In an attempt to push further into the enterprise market, Apple had announced a partnership with consultancy firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. (Deloitte).

The partnership will see the creation of a “first-of-its-kind” practice that will involve 5,000 strategic Deloitte advisors who will help enterprises make the best use of Apple products and services. The advisors will assist customer-facing businesses, including retail, field services and recruiting, as well as R&D, inventory management and back-office systems.

“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 revolutionize how they work using iOS, iPhone and iPad,” Tim Cook (above left), chief executive officer of Apple, said in the company’s press release.

The partnership also includes a new consulting unit called EnterpriseNext that will assist customers to develop custom solutions through rapid prototyping across more than 20 industries.

Deloitte’s workforce already uses over 100,000 iOS devices running 75 custom apps. “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,” said Punit Renjen (above right), CEO of Deloitte Global.

The partnership with Deloitte is Apple’s fourth major partner as it pushes into business technology. In 2014, Apple forged a partnership with IBM and has since created a range of industry-specific apps for iPhone and iPad. That was followed by a partnership with Cisco Systems Inc. in September 2015 that would see the traffic from iPhones and iPads receive priority treatment from Cisco’s switches. And in May, Apple announced its partnership with German IT giant SAP SE, a partnership that was 20 months in the making.

Apple continues to face pressure to find new revenue streams as iPhone sales continue to decrease. For the third quarter ending June, iPhone sales fell to 40.4 million compared to 47.5 million for the same period last year.

The Apple-Deloitte partnership news happened just hours after Blackberry Ltd. announced it would stop selling its mobile devices, opting instead to outsource the work and focus on software and security. When the Financial Times asked Cook about Blackberry, which once dominated the enterprise, he said, “I think their sales have been fairly low for a while. We are very focused on the opportunity and we see it as massive.”

Image via Apple