Intuit Inc.: Encyclopedia - Intuit Inc.

Intuit, Inc.

Intuit Inc. NASDAQ: INTU is a US 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.

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, but 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.

Intuit Inc. - 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 Microsoft's Compiler BASIC for the IBM PC and UCSD Pascal for the Apple ][ 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 acquisition: 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 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.

Intuit has been ranked in Fortune Magazine's "Top 100 companies to work for" for the past several years.

Intuit Inc. - Products

Intuit Inc. - TurboTax

TurboTax is a popular 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 (for those states having income tax). The software is designed to guide users through their tax returns step-by-step. TurboTax became an Intuit product via the Chipsoft acquisition. In 2003 Intuit faced vocal criticism for its TurboTax activation scheme. The company responded by removing the product activation scheme from its product. In 2005 TurboTax extended its offering by allowing any taxpayer to use a basic version of its Federal product for free as part of the Free File Alliance.

Intuit Inc. - 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 who are predominately sole proprietors with no other employees working on tax preparation. In 2004 two additional ProSeries versions were released - ProSeries Basic and ProSeries Express.

Intuit Inc. - 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.

Intuit Inc. - 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 practioners. 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." on Wikipedia in which TaxAlmanac was highlighted as "A Community of Customers".

Intuit Inc. - QuickBase

A web-based collaborative database application. QuickBase was created when Intuit acquired Turning Mill Software in 1999. The application is hosted by Intuit and sold by subscription.

Intuit Inc. - Quicken

Quicken is a very popular personal finance management tool, with a vast array of features. The UK version of Quicken was discontinued at the start of 2005.

Intuit Inc. - QuickBooks

QuickBooks is the most commonly used small-business accounting and management software software in the US.

Intuit Inc. - QuickBooks Online Edition

QuickBooks Online Edition is the web-based version of QuickBooks. Some features in the desktop version of QuickBooks are not present in the Online version, so look closely for the features you need. Like other web-based software, this is strong for small distributed organizaitons with limited resources ( Why so Cheap). As of September 2005, a 20% discount was offered for non-profit organisations. Despite being web based it requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer, which is currently available only on Microsoft Windows.

Intuit Inc. - QuickTax

QuickTax is a popular Canadian tax software package. The software is designed to guide users through their tax return step-by-step.

Intuit Inc. - Customer Manager

A CRM application that focuses on integration with other tools such as QuickBooks, Outlook, and more.

Intuit Inc. - Zipingo

Zipingo is a free website where users can rate services such as contractors, restaurants, and other businesses. Ratings and comments can be entered from the website or from Quicken.

Intuit Inc. - Criticism

Notable cases of vocal public criticism include policy changes in customer support, forced payroll table updates in 1999 QuickBooks, an activation scheme from Macrovision in 2002 TurboTax, and a sunset policy that stops online features from working after a certain amount of time.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Intuit Inc.", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki