of business processes into a more digital environment that has been underway for decades, but for some reason it’s finding its way into an increasing proportion of corporate thinking right now.

Deloitte seems to have got into bed with Apple big-time with this collaboration, including selling the souls of 5,000 advisors into a new Apple practice that will help businesses become more digital, primarily by staring at an i-screen for most of the day. The quid pro quo seems to be Apple helping Deloitte Consulting develop EnterpriseNext, a new service that is, you guessed it, ‘…designed to help clients fully take advantage of the iOS ecosystem of hardware, software and services in the workplace.’

“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,” fawned Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte Global. “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.”

“As the leader in digital transformation strategy, Deloitte is an ideal partner that brings a team of Apple-dedicated strategic advisors to help clients truly revolutionise how they work using iOS, iPhone and iPad,” lorded Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone and iPad are transforming how people everywhere get work done. And through this partnership, we’re able to help even more businesses tap into the incredible capabilities that only the Apple ecosystem can deliver.”

It’s hard to view this development as anything other another win for Team Apple. There will presumably be a nice lot of business for Deloitte from this Faustian Pact, but does it really want to be pigeon-holed as the company that gives good iPad?