Intuit today announced the opening of its new office in Waltham, Mass. Boston Light Software Corp. and Turning Mill Software, Inc., two privately held Internet technology companies that were acquired last year by Intuit, will operate out of the newly opened office.
"The new Intuit Boston office is keenly focused on delivering exciting and powerful new Web-based solutions for small business customers," said Dan Nye, vice president of QuickBooks Internet Solutions. "The Boston group's contributions have already been recognized with the initial customer response to QuickBooks® Site Builder, which has helped tens of thousands of small business customers quickly and easily set up a professional looking Web site."
The Intuit Boston office has approximately 50 employees who are primarily senior development engineers with strong backgrounds in Internet server-based technologies. Areas of expertise include XML protocol development, Internet security, domain name registration, email management and highly scalable web-hosting and e-commerce solutions.
Prior to its acquisition by Intuit in August 1999, Boston Light Software developed a new type of managed Web site and e-commerce engine technology. Paul English, co-founder of Boston Light and now General Manager of Intuit's QuickBooks Server Platform, held executive engineering and marketing positions with Interleaf and NetCentric.
Prior to its acquisition by Intuit in November 1999, Turning Mill Software developed web-based database software that allows non-technical computer users to rapidly create and manage their own web applications. Turning Mill Software's founder, Joe Rice, was previously a founding engineer and lead product designer at Avid Technology, Inc.
The initial focus of the new Intuit Boston office is the QuickBooks Site Solutions business. "Until now, small businesses have not been well served by the Internet," said English. "Many of today's small business Web sites are weak, with limited functionality and connectivity to core business data. In fact, a simple Internet search shows that millions of sites are still 'under construction'. We intend to address this issue by providing small business owners with a low-cost and high-quality Web tool that helps them compete with bigger businesses."
QuickBooks® Site Builder allows small business owners to find and register their own web address (e.g., www.samplename.com) and email addresses (e.g., sales@samplename.com), and build a professional-looking web site complete with high-quality images and artwork. The entire set-up takes about ten minutes and there is no setup charge (Intuit pays for the domain name registration). The service costs $9.95 per month. (Terms and conditions subject to change.) Small businesses can customize and edit their sites right from within their QuickBooks 2000 program. Once created, the web site becomes publicly accessible in about 48 hours. For more information, please visit www.quickbooks.com/site.
