Intuit
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| Intuit Inc. | |
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| Type | Public (NASDAQ: INTU) |
| Founded | Palo Alto, California (1983) |
| Headquarters | Mountain View, California, USA |
| Key people | Scott Cook, founder Tom Proulx, initial developer Brad Smith, CEO |
| Industry | Computer software |
| Products | Personal finance, accounting and tax return software |
| Revenue | ▲ $2.672 billion USD (2007) |
| Employees | 8,200 |
| Website | www.intuit.com |
Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) is an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals. It is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Mountain View, California.
[edit] Profile
The company was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Mountain View, California.
Intuit makes the popular personal finance programs Quicken and TurboTax (and its Canadian counterpart, QuickTax), as well as the small business accounting program QuickBooks. In addition, they produce QuickBooks Point of Sale solution for small retailers, the market leading professional tax solutions ProSeries and Lacerte, and the Web-based corporate workgroup productivity solution QuickBase.
The company maintains a number of foreign sales offices. It has significant R&D activity in Intuit Canada headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta and Intuit India headquartered in Bangalore, India[citation needed]. International product versions are now predominantly produced by third-party localizers or licensees.
[edit] History
Intuit was reportedly conceived when Scott Cook, then an assistant product manager at Procter & Gamble, realized that personal computers would lend themselves as replacement for paper-and-pencil based personal accounting. On his quest to find a programmer he ended up running into Tom Proulx at Stanford. The two started Intuit, which initially operated out of a modest room on University Avenue in Palo Alto. The first version of Quicken was coded in Microsoft's Compiler BASIC for the IBM PC and UCSD Pascal for the Apple II by Tom Proulx and had to contend with a dozen serious competitors. Intuit struggled financially until they found their formula for success, which revolved around direct marketing campaigns, favorable reviews in industry and consumer magazines and word of mouth from satisfied customers[citation needed]. Intuit's focus on usability and customer support in its early years was legendary.[citation needed]
Although by 1988 Quicken became a best-seller in its market[citation needed], the company wasn't a major success until the advent of Windows 3.0 in early 1990s, when sales of Quicken grew[citation needed]. Roughly around the same time the company engaged John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and diversified its product lineup. In 1993 Intuit went public and used the proceeds to make a key acquisition: the tax-preparation software company Chipsoft based in San Diego. The time after the IPO was marked by rapid growth and culminated with a buyout offer from Microsoft in 1995; at this time Intuit's market capitalization reached $2 billion.
When the buyout fell through because of DOJ scrutiny, the company came under intense pressure in late 1990s when Microsoft started to compete vigorously with its core Quicken business. In response, Intuit launched new web-based products and solutions and put more emphasis on QuickBooks and on TurboTax. The company made a number of investments around this time. Among others, it purchased a large stake in Excite and acquired Lacerte Software, a Dallas-based developer of tax preparation software used by tax professionals. It also divested itself of its online bill payment service unit and extended and strengthened its partnership with CheckFree.
On November 30, 2006, Intuit announced an agreement to acquire Digital Insight, a leading provider of online banking services, for $1.35 billion.[1]
Today, Intuit has about $2 billion in annual revenue and $10.8 billion market capitalization.
Intuit has been ranked in Fortune Magazine's "Top 100 companies to work for" for the past several years.[2]
[edit] Online communities
Intuit has several online communities, some which offer integration or cross-sells into other Intuit products. QuickBooks online community for QuickBooks users and small business owners, Quicken Online Community for Quicken users and those who need help with the personal finances, and the Accountant Online Community and Jump Up. Each consists of blogs, an expert locator map and event calendar, forums and discussion groups, podcasts, videocasts and webinars and other user created content.
JumpUp (formerly JackRabbit Beta) is a free social networking and resources site for small business owners and/or start-ups. Free tools and services include an interactive business planner, online training for developing a successful business plan, starting costs calculator, cash flow calculator, break even calculator, templates for business planning and sample business plans.
Intuitlabs.com is a website Intuit created to get new solutions into people's hands quickly. The early versions of these products and services are called roughcuts, and they're offered for free so people try them and give feedback to enable rapid improvement and make sure they solve real problems well.
[edit] Products (listed alphabetically)
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[edit] Billing Manager
Billing Manager is a free online invoicing tool from Intuit designed to help very small businesses with their invoicing process.[3] For a fee, Billing Manager offers an integrated payment service that allows users to accept credit cards.
