Intuit Inc. has provided an updated timetable for the release of the online financial management tool it has been developing with the online banking software vendor it acquired last year.
Intuit, of Mountain View, Calif., purchased Digital Insight Corp. in February 2007, nine months after the two companies began collaborating on FinanceWorks, which incorporates elements of Intuit's Quicken and QuickBooks financial management software into the online banking software from Digital Insight that banks offer to customers.
Intuit's president and chief executive, Brad Smith, said Tuesday that his company expects to roll out the consumer edition of FinanceWorks in October and the small-business version will follow in December.
The company originally planned to launch the consumer edition in June of last year and the small-business version by last fall; three banks have been testing the software since last year.
Despite the delay, Intuit said there is significant interest in the software.
"We're starting to get real traction," Mr. Smith said during a conference call with analysts to discuss Intuit's fiscal third-quarter results. "We had a very successful user conference with record attendance and very positive response to our personal FinanceWorks demonstration."
Revenue from Intuit's financial institutions segment rose 17%, to $76 million, in its fiscal third quarter, which ended April 30.
R. Neil Williams, Intuit's chief financial officer, said during the call that "we still have a lot of work to do, but we're pleased with the progress we're making in this segment."
In its second-quarter earnings call in February, Intuit was unwilling to provide a schedule for FinanceWorks, and attributed the delays to slow bank conversions and technical hurdles in integrating its software with Digital Insight's.
Mr. Smith said that his company has not seen any significatn slowing in spending from banks, despite the difficult economic environment.
Intuit's revenue overall rose 15%, to $1.3 billion, in its third quarter from a year earlier. Its net income rose 21%, to $444.2 million.
Because tax season occurred in the quarter, Intuit noted, much of the growth came from its consumer and professional tax business segments.
Patricia Hines, a senior analyst with the wholesale banking practice at TowerGroup Inc., a Needham, Mass., independent research firm owned by MasterCard Inc., said the new timetable for the FinanceWorks launch is "not that much of an extension" from what banks were expecting already, given that they were already aware that the rollout has faced extensive delays.
Intuit's committing to a new date indicates the testing with banks is proceeding smoothly, Ms. Hines said. "They have gotten through that stage of the product, particularly on the personal side," she said.
It makes sense that banks would not slow their spending on Intuit's products in the face of economic pressure, Ms. Hines said.
"Online banking is one of the most resilient products," Ms. Hines said. "Customers are using it, and there continues to be adoption of it."
Though Intuit is still one of the most vocal advocates of adding personal financial management tools to online banking software for the small and midsize banks it serves, she said, it needs to be aware of what the larger banks such as Wells Fargo & Co. and Bank of America Corp. are doing, as both have already deployed some elements that Intuit is planning for FinanceWorks.
