Intuit sees a bright future over personal financial software

SAN DIEGO -- Not so fast, Microsoft Money. You thought the personal finance software business was dead, but a company here is convinced you're wrong.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," says Todd Stanley, 40, the Intuit executive in charge of the team partially based in San Diego that designs Quicken.

Microsoft competed vigorously with Intuit by introducing its Money software in 1991. In 1995 it attempted to buy the company — a move the government blocked on antitrust concerns.

With Microsoft bowing out, Intuit ranks as one of the few companies to take it on head-on and win. Microsoft couldn't topple Quicken largely because the software was so entrenched with "influencers," says technology consultant Leo Notenboom, a former Microsoft employee who worked on the third version of Money. Specifically, accountants and financial planners used Intuit's products and recommended them to clients. "They saw Quicken as the go-to piece of software," he says.

Now Intuit finds itself in the role of the big dog with lots of smaller software firms and websites gunning for a way to cash in on the millions of consumers trying to track their money. With annual revenue of $3 billion-plus, Intuit is the one to beat in the financial management category. Its products range from TurboTax tax preparation software to Quickbooks business accounting software.

The challenges facing Intuit, especially its Quicken franchise, are numerous. Intuit must protect its traditional Quicken business from new desktop personal software being written by small developers. Then there's the emerging threat coming from financial websites that promise to help consumers watch their money, for free.