Intuit has launched an enterprise channel program to support its enterprise solutions and extend their longevity as its customer base, mostly small and midsize businesses, become small and midsize enterprises.
"They're growing with the companies they have," said Sanjeev Aggarwal, a senior analyst at Yankee Group, in Boston, referring to the SMBs that started using low-end QuickBooks versions and even Quicken, a consumer accounting program, to run the books and payroll in their businesses.
"They had to be more scalable to grow with those businesses if they wanted to keep their business," Aggarwal said. "That means a partner who can support databases and all that. There's more professional handholding at that stage, and they need partners to do that."
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VARs will also likely find opportunities among customers using more complicated ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications and looking to pare down the complexity of their business processes, Aggarwal said. Services and integration opportunities could include integrating QuickBooks Enterprise with ERP, CRM (customer relationship management) and e-commerce applications, he said.
More than 25,000 businesses (most between 100 and 500 employees, according to Aggarwal) have adopted QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions, which costs between $3,000 (five seats) and $6,000 (15 seats). Intuit also announced recently a 20-seat edition for $6,750 to $7,500.
Revenue from the enterprise line is up 115 percent this year, Intuit reported. Overall, Intuit claimed third-quarter sales grew 14 percent from the year-ago quarter due to strong sales of QuickBooks and TurboTax, the consumer/small-business tax preparation line.
Intuit announced a pilot of the program, QuickBooks Enterprise Solution Provider Program, May 31 at the QuickBooks Enterprise User Conference.
Partners will receive up to a 25 percent discount on QuickBooks sales as well as marketing, support, training and lead generation tools, the company said.
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