A beta test of the partnership began on schedule last month as part of Intuit's larger launch of the Internet cloud-based QuickBooks Online, Smith told IBD. "We're still in the very early days of testing, to make sure everything works seamlessly," Smith said.
QuickBooks Online, the cloud version of Intuit's popular program for small-business accounting, had been open only to new customers. With the formal November launch, "we've started to open it up to our existing 500,000-plus desktop customers," Smith said.
Intuit surprised investors in August when it announced the partnership. The tie-up is notable because Intuit and Square will continue to offer competing mobile payments services.
Square has stirred waves in mobile payments with its small, plastic credit card reader that can be inserted onto Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) Android-based smartphones.
The pact between Intuit and Square lets small businesses that accept payments via Square link those transactions directly to their QuickBooks accounts, simplifying the bookkeeping process.
The partnership underscores how complex the payments market has become, with competitors also partners. But the deal "makes perfect sense," said Pradeep Moudgal, director of Mercator Advisory Group's emerging technologies advisory service.
"While Intuit offers its own mobile point-of-sale service, allowing its many millions of QuickBooks enterprise customers to easily integrate with Square will ensure greater client satisfaction," Moudgal said. "It also will help Intuit with client retention and open up cross-sell opportunities on other small-business product offerings in the future."
Goal To Be Small-Business OS
Intuit's Smith said he couldn't disclose many details of the tie-up, but he said it furthers Intuit's goal "to be the operating system behind small-business success."
Smith says Intuit has found that small businesses on average use about 15 to 20 applications a day. To accommodate so many apps, Smith says, QuickBooks needs to be an open platform that allows these different apps to work seamlessly with QuickBooks.
"So to make that announcement be clearly heard around the market, we wanted to have a really strong player to say, 'Look, we're serious about this,' so we chose Square," Smith said.
Smith says the Square partnership is complementary. Intuit focuses its payments business primarily on small service-based businesses, he says, which adds a new dimension to Square's focus on physical businesses such as retailers and restaurants. He says it's a win-win situation for both companies to grow their payments businesses.
0 comments:
Post a Comment