Intuit on Tuesday launched Intuit Anywhere, a series of widgets and data services that connect QuickBooks Online data to applications outside of the company’s marketplace. Think Facebook Connect for QuickBooks data.
For Intuit, the latest effort is the next-generation of its developer strategy. Intuit already has a successful store that instantly integrates customer data with applications. That integration leads to some interesting technology buying behavior relative to a large enterprise.
For instance, Intuit customers can try three or four CRM applications and see how they actually work before buying them. Intuit Anywhere would open up the selection since apps on Google’s enterprise marketplace could now connect to QuickBooks Online.
Alex Chriss, director of Intuit’s Partner Platform, said the company is looking to emulate the integration that Facebook Connect provides around the Web. If successful, Intuit’s 5 million customers will have a larger ecosystem of apps available.
“Intuit Anywhere is about the concept of drop-dead easy and takes it one step farther by allowing developers inside our platform and federate their apps,” said Chriss. “The data will be portable and work back and forth.”
The program, currently in beta, is being used by Bill.com, Concur, eBay, FreshBooks, MavenLink and Method CRM. MavenLink is the No. 1 project management app on Google Apps.
With Intuit Anywhere, developers can incorporate a widget into an app workflow. This widget is authenticated to a customer’s QuickBooks or QuickBooks Online data via an Intuit ID. Once the connection is made developers can prepopulate QuickBooks data.
Intuit plans to provide more details about Intuit Anywhere in August at its IPP CloudJam developer event at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View.
Related:
