INTUIT QES STAYS STRONG.

Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprises Suite, the mid-market QuickBooks package, looks like it is continuing to strengthen. For the first several quarters, Intuit was selling 1,000 units per quarter. The October quarter marked the second consecutive reporting period in which the total has increased to 2,000 per quarter. For comparison, Intuit said prior to this quarter that it had sold 10,000 units in two years. Back in the fall of 2002, when MBS mysteriously gave me installed base numbers; there were just over 11,000 copies of Solomon IV and just over 22,000 installations of Windows versions of Great Plains for the history of those applications to that point. I'd say this is turning out to be a very successful product.

Consulting Insights November 19, 2004

INTUIT'S QES PICKS UP SPEED.

QuickBooks Enterprise Suite, which seems to get no respect from anyone but buyers, is getting even more respect these days from the people shelling out the cash. After two years of recording sales of 1,000 units per quarter, Intuit reported 2,000 units sold in its fourth quarter ended July 31. For those unfamiliar with the name, QES is the product for those graduating from QuickBooks. Intuit introduced the product after its research showed that 240,000 mid-market companies, that should be using a mid-market accounting package, are still using QuickBooks. You may remember that Small Business Manager from Microsoft Business Solutions also had its eye on those exiting QB. MBS should be so lucky to have sold 5,000 units of SBM, as Intuit did in the last year with QES. Actually, MBS would like to have sold 5,000 SBM units in the more than two years SBM has been on the market.

Consulting Insights August 20, 2004