[edit] Customer Manager
A CRM application that focuses on integration with other tools such as QuickBooks, Microsoft Office Outlook, and more.
[edit] Finance Works
[edit] Personal Finance Works
Developed thru Digital Insight, an Intuit Company. PFW is Digital Insight's next generation online banking product. PFW was originally scheduled for release in June of 2007 but has been plaqued with delays. It will incorporate many of the features of Quicken.
[edit] Innovative Merchant Solutions (IMS)
In 2003, Innovative joined forces with Intuit Inc. providing merchant services to all types of businesses nationwide. With Intuit's acquisition of IMS they now have the ability to process credit cards through their core product, QuickBooks without the need of hardware leasing. They can also provide traditional terminal based credit card processing and downloading transactions directly into the QuickBooks software.
[edit] Intuit Eclipse
Eclipse is an enterprise management software for wholesale distributors. Eclipse is a centralized database (UniVerse) residing on AIX, (an NT based version is available as well) with client stations connecting via a simple terminal emulator and a thick, Java based, client. The basic software has such features as support for multi-branch operations, integrated interface for emailing and faxing (using VsiFax), customer calling queue (troubletickets), and several add-ons are available for an employee punch-clock, RF warehousing, Digital Imaging, Proof of Delivery/Signature Capture, and many others. On August 17, 2007 Intuit sold its Eclipse wholesale distribution software and business division to Activant Solutions Inc. of Livermore, California, and the application has been renamed Activant Eclipse.[4]
[edit] Intuit Real Estate Solutions
In 2002, Intuit acquired Management Reports International, a Cleveland-based real estate management software firm. Renamed Intuit Real Estate Solutions (IRES), the company offers Residential, Commercial, and Corporate Real Estate management solutions for Windows and the Web.
[edit] Lacerte
Lacerte is tax preparation software. It is used by professional accountants who prepare taxes for a living. It is a sister product to ProSeries; however, it is generally used by larger firms with more complex workflows and clients.
Lacerte was originally produced by a company of the same name; this company was acquired by Intuit in 1998.
[edit] Online Terminal
Online Terminal is web-based service aimed at enabling very small or home-based businesses to take credit card payments, without needing a credit card terminal or any special processing software. The cost of service is subscription to a merchant account. Besides basic processing card transactions it's features include emailing of confirmation receipts, 6 months of transaction history, and tracking of merchant account funds.
[edit] ProSeries
Intuit's ProSeries tax software evolved from TurboTax and grew over the years to become a full-fledged professional preparer product and a leader in the market. It serves full-time tax preparers. In 2004 two additional ProSeries versions were released - ProSeries Basic and ProSeries Express.
[edit] QuickBase
QuickBase is web-based collaborative database application that allows business people to create their own custom applications without writing code. QuickBase was created when Intuit acquired Turning Mill Software in 1999. The application is hosted by Intuit and sold by subscription. As of August, 2007 it has 225k users among which 170,000 are paying subscribers[5] and over 50 of the Fortune 100 use it for things like Project Management, Supply Chain Management, or Sales Team Management.
[edit] QuickBooks
QuickBooks is the most commonly used small-business accounting and financial management software in the U.S..[6][7] The program is available as a web-based version of QuickBooks. Some features in the desktop version of QuickBooks are not present in the Online version. Niche version of QuickBooks include QuickBooks Point of Sale is software that replaces a retailer's cash register, tracks their inventory, sales, and customer information, and provides reports for managing their business and serving their customers.
[edit] Quicken
Quicken is a personal finance management tool, with a vast array of features. There are several versions of Quicken and the brand has been extended to include products for healthcare, home businesses, but typically personal or household finance.
[edit] Quicken Incorporation Services
Quicken Incorporation is a document filing service. Included services for Corporations, LLCs and DBAs.
[edit] QuickPayroll
QuickPayroll is the company's successor to the QuickPay add-on to Quicken. Sporting a similar interface to QuickBooks version 5, the software is used for processing payroll in house. Updates to tax tables and software updates, once offered on floppy disks by mail are offered online on a yearly subscription basis.
[edit] QuickTax
QuickTax is a Canadian tax software package. The software is designed to guide users through their tax return step-by-step. It is available on CD-ROM or online at QuickTaxWeb.ca. ImpôtRapide is the French version of QuickTax, mostly used by residents of the province of Québec.
