Launching a long-awaited assault on Intuit Inc. and its popular Quicken system, Microsoft Corp. today releases a new version of its Money personal financial management software, with new ways for banks to connect to it.
Microsoft executives say Money 97 is easier to use than its predecessor and more widely available to banks.
Banks can offer Money 97 services in various ways: through processors like Checkfree Corp., Intuit Services Corp., and Visa Interactive; or directly through Microsoft's "open financial connectivity" standard for on- line commerce.
Microsoft also announced that 37 banks are offering Money 97 - roughly the same number that today offer Quicken services - and that at least 23 more will offer Money 97 by yearend.
"We're here today with a lot of what Quicken is announcing they'll have a year from now," said Richard Bray, Money 97 product unit manager at Microsoft.
'What this really means is more banks will be available through Money sooner than through Quicken."
But Intuit officials said they did not feel threatened.
"What they mostly did was add a few features we already had," said Matthew Glickman, Quicken group product manager.
Bankers planning to offer Money 97 said Microsoft's open technology standard was a major benefit.
"We will be able to provide our customers with the same service that they're used to, which is on-line, real-time balances," said Michael Papantoniou, a vice president in electronic commerce at Chase Manhattan Bank.
"Microsoft Money and Quicken now have to go through Intuit Services Corp. - that's the big difference," he said. "ISC only has start-of-day balances."
Bankers also praised Money 97 for giving prominence to bank brand names. Customers will see their banks' logo, Internet address, and whatever other information the bank chooses to provide.
Henry Mounger, senior vice president of consumer product development at Deposit Guaranty National Bank in Jackson, Miss., said his own "road test" of Money 97 convinced him the bank should offer it. Deposit Guaranty had not previously offered Money or Quicken.
"The overriding impression I had was its ease of use," Mr. Mounger said of Money 97. "I had never used Quicken or any other personal financial management software before, and I was banging out reports right and left."
Mr. Mounger said the ability to offer Money 97 through Visa Interactive was also an attractive feature.
"We're trying to maximize that vendor relationship," he said. "We obviously recognize the fact that Quicken is a very visible product in the marketplace, but we're not prepared at this point to go through all those operational issues to get up and connect."
This month, Intuit announced the sale of its processing division to Checkfree. It also announced an alternative to Microsoft's technology specification that it dubbed OpenExchange.
Mr. Bray of Microsoft said Intuit's standard is a late entry in the race.
"They didn't announce anything new with OpenExchange - what they were trying to do was slow down the market because they're a year behind," Mr. Bray said.
"There's no reason for banks to wait another year, and the big banks aren't waiting," he said. "Why should they wait for an undocumented, unpublished format when there's one available today that they can work with?"
Mr. Glickman at Intuit said his company's open standard does the same things as Microsoft's, "but in a much better way," offering a choice of processors plus "a broader range of connectivity."
Mr. Papantoniou at Chase said he also viewed OpenExchange as a broader standard, but hoped the two specifications would converge. "That would benefit all banks," he said.
Chase, like many of the larger banks, offers both Quicken and Money options for home banking.
Some bankers who offer both products said they were pleased with the improvements to Money but are not taking sides in the Microsoft-Intuit rivalry.
"The more they talk about each other, the more focus there will be on personal financial software, and the better for me," said S. Michael Woodward, a vice president in strategic marketing at Crestar Bank in Richmond, Va.
"We don't come out and promote Quicken over Money or BankNow" - Intuit's transaction-oriented offering with America Online. "I think both of them have done a very good job."
Despite some bankers' neutrality, Money 97 is guaranteed to step up the competition for customer loyalty.
"This is going to be a really interesting season for the personal finance software market," predicted Phoebe Simpson, an electronic commerce analyst at Jupiter Communications in New York.
"The fact that you can download the Quicken data into Money 97 is going to be very interesting, and will ease the entrance of anyone who is looking to switch."
Mr. Bray said Microsoft wanted to make switching from Quicken to Money "as easy as possible." Quicken users are being offered a $10 discount on the $34.95 retail price of Money 97, as well as the ability to instantly transfer all their existing Quicken files into Money 97.
Microsoft also plans to offer all comers free 90-day trials of Money 97.
Another new feature of Money 97, critical to banks and consumers, is Internet connectivity. Users will be able to connect not only to their banks but to a Web site Microsoft maintains that offers current stock quotations.
Mr. Glickman of Intuit said Microsoft's previous efforts to make Money widely available had failed to dent Quicken's market share, and he predicted the same would hold for Money 97.
"We've added over a million customers in the last year," Mr. Glickman said.
Citing numbers compiled by PC Data of Reston, Va., Mr. Glickman said Quicken has 73% of personal financial software users, Money 23%; 4% use other types.
"Microsoft has increased its market share, but it has come at the expense of the smaller players like (Meca Software's) Managing Your Money," Mr. Glickman said.
Ms. Simpson of Jupiter Communications said the release of Money 97 reflected Microsoft's belief that high-function software could double as a mass market product.
"Intuit sees the market splitting into transactors and trackers, and Microsoft does not buy into that, so they have worked with their product to get sort of a blend of the two," she said. "I think it's going to be a tight race."
