QuickBase is a powerful yet affordable alternative to high-end enterprise solutions and the more widely used approach of e-mailing spreadsheets for sharing information and managing process in today's distributed business environment. With its new Exact Forms feature, it is the first workgroup application to allow users to share over the Web their dynamic data in the exact format needed to adhere to industry standards, company policy, or desired visual appeal - simply using a familiar tool, Microsoft Word.

"The QuickBase team is constantly adding useful, timesaving new features to the service. With Exact Forms, we cut processing time in half while standardizing on business processes for property liens, invoicing and funds dispersal," said Shad Twist, project manager for Greenfield Homes Corporation, a construction finance company. "As a company that uses investors, loan officers and builders out in the field, having these standard forms online and accessible from anywhere is critical to doing business efficiently. With other software packages, we would be tied to our desks, fax machines, and phones."

Customer-Driven Innovation at Work
The new Exact Forms is an example of how Intuit's customer-driven innovation approach translates into features that deliver on the promise of improving a customer's ROI. Through building relationships with its customers, including frequent conversations and on-site visits, Intuit recognized that many customers were cutting and pasting data from

QuickBase into their corporate or industry-standard forms, then e-mailing, faxing or couriering those documents to team members, vendors or clients. While QuickBase was solving the need for keeping the information current and managed within the workgroup's process, the QuickBase team saw that customers needed a simple way to bring that dynamic data into their static documents and then easily share the now dynamic documents. Based on these learnings from customers, they created the Exact Forms feature. Now, users simply adapt their customized form in Microsoft Word and save it to any QuickBase application. Exact Forms can include text, images, and field values in common formats supported by Microsoft Word.

"By working closely with customers to understand their needs, we are often able to offer a unique answer to their pain. In this case, customers needed both dynamic data integrated into their forms and those forms easily shared," said Jana Eggers, general manager of QuickBase. "And, unlike desktop or client/server applications, as a Web-based, hosted service, we can roll out new features to our customers every few months without the time-intensive download-and-install process."

"We have found the QuickBase service to be continually improving and answering our needs -- many times before we realize we have them," said Ed Metz, producer/director, of Robert Berning Productions a national full service advertising, marketing and communications firm. "This means our ROI on the product improves every few months. You can't say that for many software applications."

In addition to Exact Forms, other new features of QuickBase include:
• Add Similar Records: Copy a record with its existing information to a new record with one simple click.
• Calendar and Timeline Improvements: Changing between a table view of data to a timeline or calendar view is now a simple menu selection.
• Trial Enhancements: During the 30-day, free trial, users have more information at their fingertips, including how to create applications and how many days are remaining in their trial.
• Performance Improvements: QuickBase engineers are constantly striving to improve the service for users. With this release, they have improved average response time by 30 percent.

"Intuit is applying its hallmark ease-of-use expertise to hosted workgroup applications. This translates into significant ROI in time and cost savings," said Laurie McCabe, Summit Strategies. "With QuickBase, end-users can do many of the tasks that in the past would have required extensive IT support."

Pricing and Availability
For existing QuickBase users, simply log on to QuickBase http://quickbase.intuit.com to experience the value of these new features.

New users can easily get up and running on QuickBase through Intuit's free 30-day trial (registration required). The trial offers access to the fully functional service and quick start-up with pre-built applications and easy import from spreadsheets. There is no hardware to set up or software to install. Users simply need a Web connection. The QuickBase monthly subscription fee starts at $249, and includes access for 10 users per application. Additional users and data storage are available for additional fees.