Keen, Your Personal Advisor, and Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) today announced a multi-year agreement to deliver tax and accounting advice to consumers and small businesses.
Under the agreement, customers using Intuit's Quicken® TurboTax® software, the TurboTax for the WebSM service and QuickBooks® accounting solutions including QuickBooks Payroll solutions will be able to link from these products to co-branded pages hosted by Keen - giving customers the ability to immediately access advice, either live over the phone or as an arranged service via email.
In addition, potentially thousands of Intuit tax and accounting professionals will join the rapidly growing community of KeenSpeakers, those who sell their advice on Keen, at www.keen.com, giving them the opportunity to provide live, immediate advice to TurboTax and QuickBooks customers as well as to Keen's more than five million registered members.
"By working with Keen, Intuit can create a dynamic marketplace that connects our consumer and small business customers with our professional tax and accounting customers, creating real value across the board," said Tom Allanson, Senior Vice President of Intuit's Tax Division. "Keen's live advice marketplace enables Intuit to deliver a reliable, easy-to-use service where our customers can get the tax and accounting advice they need."
The alliance gives Keen greater presence in the growing $95 billion financial advisory services market as well as direct access to millions of potential customers. For Intuit, the relationship is part of its commitment to provide complete, full-service support to consumers and small businesses and additional revenue opportunities for its professional tax and accountant customers.
"Intuit sets the standard for excellence in tax and accounting software and services, and now, with Keen, Intuit customers can get the advice they need from a trusted advisor," said Karl Jacob, CEO and president of Keen. "This is a strategic alliance for Keen because Intuit's products are used by millions of consumers and small businesses every year. Our relationship with Intuit will bolster our growing financial services category and is another example of the type of advice consumers can find in the more than 300 categories on Keen."
Immediate, Live Tax Advice for Consumers
Consumers can access TurboTax Live Tax Advice by simply clicking the "Live Tax Advice" button in TurboTax and TurboTax for the Web and search for a participating Intuit tax professional to provide them with tax advice. Whether consumers need advice regarding a particular tax situation or they're looking for additional validation of their tax return, the immediate, live advice feature in TurboTax is an invaluable tool for the millions of people who do their own taxes.
Consumers looking for additional support can submit their tax return electronically through a feature called "Review My Return" and have it reviewed via email by an Intuit tax advisor. The Live Tax Advice feature is part of the already extensive in-product "Help" in TurboTax.
Connecting Small Businesses with QuickBooks Professional Advisors
The QuickBooks Accounting Live Advice Center lets QuickBooks customers find a QuickBooks Professional Advisor to provide live accounting and payroll advice as well as QuickBooks set-up services. QuickBooks customers can access the QuickBooks Accounting Live Advice Center from various points within QuickBooks and associated Intuit Web sites.
Prior to selecting a QuickBooks Professional Advisor, small businesses can browse advisors by accounting topic and review their posted rates, profiles, and prior feedback and ratings.
About Keen
Keen, Your Personal Advisor, providing live, immediate advice for everyday life, is available through www.keen.com and 1-800-ASK-KEEN. Anyone who wants to give advice can join Keen's community of Speakers for free, by creating a listing that describes the information and advice they wish to provide. KeenSpeakers set their own price per minute fee; some members are making over $2,000 per week! Quality advice is ensured through Keen's consumer-based feedback and rating system, as well as through the credential verification service.
Keen has raised over $109 million from prestigious investors and strategic partners. These investors include Amerindo Investment Advisors, Attractor Investment Management, Benchmark Capital, CNET (Nasdaq: CNET), Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Impact Venture Partners, Inktomi (Nasdaq: INKT), Innovation Investments, Integral Capital, Merrill Lynch (Nasdaq: MER), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Pivotal Asset Management, Pyramid Technology Ventures, L.P. and Vulcan
