Intuit Launches Channel Program For QuickBase Platform

Intuit is launching a consultant partner program around its QuickBase platform for building on-demand applications, a move the vendor said would assist solution providers who are moving away from reselling and implementing packaged applications in favor of delivering software-as-a-service solutions.

The QuickBase Business Consultant Program would help expand market awareness of QuickBase, along with providing such services as sales lead-sharing and training, said Scott Wyatt, CEO of Advanced Integrated Solutions, a Denver-based consulting firm that works with QuickBase and an early participant in the new initiative.

QuickBase, a Web-based database application development platform, is used by solution providers and businesses to build workflow and collaborative applications such as project management apps and sales team collaboration systems. Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit acquired QuickBase in November 1999 when it bought Turning Mill Software and now sells the hosted software on a subscription basis.

The new partner program will help QuickBase consultants with business process management and vertical industry expertise expand into markets previously dominated by IT experts, according to Intuit. For Intuit the goal is to capitalize on QuickBase through the growing demand for software-as-a-service applications.

"SaaS is disrupting the VAR market," said Alex Chriss, group manager of QuickBase business development and channel sales. Intuit is looking to recruit solution providers who now work with traditional on-premise applications from other vendors but are eager to move into software-as-a-service, he said.

The partner program, which Intuit has been piloting for awhile, now has 25 members and the company's goal is to add another 75 this year, Chriss said. The program has no joining fees and provides consultant partners with training, enhanced support, sales leads, and sales commissions of 20 percent to 30 percent on deals partners generate for Intuit. Consulting partners don't resell QuickBase: Customers license it directly from Intuit.

"This increases market awareness of QuickBase and we're an extension of QuickBase marketing," Wyatt said. His company has used QuickBase to develop workflow and call center applications used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to aid Hurricane Katrina victims. "We're a long-time QuickBase partner."