Careers at Intuit

Mission

Intuit is a developer of tax preparation and accounting software aimed at small businesses, accountants and individual users. It also provides point-of-sale solutions for small retailers and maintains a cloud-based development platform.

History

Intuit was founded in 1983 by Scott Cook (“Cook”) and Tom Proulx (“Proulx”). The concept of developing accounting and tax preparation software was conceived by Cook during his time at Procter and Gamble, where he began to consider how personal computing technology could allow for a move away from traditional accounting methods.

Cook, however, did not have the technical experience to begin developing a software product and began looking for a partner who could lead engineering operations. Cook met Proulx at Stanford and began developing the first version of Intuit’s Quicken software, initially working out of a small room in Palo Alto, California.

After building a small customer base and establishing itself as an accounting software developer, Intuit listed on the NASDAQ in 1993. The Company currently has a market capitalisation of more than $26 billion.

Benefits at Intuit

Business model of Intuit

Customer Segments

Intuit provides services to three main segments: general consumers, accounting professionals and small and medium-sized businesses. The Company provides personal finance and consumer tax products to general users, comprising both sole traders and general professionals, wishing to gain greater control of their finances and access easier methods of managing tax requirements.

Its more advanced tools and products are used by accountancy firms as well as to enterprises. The Company’s business customers operate within various industries, including the energy, construction, education, technology, travel and financial services sectors, with customer including big names such as Google, Procter and Gamble, TomTom, and Kayak.

Intuit serves customers across the world, but its main market is in the US where it is the market leader.

Value Propositions

The key values of Intuit are the flexibility, accessibility and reliability of its products, its support and community networks and its industry reputation.

Intuit is one of the most established names in the tax and accounting software market, and is a market leader in its native US. The Company has a reputation for providing reliable, easy-to-use products offering substantial functionality.

Intuit products can be accessed via desktop and mobile websites, as well as mobile and tablet apps, enabling users to keep track of their finances while on the move. It also allows users to access its software products via the cloud or through direct downloads.

Additionally, Intuit maintains a strong support and community networks forits users through its website.

Channels

The majority of Intuit’s products are available via its desktop and mobile websites at www.intuit.com. The Company has also developed a range of apps corresponding to its various different products – including for Mint, Intuit Tax Online Accountant, Online Payroll and QuickBooks online – that are available through the Apple App Store and the Google Play marketplace.

Once users have subscribed to Intuit services, software can be downloaded directly - on both Mac and Windows computers – or accessed via a cloud-based software-as-a-service platform, depending on the product.

For more complicated or tailored subscriptions customers can contact the Intuit sales team for pricing.

Customer Relationships

The majority of Intuit’s consumer, business and accountancy products are available on a self-service basis, with subscriptions, purchases and downloads being managed via the Intuit website with no interference from the Company itself.

Some larger, more advances subscriptions, however, require a greater degree of personal care, with sales representatives negotiating prices directly with customers.

Intuit provides ongoing tax, payroll and quickbooks support to its customers in the form of tutorials, FAQs and training resources. The Company’s support staff can also be contacted directed via the Intuit website.

Intuit also hosts community forums for its small business customers and tax customers, providing answers to specific queries and enabling users to interact with one another.

The Company also updates its customers through its small business, tax and accounting blogs, as well as via its various social networking accounts.

Key Activities

Intuit develops and markets business and financial management software solutions for individuals, small and medium-sized businesses, financial institutions, and accounting professionals, including tax preparation, payroll, accounting and personal finance products.

Its activities are divided into three principal segments: Small Business, Consumer Tax and Professional Tax. Additionally, the Company operates an application marketplace which facilitates the sale of third-party applications, and provides small business lending services in collaboration with several financial and tech partners.

The Company also manages a network of other partners, including developers, resellers, distributors and affiliates

Key Partners

Intuit partners with a variety of companies in order to provide reliable and efficient products and extend its marketing and sales network.

The Company’s partners are divided into five separate programs: the QuickBooks Online Distribution Partner Program, comprising tech companies and accounting services firms; the Intuit Reseller Program, comprising authorised resellers and independent software vendors; the QuickBooks Affiliate Program; the Intuit Developer Network, comprising software developers, cloud services companies and tech firms; and the Turbo Tax Affiliate Program.

In addition, the Company partners with a number of sourcing companies, through which it procures the goods and services required to operate fully. Intuit’s partners include e-commerce company Shopify, payments platform developer Stripe, ride-sharing company Uber and tech firm Fundbox.

