I note in your previous postings you're a long time Quicken user. How about TurboTax? Do you E-Commerce..I mean e-file?
I use Quicken, Turbo Tax, Investor Insight, Quicken Financial Planner, Checkfree, and have a Quicken VISA card. I don't file my taxes electronically, as I see no reason I should have to pay for this service.
I have used Checkfree since beta testing it in Quicken DOS 3.0EP. I think it sucks that Intuit tried to compete and steal their business. I have stuck with Checkfree throughout.
I thought Quicken 5 was a dog, but Quicken 6 picked it back up.
I feel just the opposite. I think the menu structure got ruined in the newer version. You have to search for functions on the menu or create an icon. Modem setup has to be done 2 or 3 times for the various functions, and even though most transmissions amount to just a few hundred bytes, each setup seems to want a specific initialization string to work. To get my credit card statement, pay the bills, and get stock quotes requires 3 calls. It should be all on a secure internet connection, and take 0 calls to complete. Certainly not 3.
Reports are not sizeable in 6. So evrytime I want to scroll through a portfolio value report, or almost any report for that matter, I have to turn "QuickTabs" off so I don't have to scroll in horizontally.
Intuit should assist users in stepping up to the needed complexity of a good personal finance program. Not adjusting it for prepubescent users with MS Easyball trackballs.
Question is, how do you simultaneously make it (or any software) easier to use and more featured? How do you please everybody?
The same way a company like Gateway can make a PC that is useful to both a home user and a professional CAD engineer. I would be very easy to have easily customizable menus and toolbars ala MS Office to please everyone. Novice users could avoid features that were unnecessary or complex to them.
Problem for Intuit, they've pleased nobody: segment is stagnant (no new novices coming in), and existing users aren't upgrading (no compelling new features).
Something they could fix in a day. First, a little customer service please. If you are going to make customers wait on hold for a half hour, provide an 800 number, email and fax support, and techs that can solve problems without consulting with 3 other techs.
User will upgrade for ANY new features if they add value to the product. Millions of people buy a new copy of TurboTax every year. Any Quicken user would be willing to the same for a year of renewed subscriptions to minor features.
Please file this posting under the 85%.
There's a subset of that that allows for clarification of opinions and mindset of the poster. At least it's not in the 5% that some people always hit...
Let's allow 25% for reasonable discussion in the abscence of news.
jas |
