* First user conference says "prepare to grow"
Let’s take a breather from the BSA (Bully Software Alliance) and talk about a hugely successful company that is not now, and probably never will be, a member of the BSA: Intuit.
A supplier of accounting software Quicken for individuals and QuickBooks for small business – the $2+ billion company had its first ever user conference for QuickBooks Enterprise May 31-June 1 in Phoenix and there was a refreshing lack of corporate hubris from CEO Scott Cook down to training class leaders making lists of program fixes requested by users.
I was the token small business guy there; the other two press people I saw wrote for accounting magazines. Every user I talked to was from a business running QuickBooks Enterprise, ranging from an office with 19 doctors to a company with five health clubs to manufacturers. Many attendees were ProAdvisors, certified by Intuit to install and support various software applications.
QuickBooks Enterprise developed as Intuit noticed QuickBooks users pushing the accounting package into larger and larger companies. QB Enterprise aims at companies with 20-500 employees, and the company just announced an upgrade (QB Enterprise Solutions 6.0) with a new database for better performance and support for 20 concurrent users (15 was the limit). Of course, QuickBooks arrived in 1992 when Intuit noticed about half of their Quicken customers used it to run businesses, not households.
Intuit says it has around 25,000 QuickBooks Enterprise customers, most buying in the last two years. Since Intuit has around 3.4 million QuickBooks users, a growth path makes sense. Add in the 3+ million Quicken packages used in businesses, and QuickBooks Enterprise stands on a great foundation with a built-in customer base for growth.
QuickBooks Enterprise will soon be sold by Solution Providers authorized by Intuit. This matches how most of its competitors sell software, and Intuit appears a little late in setting up a reseller channel. It plans to start slowly with around 100 Solution Providers, and it was recruiting at the conference. I’m betting the QuickBooks tag pulls a lot of other accounting resellers into the program. CDW’s accounting sales group still sells the products as well.
CEO Scott Cook explained during his keynote how surprised he was at the uptake of QuickBooks and QuickBooks Enterprise. He admitted both originally lacked many features of the competitors, but offered ease of use and “accounting in English rather than accounting speak” as keys to success.
Cook also devoted much of his keynote and our personal interview to praising employees for innovation. This often sounds insincere from executives, but not this time. Cook happily recounted products he thought were mistakes but was convinced by his team to develop, which later far outperformed his product ideas. His was the first CEO presentation I’ve ever seen showing photos of product teams, the very groups of employees who told him (politely, no doubt) that their ideas were better than his. His point? Companies that create an environment of innovation by listening to their employees (and customers) grow and succeed.
Leaders express this sentiment far too seldom in today’s ego-driven corporate culture. The best summation I’ve ever heard was from a radio products developer who told me, 25 years ago, “every employee comes equipped with a brain at no extra charge.”
Don’t get the idea the days were spent singing around the campfire toasting marshmallows. QuickBooks Enterprise users had plenty of suggestions, often expressed quite forcefully, for needed software improvements. As with too many Windows-based applications, QuickBooks Enterprise really needs a dedicated server to run with acceptable performance. The multi-user function must be suspended too often and the software thrown into single user mode for certain operations. The loudest requests from users was for LIFO and FIFO (Last In First Out and First In First Out) inventory support and currency conversions. But how many times have you been asked by your software vendors what improvement you want?
Cook said during our interview the company’s destiny was to “make society a better place.” Other speakers mentioned the company goal was to “improve the lives of those we serve,” including employees and customers. During my 20 minutes speaking with Cook, three attendees interrupted to thank him, not for making them money but for improving their business lives, so Intuit may be on to something.
Hokey? Looking back, it sounds that way. Yet after weeks of researching how the BSA and their software publisher members attack and bully small businesses, the difference in attitude was astounding. Would you rather your vendors bully or appreciate you?