The online version of QuickTax is named QuickTax Web, or ImpôtRapide Web for the French language version.
[edit] TaxAlmanac
TaxAlmanac is a free online tax research resource. Content on TaxAlmanac is written by tax professionals from across the country and takes advantage of the knowledge of academia as well as practitioners. The site includes key information including the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, Tax Court Cases, and a variety of articles.
Modeled after Wikipedia, TaxAlmanac was launched in May 2005. The June 6, 2005 edition of Time magazine featured an article entitled "It's a Wiki, Wiki World"[8] on Wikipedia in which TaxAlmanac was highlighted as "A Community of Customers". The November 21, 2005 edition of Business Week[9] magazine featured an article titled "50 Smart Ways to Use the Web" in which TaxAlmanac was selected as one of the 50. TaxAlmanac made the short list as one of the 7 in the collaboration category.
[edit] TurboTax
TurboTax is a U.S. tax software package. There are a number of different versions, including TurboTax Deluxe, TurboTax Premier, etc. TurboTax is available for both Federal and state income tax returns. The software is designed to guide users through their tax returns step-by-step. TurboTax became an Intuit product as a result of the 1993 acquisition of its creator, San Diego-based Chipsoft. Chipsoft, now known as Intuit Consumer Tax Group, is still based in San Diego, but moved into a new office complex in 2007.
[edit] Zipingo
Zipingo was a free website where users could rate services such as contractors, restaurants, and other businesses. Ratings and comments were either entered from the website or through Quicken and QuickBooks. The site was closed by Intuit on August 23, 2007.
[edit] Criticism and controversies
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Intuit has generated controversy with some of its business practice decisions. Cases of criticism from users and reviewers include:
[edit] Business policies
- an activation scheme from Macrovision in 2002 TurboTax,[10]
- Intuit's phasing-out of support for the ubiquitous QIF format in favor of the QFX format. These formats are used for downloading information from financial institutions such as banks and brokerages. While use of QIF was free, banks are required to pay a licensing fee to Intuit if they wish to allow their customers the ability to download financial data in the QFX format.[11]
[edit] Upgrade tactics
- sunset policy that stops online features from working after a certain amount of time.[12][13]
- forced payroll table updates in the 1999 version of QuickBooks[14][15]
[edit] References
- ^ Intuit to buy banking software rival. MSNBC (2006-11-30). Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ 100 Best Companies to Work For 2007. Fortune (2007-01-22). Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ Billing Manager.
- ^ Activant Completes Acquisition of Intuit Eclipse Distribution Management Solutions Business.
- ^ Lai, Eric (2007-08-22). QuickBase success speeding Intuit's move to SaaS. Computerworld. Computerworld Inc. Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
- ^ Wilcox, Joe (2007-03-03). The Dynamics of QuickBooks and Great Plains. eWeek Mircosoft Watch. Ziff Davis Publishing Holdings Inc. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ Lacy, Sarah; Jay Greene (2005-08-25). How to Face Off Against Microsoft. BusinessWeek. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ Taylor, Chris (2005-05-29). It's a Wiki, Wiki World.. Time. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ The Web Smart 50 (2005-11-21). Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ Becker, David (2003-02-27). Intuit sued in TurboTax flap. CNet News. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ QIF Data Import Resource Center. Intuit. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ Musgrove, Mike (2005-02-06). 'Sunset Policy' Stymies Loyal Quicken Users. Washington Post. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ Retirement of online services for older versions of Quicken. Intuit/Quicken. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ Foster, Ed (2001-04-30). Study the saga of QuickBooks. Infoworld. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- ^ Foster, Ed. Twist in Intuit's crippleware techniques doubles the cost of its tax-table service. Infoworld. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
- Taylor, Suzanne E. (2003). Inside Intuit: How the Makers of Quicken Beat Microsoft and Revolutionized an Entire Industry. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 1-59139-136-9. - recounts the early years of Intuit, including the aborted acquisition by Microsoft.
- Import issues with QFX and Quicken for Mac
- Intuit to Make Health 'Quicken' - Health Data Management, April 13, 2006
- CIGNA to offer members Intuit's Quicken Health - San Jose Business Journal, April 25, 2007
- Business tax software: Take control of your tax claims - review of QuickTax Business Incorporated 2007 and Business Unincorporated 2007
- [1] - Quicken Support, Answer 5901, Microsoft Money converter does not work
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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