Software designers railed this month over Intuit's acquisition of personal finance startup Mint. Functionally, Mint fills some gaps in Intuit's product lineup. The maker of Quicken and Quickbooks paid $170 million to acquire both the budget management software and the team that brought it to light. While this might not seem relevant right now to the world of CRM software, the potential impact of Mint's design team taking over Quicken's online services could ripple out to users of hosted CRM tools.
To understand why requires a quick lesson in the challenges of designing effective hosted CRM systems. A few months ago, at the CRM Evolution 2009 conference, Accenture's Kevin Bandy identified five tasks that pull sales professionals away from interacting with customers:
- opportunity management
- pricing/quote management;
- order management;
- contract management; and
- incentive compensation management.
All five of these tasks are crucial, and can be thoroughly automated using CRM systems. However, many professionals find themselves spending more time struggling with these tasks instead of calling on accounts. Truly effective CRM software puts usability on the same plane as task requirements, allowing even novice computer users to get back to the business of developing relationships and closing deals.
Critics of Intuit's current software lineup note that Quickbooks' dominant position in small business CRM and accounting software gives the company little reason to innovate, leaving users few options to increase productivity. In fact, some vocal opponents of the "Mintuit" mashup worry that Intuit bought Mint simply to sideline it. However, as more details emerge about the deal and its implications for Intuit's overall product strategy, some analysts see a window of opportunity for the Mint design team to "infect" Intuit with fresh sensibilities. A hosted CRM platform with the feature set of Quickbooks and the ease of use of Mint.com could be a game changer for small business.
2 comments:
I know what a foothold Quicken has in the personal and small business finance markets, so this really is huge news. If they do diversify activities in this way, the results will be a streamlined business that can focus resources in key ROI categories.
These five tasks come back to the main sticking point of any CRM, user adoption. Unlike ERP systems no one gets audited if they don't enter their transactions.
It would be good to see a company like Intuit bring its UI to CRM and the ease of use that goes with it.
I look for more from companies like these.
John
http://www.johnprosek.com
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