HP to Google, Intuit: It's OUR small business cloud, too!

Move over Google and Intuit, make room for HP in the small business cloud! 

HP has gained direct access to small businesses that are already doing business in the cloud to help them run their businesses: HP is acquiring Logoworks, a Web-based design service company for small businesses.

Intuit and Google’s supposed small business killer alliance announced with much fanfare last year has yet to bear any fruits. In Logoworks and affiliate property LogoMaker, HP immediately is in the small business in the cloud game.

Logoworks is not a ten person Web 2.0 start-up with a "cool" app and a Google buyout dream: The Utah-based company has been in business since 2001, has 100 employees and 45,000 (well) paying customers. 

Intuit: The next local Advertising Agency? I asked last month after hearing Steven Aldrich, VP, Strategy and Innovation, Small Business Division, Intuit, make the case for why small businesses need help, marketing help, at the “Drilling Down on Local” in Santa Clara.

 

Why is Intuit keen on making sure small businesses get the help they need? Because “small business is as big as big businesses,” Aldrich asserted. 

According to Intuit, small businesses spend a whopping $110 billion a year on marketing!

But, how will Intuit capture the small business, big marketing business? Aldrich was not crystal clear on that end. Why does Intuit care? Aldrich asked and answered: “Our mission is empowering individuals in small businesses to achieve their dreams.” 

Noble, but show me the money, small businesses generally say. Intuit: “We are going to help them acquire and serve customers.”

Starting when? Aldrich suggested Intuit is already on track, thanks to the the recent “Google Marketing Tools” button addition to QuickBooks 2007, offering incentives such as a $50 AdWords starter credit.

Steve Bennett, CEO, Intuit, commentary in the second quarter, fiscal 2007 earnings call, however, reflected a lack of tangible results to date of the “major strategic alliance” between Intuit and Google.

Where does HP stand, now, on the small business is big marketing business front?

“Today’s small businesses are increasingly turning to the web for marketing tools and services that strike a balance between affordability and quality,” said Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “By adding Logoworks’ web-based graphic design service to our portfolio, HP can now provide the right mix of cost savings, flexibility and professional quality to help make a small business look big.”

Logoworks’ technologies and services provide small businesses with access to professional design solutions offered by “hundreds of graphic designers worldwide,” supplying a range of business development products, from simple logo design to the development of full marketing collateral. HP is also acquiring Logowork’s sister property, LogoMaker, a self-service design application.

What’s more, while Google deems the Web to print model is fodder for an April Fools “joke,” HP plans to “greatly expand and enhance” both Logoworks and LogoMaker’s "simple-to-use web-based design services," including using independent print service providers to deliver product to customers.

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