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SMITH: INTUIT NOT GOING UP MARKET

 Brad Smith, IntuitCEO Brad Smith's statement this month that Intuit will not go up market should not surprise anyone. It simply describes what we have seen in the way Intuit has operated distribution and development for QuickBooks Enterprise Suite. However, Smith's comments at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2013 Global Technology Conference marks a definitive statement about strategy that I don't remember Intuit having articulated so clearly.
Smith was asked about competitors coming down-market and he noted that movement is difficult for large companies to make. He is more worried about new competitors arising from garages and door rooms. He volunteered Intuit's experience with making the move the opposite direction as follows: "Every time we've gone up market, we find it requires another set of sales capabilities and stuff." That explains why we have not seen "stuff" such as the development of niche-focused modules for QBES, the kinds of applications that VARs live on. In fact, since two years ago, the last time Intuit made any effort to explain its QBES distribution and product plans to the press, promised development of functionality more suited to reseller needs has not materialized. Meanwhile, QBES continues to roll along with 20-percent annual growth. Smith made it clear QBES is getting attention. "We are trying to build more functionality into QuickBooks Enterprise," he said during the webcast of the BOA conference. QBES remains important in the ProAdvisor channel – but not the VAR channel - and product development seems unlikely to add features that telesales and ProAdvisors cannot handle.
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