Dell, a major manufacturer of its own computers and tablet devices, and the world’s third-largest PC seller by unit volume, announced today that it will be selling Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet and related services to large corporate customers.

A report from the New York Times likens this to Nike agreeing to sell Adidas shoes.

“This is unique,” Kirk Schell, vice president of Dell Commercial Client Solutions, said in an interview with the New York Times. “We don’t do this with anybody.”

Brian Hall, the general manager of Surface at Microsoft, said to the New York Times that business sales of Surface had been held back because big customers wanted to be able to buy new systems quickly from resale partners anywhere in the world they have offices. “It’s the big thing keeping hundred-unit sales from turning into thousand-unit sales,” Mr. Hall is quoted as saying.

Sales for Surface have been slow initially, but have started selling well for Microsoft, mostly through retail stores.

Adding more corporate resellers of Surface could help make selling the product a real business, on its own.

In Microsoft’s last fiscal year, which ended June 30, the company said it had about $3.6 billion in Surface sales, of which about $1 billion was to businesses. (For contrast, Apple’s iPad sales were $4.5 billion in just its last quarter,alone).

Another major PC maker, Hewlett-Packard, also plans to sell Surface to businesses, as well as Accenture and Avanade, along with other Windows 10 devices.