Intuit and Google Forge Alliance
Date Published 13/09/2006 - Click here for more recent news
A press release from a US company called Intuit was released today advising of their strategic 'alliance' with Google. No obvious reason for that to raise any shadows on the radar on the UK side of the pond - and yet anything to do with Google warrants a second look these days.
For many UK small businesses their book-keeping / invoicing tool of choice is predominantly Sage accountancy software and it's a rare UK bird who uses QuickBooks® in our experience. One of EASIserv.com's UK clients actually uses QuickBooks® which is how we come to know a little about the product and also our eCommerce product of choice is presently Actinic software that interfaces directly with both Sage and QuickBooks® to transfer orders and import product and customer data. However in the US - QuickBooks® has enormous market share to the point that Google Chief Exec, Eric Schmidt describes it in his statement as, “the world’s most popular accounting product" - so we're guessing that he must know something!
Anyway, on to the 'alliance' aspect that, "combines Intuit’s deep knowledge and experience solving small business problems with Google’s expertise and reach on the Web to help small businesses address their number one objective – attracting new customers." The real 'killer-app' in our opinion is that, "for the first time, small businesses can use QuickBooks® to market themselves online by listing their businesses on Google Maps™, creating and managing advertising campaigns with Google AdWords™ and posting their products for sale on Google through Google Base™ – a free product listing service. Integrated into QuickBooks® 2007, QuickBooks® customers will have the ability to attract new customers using Google, the world’s leading search engine."
Wow! - that's some alliance. Look out for :
- QuickBooks® 2007 - will include several services that provide an easy way for small businesses to use Google to get their businesses and products noticed on the Internet, right from an icon on the QuickBooks® Home page.
- Google AdWords - QuickBooks® users can select search terms related to their product or service and create customised ads that show up when shoppers search on Google for those products or services.
- Google Maps – gives QuickBooks® users a tool to reach qualified prospective customers by simply creating and managing an online business listing.
- QuickBooks® Product Listing Service - small businesses can let online shoppers know they carry a specific product by using this service to make their merchandise searchable on Google through Google Base.
- Intuit will also incorporate Google’s powerful search engine, Google Desktop™, into QuickBooks® 2007 so users will be able to quickly find customer, vendor or financial information anywhere within QuickBooks® or on their desktop.
- For security, the new tool can search QuickBooks® data only when it is accessed from within QuickBooks® and is tied to QuickBooks® user permissions so search results are limited by the searcher’s authorisation level.
Sounds a pretty impressive shopping list of services to us. So how might all of this affect the UK's army of Sage users? Possibly not at all and maybe they won't even notice. But given Google's track record of driving a coach-and-horses through many old-established business models, it may well be about time - for Sage to look to their onions!
If you want to check out the full press release - you'll find it on the Intuit website.
PS: We never knew until fairly recently that some years ago Intuit bought out the original software accountacy business of Bob Parsons (who's a well known Internet entrepreneur, CEO and founder of US Domain Registrant giant Godaddy). Makes you wonder that maybe it's Bob's bits of accountancy that made QuickBooks® the soi disant, “world’s most popular accounting product"?
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