Apple’s compelling enterprise strategy
Or, how to succeed without really trying. Of course, it would be silly to say that Apple isn’t trying or that the company doesn’t have a strategy. However, Cupertino’s corporate sales force isn’t on the payroll, yet Mac, iPhone and iPad sales into the enterprise keep rising by double and triple digits.
Analysts and industry pros call it the consumerization of IT, and the forces driving it are simple enough — technology is changing fast and companies can’t afford to keep up. Where once workers came to work to use a computer and internet, now the computer, smartphone and network that many if not most of us have at home is superior to what’s available at the office.
A great example of this phenomenon can be found at General Electric, the mega corporation that manufactures everything from toasters and refrigerators to jet engines and locomotives. About a year ago, the company started a pilot program whereby employees could use a Mac at work and about 1,000 took part.
This program is going company wide and eventually will be available to the great majority of their 280,000-plus employees.
Back to the well
And, this isn’t a one-off for GE. Back in 2008, the company began offering employees the option to buy the iPhone rather than a corporate standard Blackberry. Today, more than 10,000 have chosen Apple’s smartphone.
“To find out that we support Apple, we support iPhones, we support Macs, it does take away one question for people, ‘Are they a contemporary company or not?’” said Greg Simpson, GE’s chief technology officer “I think that is a recruiting-positive thing.”
Once upon a time, “non-standard” devices would have been frowned upon, but that one-size-fits-all approach has been replaced by a more pragmatic vision — let employees use the devices that make them happy and productive.
And, creating products that consumer-workers want and, in fact, will insist upon using is a strategy that’s been very productive for Apple — Forrester Research estimates Mac and iPad sales to corporations increased 58 percent last year.
“The biggest disruptive force in the computer equipment market is not [the cloud], but Apple,” said Forrester Research analyst, Andrew Bartels. “Its rapid growth in the corporate market has been the big surprise of 2011, and it will be even more of a factor in 2012.”
Again, Apple doesn’t have an enterprise computing strategy per se. Although it sounds too simplistic and, frankly, idealized to succeed, Cupertino is winning over corporate buyers by focussing on users and individual outcomes…
Imagine that. What’s your take?
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January 21st, 2012
I would love to be able to use a Mac at work, but one of the many reasons why some companies don’t want to move to them is because their IT departments don’t have knowledge in Mac repair or they feel that PC’s are safer and easier to maintain. I don’t like this idea because with every update you have, you do get more security risks, but far less than with an outdated system. PC’s are good computers, but I would definitely prefer to work on a Mac.
January 24th, 2012
It must be January, the annual comsumerization article is here.