By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMFBreakerRick) September 14, 2006
Enterprising bean counters and aspiring entrepreneurs: Don't look now, but there's a Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) in your accounting software soup. The online search giant is teaming up with Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) to doll up the upcoming version of QuickBooks with access to many of Google's online features.
The alliance is a logical one. Small businesses can certainly use a little Google in their lives. They can generate leads for pocket change through Google AdWords. They can sell items for free through Google Base. They can get listed on Google Maps.
Google's recurring role in QuickBooks 2007 may not seem like much of a catch, but it will be once rivals Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) begin to build out their merchant solutions.
This pairing also opens the door for Google and Intuit to team up again on Intuit's consumer-driven software products, such as Quicken budgeting software and TurboTax filing applications. It would no doubt be sweet for both camps if Google were able to serve up live referrals to local financial services consultants and credit providers and counselors.
Sure, QuickBooks is the perfect first step here with Intuit. It's not Google's first foray into embedding itself in popular software programs. The company hooked up with Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW) last year. It also teamed up with Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) earlier this year to have Google's toolbar and other programs pre-installed in Dell systems.
These partnerships will naturally make enterprise software specialists
-- companies that are already working off some pretty healthy margins for the most part -- even more attractive. Who knows? This may one day be the seed that finds Oracle's (Nasdaq: ORCL) Larry Ellison and Microsoft's Bill Gates getting all chummy and finishing each other's sentences.
OK, maybe it won't go that far, but it's definitely a trend that will continue to blossom.