Intuit Presses MS Word Into Service For Collaboration

The new QuickBase Exact Forms feature lets workgroup members take static Word forms and transform them into sharable, dynamic documents, the company said.

The downloadable template will obviate the need to download data from databases to forms usable on the Web. The goal is to make it simple to create a form that is sharable and easy to e-mail, said Jana Eggers, general manager for QuickBase.

Other enhancements include the ability to copy a record to a new record in one click and easier toggling between table view of data to a time line or calendar view, the company said.

Intuit known primarily for its blockbuster Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax applications, is also trying to boost its profile in collaboration especially in the small-business and corporate workgroup markets. It bought what became QuickBase in 1999 and last year started building its developer program to encourage third parties to customize, resell and support the application.

With its reputation for easy-to-use and inexpensive home software sold at retail, Intuit is one of a select few software companies that can boast of beating Microsoft--repeatedly--at its own game. Quicken continues to dominate the home finance category over Microsoft Money, and QuickBooks thrashed Microsoft Profit. Microsoft is mulling a re-entry in low-end accounting with its Magellan project.

QuickBase tends to compete with e-mailed spreadsheets and word documents and to some extent with specialty collaboration applications like eRoom, now owned by EMC.

Some channel partners said by giving customers the ability to do more application work on their own, QuickBase frees up valuable IT resources.

"One of the biggest obstacles to average users in keeping track of information is that it can be confusing, mysterious or unnatural to learn new things, but 90 percent of users know Word and that removes a barrier," said Darcy Ellarby, president of ITFirst, a Burnsville, Minn., custom application development shop.

ITFirst often recommends QuickBase because even nonprogrammers can use it to do simple application development. "Customers ask us to write custom applications to keep track of data and make it sharable. QuickBase lets departmental users create a lot of screens on their own without needing custom app developers like me. Then application development becomes more of a partnership between my company, which does the deeply technical aspects, and the customer," she said.

ITFirst writes applications that help companies find and access data often trapped in user applications like Excel and Word.

QuickBase subscriptions start at $249 per month including access for 10 users per each application.