Intuit, Inc.

Profile

The company was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook and Tom Proulx in Palo Alto, California. It is a notable rare example of a successful Microsoft competitor. According to their website, "Intuit's source of success is not as much technological prowess as it is a relentless focus on the customer."

Intuit makes the popular personal finance programs Quicken and TurboTax, (in Canada known as QuickTax), the popular small business accounting program QuickBooks, 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. Today, the only foreign subsidiary with significant R&D activity is Intuit Canada headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta. Foreign product versions are now predominantly produced by third-party localizers or licensees

History

Intuit was reportedly conceived when Scott Cook, an assistant product manager at PG, realized that personal computers could lend themselves to replace paper-and-pencil 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 BASIC by Tom Proulx and had to contend with a dozen serious competitors. Intuit struggled financially until they found their formula, which revolved around direct marketing campaigns, favorable reviews in industry and consumer magazines and word of mouth from satisfied customers. Intuit's focus on usability and customer support in its early years was legendary.

Although by 1988 Quicken became a best-seller in its market, the company wasn't a major success until the advent of Windows 3.0 in early 1990s, when sales of Quicken grew explosively. 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 acquistion: the tax-preparation software company Chipsoft based in San Diego. The time after the IPO was marked by rapid growth and culminated by buyout negotiations with Microsoft in 1995, when 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 has made a number of successful 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.

Today, Intuit is one of the largest software companies in the world with about $2 billion in annual revenue and $8 billion market capitalization. Because of its overwhelming commercial success and the nature of its business, Intuit is constantly under intense public scrutiny. Notable cases of vocal public criticism include policy changes in customer support, forced payroll table updates in 1999 QuickBooks and an activation scheme from Macrovision in 2002 TurboTax. Intuit has so far never failed to respond to such criticism.

Intuit software

TurboTax

ProSeries

Lacerte

Lacerte is tax preparation software. It is mainly used by professional accountants who prepare taxes for a living. It is a sister product to ProSeries; however, ProSeries has fewer features and is designed for smaller firms.

Lacerte was originally produced by a company of the same name; this company was acquired by Intuit in 1998.

QuickBase

Quicken

QuickBooks

QuickTax

External links