Intuit announces development centre in city

Intuit, US-based $2 billion accounting software solutions provider, has announced the setting up of its product development centre in Bangalore. The unit is expected to hire 300 engineers over the next five years.

This will be in addition to the present 115 resources which Cognizant in India has dedicated to handling Intuit's product development, which is expected to continue growing.

The Indian captive centre will focus on test automation products and other applications, while Cognizant will work on financial statements product.

The company presently earns 90 per cent of its revenues from US and the rest from UK. It is also mandating its Indian personnel to look at the possibility of selling into Indian market.

The company has a stranglehold in the US accounting market for small and medium businesses with its QuickBooks products. It will empower its Indian engineers to innovate and interact directly with customers and come out with solutions.

Said Scott Cook, co-founder & chairman, Intuit: "The Indian unit is far more than a product development centre. It is an innovation centre. Our success comes from listening to customers and then giving engineers the freedom to innovate. Our engineers don't simply write and test code. They are passionate, creative thinkers who will help us continue to invent products to solve customer problems."

An example of this, Scott said is with their outsourcing arrangement with Cognizant, it is the team from Cognizant which gets to decide specifications for products and not the client (Intuit) who gives out details.

"The team from Cognizant gets to meet our customers directly and they get the freedom to design the products. This is the kind of work culture we have," Cook said.