Intuit and QuickBooks have been growing dramatically, which leaves us wondering, how would you work on defining QuickBooks users. A simple definition is this; the average QuickBooks user is a cloud user.
Intuit recently shared their latest quarterly results to BusinessWire. Some of the more interesting details shared in that report include:
When you look closely at their reports you will notice that in just a 3-month timeframe 421,000 new users subscribed to QuickBooks Online. This is truly incredible. And what’s also important to note is that this doesn’t amount to a one-time purchase of software, but rather these are new monthly subscribers. Plus 80 percent or more of those customers are available as new customers for you. They aren’t simply monopolized by QuickBooks, but are rather available for customer lifetime value.
This is all great news for Intuit but what does all of this growth mean for QuickBooks users?
A large focus on a global cloud strategy likely means that most new development will focus on cloud products (e.g. QuickBooks Online, with less innovation happening in the Desktop line of products. This is further supported by the announcement from Intuit that they are selling their Quicken product while retaining Mint.com, which is a cloud-based solution for personal finance management. This is another example of Intuit moving away from their Desktop division while further pursuing their cloud-based division.
This new way of defining QuickBooks users is not a bad thing. In fact, more than one QuickBooks desktop user has said that the Desktop versions don’t need to go through any more changes. As long as the support and maintenance of these Desktop versions continue, more innovation happening within the cloud is a positive thing.
There have even been changes to the way users are being charged for Desktop versions. For instance, Enterprise users now have to pay an annual fee in order to keep using their Enterprise system. There’s a good chance this will also be implemented with other Desktop editions such as Premier, Pro, Mac and Accountant. If this happens, it would mean that all QuickBooks products would move to a subscription-based revenue model.
So, how do you work on defining QuickBooks users today? More often than not, they are QuickBooks Online subscribers. And better yet, they aren’t just customers of the cloud-based service, but rather they are recurring subscribers who pay an ongoing fee for the privilege of using the increasingly popular service.