Intuit's QuickBooks 2007 program slated to go on sale this fall will be imbedded with Google-powered ways to promote inventory and businesses online, the presidents of both companyies said in a telephone conference call.
"It's a good win for Intuit. It's a good win for Google," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "More importantly I think it's the beginning of a much deeper partnership."
The QuickBooks software package would target millions of small business, ranging in size from a few employees to 250, that have been unable or unwilling to create Websites or advertise on the Internet, Intuit said.
The new QuickBooks will make it easy for businesses to list themselves on Google Maps; manage Internet advertising campaigns with Google Adwords program, and post inventory in Google's search database, according to Schmidt.
"The business world is one of collaboration because of the game-changing power of the Web," said Intuit chief executive Steve Bennett. "This is truer today than ever before ... This is an exciting new alliance to help businesses find new customers."
Schmidt sidestepped a question asking whether he thought that Google's alliance with Intuit, which makes comprehensive software packages for small businesses, could be seen as "a stake in the heart" of business software giant Microsoft.
Schmidt said that he would leave it to others to gauge how the partnership changed the "competitive terrain."
"We think its great for our companies because it is great for our customers," said Bennett.
"It is clear that Google understands the Web better than anyone else, and Intuit has a reputation for making easy-to-use solutions for small businesses."
More than 25 percent of US small businesses use Intuit software such as QuickBooks and Quicken, according to the company. QuickBooks sales last year tallied 1.4 million and the company boasted 3.7 active QuickBooks users.
Intuit estimated that at least half of the small businesses using QuickBooks did not advertise online.
"We became convinced there was a way to add a million or more advertisers on the Internet," Schmidt said. "To solve the problem with them getting online, we made it easy. It seemed a natural partnership."
The new QuickBooks would provide a simple way for businesses to make pay-per-click ads on Google and create online coupons, the companies said.
Google would create free "profile pages" for businesses that did not have Websites. QuickBooks was to also feature Google search technology that let business operators scan their databases for customer, vendor, and financial information.
"We expect it to be enormously successful and have big hopes and expectations to expand it next year," Schmidt said.
Among the possible additions next year was adding Google Checkout, an online financial transactions system, to QuickBooks.
The companies did not disclose how revenue from the joint-endeavor would be divvied up, saying that they collaborated with the expectation that the reward would come in the form of increased business for both of them.
"The thing I like about this is we are not spending a lot of time negotiating money between Eric's pocket and mine," Bennett said.
"It is all about a big new business opportunity in which we split the revenue and profits in some fashion based on the value we contribute to each of these ideas. We are quite excited about that."
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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