A new report from Reuters citing sources at Apple familiar with the company’s plans for future corporate offerings has unveiled new details on the Cupertino corporation’s efforts to recruit business clients and software developers. According to these sources, Apple is currently courting companies such as Citigroup, ServiceMax, and PlanGrid (among others) to augment its current IBM enterprise agreement.
The exact nature of the proposed partnerships between these companies hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the general idea is similar to the IBM arrangement. ServiceMax, a company that creates solutions for managing field technicians, and PlanGrid, which allows construction workers to share blueprints with each other, will both agree to roll out Apple hardware with custom software to their clients.
Apple is poised to take a big swing at companies like Dell, HP, and Oracle if it manages to break into the enterprise hardware and software markets in a big way. To that end, the company is said to have created sales teams that focus solely on acquiring enterprise customers.
ServiceMax and Apple have reportedly co-hosted several marketing dinners in the past year, with attendance coming in at around 30 chief information officers per dinner. ServiceMax’s clients include Philips, St. Jude Medical, DuPont, ADT, Proctor & Gamble, and many more.
Apple recently launched an enterprise initiative in cooperation with IBM that will allow businesses to purchase iOS devices and get specialized AppleCare support along with custom software developed by IBM. Clients will be aided by an account manager at Apple who will handle IT support, providing perks like next-day hardware replacement and 24/7 support with one-hour responses for critical issues and on-site hardware service.