Intuit also collaborates with a  number of authorised hosting partners, including Xcentric, CloudRunner, Right Networks and Skyline Cloud Services.

Key Resources

Intuit’s key resources are its software products, its IT infrastructure, its network of partnerships and its personnel.

The Company has a number of patent applications filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office, including applications titled ‘Personal savings plan’, ‘Method and system for intrusion and extrusion detection’, and Method and system for providing a payroll preparation platform with user contribution-based plugins’.

Cost Structure

Intuit’s cost relate principally to the development of its products, cost of sales, support services, retention of personnel and maintenance of IT infrastructure.

The Company reportedly employs a workforce of more than 8,000, including large sales and support teams that incur costs through salaries and benefits.

The Company also operates a network of servers and data centres which accrues operating and rental costs, as do Intuit’s offices across the US, Australia, Canada, India, Brazil, Singapore, France and the UK.

Revenue Streams

Intuit primarily generates revenue through the sale of various tax preparation, payroll and accounting software products. This accounted for the vast majority of Intuit’s 2015 fiscal revenue of $4.2 billion.

The majority of Intuit’s products are available on a monthly subscription basis, with the exception of certain one-off tax services. Intuit’s suite of products is divided into those for individuals, comprising Mint, QuickBooks Self-Employed and TurboTax; those for small businesses, including Intuit Payroll Services, QuickBooks and QuickBooks Payments; and those for accountants, notably Intuit Tax Online, Lacerte, and ProSeries.

Subscription pricing ranges from as little as $5 per month for the most basic QuickBooks Individual package and up to $1,890 per year for the Company’s ProSeries tax product for accountants. For larger accountancies and businesses subscription pricing can be negotiated with members of the Intuit sales team. Intuit additionally sells a range of personal finance products through its Quicken brand.

Intuit also generates a smaller amount of revenue through its app marketplace, where it sells a range of third-party applications, as well as through its Intuit Quickbooks Financing products, that include invoice financing, short-term loans, and credit card services.

Our team

Scott Cook,
Co-Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee

info: Scott has been a member of Intuit’s executive team since co-founding the Company in 1983. In addition to his role as Chairman of the Executive Committee at Intuit, Cook also sits on the board of directors at household products company Procter and Gamble and is a member of the Harvard Business School Dean’s Advisory Board. Prior to co-founding Intuit Cook held marketing positions at Procter and Gamble before joining management consultancy Bain and Company, where he managed banking and technology consulting projects.

Tom Proulx,
Co-Founder and Programmer

info: Tom served as a programmer at Intuit until 1994. He has since gone on to hold a number of directorships and senior leadership roles within the tech sector. He is the co-founder and current Chairman of fitness technology company Netpulse and sits on the boards of technical services provider PlumChoice and loyalty marketing company Riiwards. After leaving Intuit in 1994, Proulx was appointed Chief Executive Officer at Netpulse in 1997 but stepped down from this role in 2000. He joined home technology company iControl as a director in 2004 a position he held until 2010. During this period he also took on an advisory role at software-as-a-service provider Yola from 2009 to 2012 and was appointed Chairman of accounting technology firm Working Point from 2006 to 2015.

Brad Smith,
President and Chief Executive Officer

info: Brad has served as Intuit’s President and Chief Executive Officer since 2008, having first joined the Company in 2003. He previously held Vice President and General Manager positions overseeing the Intuit Accountant Central and Developer Network, the Intuit Consumer Tax Group and the Intuit Small Business Division. He has previously held various management and marketing roles spanning a range of sectors. In 1986 he joined the PepsiCo Bottling Group as a senior account manager, where he stayed for five years before moving to Brooks Beverage Management in 1991 as its General Manager of 7-UP Company Akron. In 1992 Smith was appointed Vice President of Field Marketing at advertising firm ADVO (now Volassis), and from 1996 served for seven years as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at human resources group ADP, his final role before joining Intuit.

Atticus Tysen,
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer

info: Atticus has served as Intuit’s Chief Information Officer since 2013. He first joined the Company in 2002 as its Director of New Technology and went on to hold various executive roles, including Director of Product Management and Vice President of Enterprise Business Solutions, before assuming his current role. Prior to joining Intuit, Tysen held several engineering roles, beginning in 1988 when he joined Apple Computers as a software engineer. He joined telecoms company OCTel in 1993, serving briefly as an engineering manager, before joining architecture and planning firm Aveo as Vice President of Engineering in 1994.