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Founded in 1983, Intuit has become the largest manufacturer of accounting, personal finance, and tax software in the U.S. Founders Scott Cook and Tom Proulx recognized that there was a demand for a user-friendly personal finance software package and met that demand with Quicken -- currently America's top-selling personal finance software product. The company's product line also includes an accounting software package, QuickBooks, which is the leading choice of small businesses, and a tax preparation application, TurboTax, which has facilitated the filing of more than one million tax returns. Intuit's 1994 acquisition of the National Payment Clearinghouse has made the company a presence in the electronic banking industry. With the company's 1995 purchase of Milky Way KK, a Japanese software company, Intuit entered the second-largest PC market in the world. Expansion Quickening Intuit is one of the few companies that has thus far consistently won battles against Microsoft in the software wars. Quicken, its star product, distinguishes itself by its blissful simplicity -- its design replicates a simple checkbook, and is among the easiest of home finance products to use. To counter Quicken's popularity, Microsoft introduced its own product, Money, in 1991. Despite its attempt to undercut Quicken by price -- Microsoft even gave away Money from time to time -- Quicken remained by far the most popular financial software program, with roughly 75 percent of that market. In April 1995, Microsoft opened its own checkbook and offered to buy Intuit for the lavish sum of $2 billion, even promising to give away its own financial software offering, Money, in order to retain the semblance of competition. But in the face of displeasure from American antitrust watchdogs, Microsoft dropped its bid. Intuit can leverage the loyalty of Quicken users to its advantage. The company runs a popular web site, Quicken.com, which is accessible both through Quicken and Excite, a popular web directory. (Intuit has taken a $40 million stake in Excite, laying claim to 19 percent of that company). The Intuit-Excite web site has eight units: investments, chat, home and mortgage, banking and borrowing (which helps consumers search for the best rates on loans, credit cards, and CDs), insurance, retirement, saving and spending (complete with debt-reduction planner), and tax planning. Intuit claims its service is much more inclusive than competing sites like Yahoo! Finance and Microsoft Investor, since unlike those sites, it does not concentrate primarily on equities trading. Perhaps more appealing to the average consumer, Inuit proffers services on its site for free that cost money on those other sites. Intuit plans to make its money by becoming a sort of Web landlord, renting out space on the site to financial services firms and banks, and charging up to $500,000 for the privilege. Intuit tells banks that association with Quicken will be a benefit to them, but banks have shown lukewarm interest; many fear that financial sites like Quicken.com, the most visited site of its kind on the Internet, could draw business away from bank web sites. Quicken has looked to other partnerships to increase its Internet business. Through a December 1997 deal, Intuit set up a co-branded area on CNNfn.com (the web site for the CNNfn financial news channel), utilizing finance news from CNNfn and personal finance software from Intuit. In February 1998, Intuit made another strategic alliance by agreeing to supply America Online with content for its personal finance channel; most of the content was to come from Quicken.com. AOL had more than 17 million subscribers. Combined with the 10 million users already utilizing Quicken.com, and the viewers of other Intuit partners -- Excite's 2.5 million and CNNfn.com's 7 million -- that meant that Intuit would be able to reach close to 40 million potential customers at one time. In the February agreement, Intuit agreed to shell out $30 million to AOL over the next three years and promote AOL as the primary online service for Intuit software users. Intuit continues to bolster its online presence. The company allied with two Internet-based firms, Melbourne IT Ltd., and TransPoint LLC, in February 2000; two recently acquired Internet technology firms, Boston Light Software Corp., and Turning Mill Software, Inc., will be based in a newly opened Intel office in Boston. Furthermore, Intel's acquisition of Rock Financial in late-1999 added mortgage-writing capabilities to its QuickenMortgage site, while the 1999 acquisition of Computing Resources, Inc., benefited the applicability of its QuickBooks program. QuickenInsurance, an Intuit subsidiary, is also growing quickly. Shuffling personnel Intuit CEO Bill Harris resigned in September 1999, and was temporarily replaced by former CEO Bill Campbell. Harris left as Intuit attempted to move its software business online in the midst of stiff competition. Officials claimed that Harris left amicably, but there was speculation that his aggressive stance on acquisitions rubbed some top managers the wrong way. In January 2000, Intuit named Stephen Bennett as its new CEO and president. The new age under Bennett In its first deal since Bennet took over as head of Intuit, the company acquired Venture Finance Software Corp, a software startup that enables the company's Quicken software users to manage bills and investments online. VFSC could attain a $300 million valuation in the acquisition.
Applicants should submit a resume to the particular location in which they are interested. The company's recruitment web page, located at www.intuit.com/corporate/hr/, lists the addresses of the locations that regularly hire new employees. Intuit's corporate headquarters at Mountain View houses the company's major business units in addition to its Finance, Human Resources, and Operations functions, and is home to about 700 of the company's employees. The hiring process for MBAs involves three rounds of interviews, described by insiders as "casual."
Intuit promotes a culture of "hard work and hard play," insiders say. The company stresses teamwork, and employees remark that their ability to complement each other's strengths and weaknesses is one of Intuit's leading assets. Employees describe the office atmosphere as "casual and sometimes quite playful," with "no dress code -- written or unwritten -- to speak of." While employees often work long schedules when a project nears completion, they say that Intuit "recognizes that its employees have lives outside of the office." "At Intuit," says an insider, "the firm considers their employees "internal customers" and those who call for support "external customers." Many employees praise Intuit for its generosity. Says one developer: "The company has generous stock option and stock purchasing plans. I would say that as far as salary goes, it is in line with the industry. If you are involved in product development there are also ship bonuses." "We often rely on a 'roving help desk' to help us assist our customers technically," says a tech support representative. "It is a very intense environment considering that we must ship new tax software each year without fail. We work hard at Intuit but we also play hard." Intuit helps its employees play: "We have private offices, an on-site cafeteria and gym. Every Friday evening at five we have a social in the outside courtyard, serving beer, wine, food and the like." Intuit is kind in other ways, too. One employee reports: "I recently became a single parent and the company has bent over backwards to allow me to have as flexible a work schedule as possible. I work from home for several hours a day." Concludes another insider: "I do not personally know anyone who is dissatisfied at Intuit."
Mari J. Baker Human Resources
personal finance software (Quicken);tax preparation software (TurboTax);small-business accounting software (QuickBooks)
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