Thursday, October 12, 2006

Intuit On Working With Google

Intuit was granted an inside look at Google during a recent partnership in which Google features were added to QuickBooks 2007. From their internal report by Karen Weiss, which TK sent to me (this one looks real though I don’t know for sure – and please note TK removed the surnames from the report, whereas I added emphasis):

Work began on Google integration in mid-April (...)

“We took on the burden of documentation because they are not a documentation culture,” [Intuit’s Aline] said. “They were very open to documentation. They’d try to do it, but they didn’t deliver – they didn’t have the structure.” (...)

Another process that was new for Google was working with a deadline. They often asked, “Are these dates really firm?” (...)

[T]here was a lot of respect on both sides, and both companies are focused on the customer. (...)

“Signing up for AdWords was very technically focused and complicated, and Google didn’t do the work to simplify it,” [Intuit’s Hugh] said. “They already knew it was difficult. We showed them how severe the problem was and one way to address it. ...” (...)

[Hugh] was impressed with Google’s ability to quickly try out new ideas on the Web. “They do a lot of A/B testing on the Web,” he said. “They’ve built lots of capabilities to support that. We’re nowhere close to them on our Web offerings.”

But it was Google’s conference rooms that most impressed [Hugh]. “They have a full A/V setup in every conference room I saw – even the small ones,” he said. “You can videoconference from anywhere. It’s optimized for their many remote employees. There’s no time wasted reserving a projector ...”

Intuit On Working With Go ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (4)

>> More posts

Advertisement