Google, PwC partner for enterprise play

Add Google's product roster to the ranks of primarily consumer-centric tools making a play for enterprises.

 

The search giant has effectively taken a page –  albeit a new and somewhat surprising one – from Apple's playbook when it partnered with consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.

 

"PwC is teaming with Google to offer our joint knowledge and capabilities to clients," said Mike Burwell, PwC's vice chairman of transformation, in a prepared statement, "giving them one place to go, maximizing experience and assets from both organizations."

 

[See also: Google testing telehealth waters.]

 

In a vein similar to Apple aligning with IBM over the summer, their idea of giving hospital CIOs and IT departments the option to work with a large consulting firm when using Google tools should open doors for Google Apps, Android and the cloud platform.

 

Whereas Apple and IBM rattled off a list of vertical industries (including healthcare) that they intend to target with new applications as part of the mobile-first platform, Google and PwC have yet to reveal their intentions. But Amit Singh, president of Google for Work, wrote in a blog post that "PwC will also help clients build custom applications and mobile solutions relevant to their industries."

 

[See also: IBM teams with UM on analytics project .]

 

Given PwC's Health Research Institute and healthcare clients as well as Google's ongoing attempts to gain purchase in healthcare – including the revelation that it's testing telehealth chats with doctors – it's hard to imagine that some of the custom app projects won’t involve healthcare entities.

 

Enterprise technology giants including Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft and Samsung have been turning to mHealth – so much so, in fact, that PwC projected in an April 2014 report that tech titans would rattle the overall $2.8 trillion healthcare services market by drawing billions of revenue dollars away from traditional healthcare organizations.