Intuit Canada Ltd.

In 1993, a couple of students working out of a basement in Edmonton founded WinTax, a company whose software allowed people to fill out their own tax forms on their home computers. 14 years later, the company is still headquartered in Edmonton but it employs some 400 people throughout its offices in Calgary, Toronto and  Ottawa. Now known as Intuit Canada, the accounting software firm is a leader in market penetration, customer service and, most importantly, employee satisfaction. Intuit Canada’s executives are most proud of their community involvement and the level of engagement shown by the company’s employees, both in terms of charitable activities and workplace satisfaction. It’s a tribute to the staff and the Intuit culture that the company contributed a record-setting 87% volunteer-participation level and an astounding 7,082 total volunteer hours over the last 12 months. Intuit supports such endeavours through corporate grants to the each staff member’s favourite charities. Recent efforts have focused on the three-year-old Batting Against Breast Cancer softball tournament and the Edmonton-area house Intuit built through Habitat for Humanity.

The above tells us that in presenting Intuit with the Outstanding Commercial Achievement in Alberta Science and Technology Award, ASTech pays tribute to an organisation that subscribes to the Alberta ethos of working hard and giving back to the community that supports your business. But is that enough to garner an ASTech Award? Can we believe Chief Technology Officer Cameron Peters when he says, “Intuit Canada sees itself as a company that provides great solutions to small businesses. We want to be able to help companies. We’re looking at the problems they face and trying to find elegant solutions so they can focus on their businesses.” In a word: Yes. Consider the following:

• Intuit’s QuickBooks program is the best-selling accounting program in Canada.

 

• The Quicken, QuickTax, and QuickBooks packages are tops among consumers. Remarkably, ProFile and QuickBooks are just as highly regarded by accountants and bookkeepers, meaning that Intuit’s quality and expertise have allowed it to penetrate the entire market—both professional and consumer—a truly remarkable feat.

 

• Their online and telephone customer service is so good that the average customer waits only 90 seconds to speak to a customer service agent and 90% of the calls are handled in fewer than five minutes. The overall quality of the experience has led a staggering 85% of users to give Intuit a satisfaction rating of 8 or higher on a scale of 1 to 10.