MRI Is Right for Intuit... On July 12, 2002, Intuit, the developers of Quicken, QuickBooks, and TurboTax, closed its acquisition of Management Reports, Inc. (MRI), a property management software company, with a cash payment of $92 million. Wow, I thought to myself. That's cool. But why would a mainstream consumer and small business software company acquire a real estate technology company?

So last week I spoke with Bob Lasser, previously CEO of MRI and now VP General Manager of Intuit MRI Real Estate Solutions, who explained the benefits of the acquisition for both Intuit and MRI. First, Lasser believes that, in terms of property value and square footage, MRI software manages more real estate than any of its competitors, and MRI has a global presence in Hong Kong, Johannesburg, London, Singapore, and Sydney. So MRI fits nicely into Intuit's "Right for My Business" strategy, which seeks growth by diversifying from accounting products, targeting vertical markets with unique needs, and developing services for larger businesses.

Second, Lasser is particularly excited by the "brain trust" relationship that now enables MRI to tap the knowledge of Intuit and its related companies. As a long-time Quicken user, I've always been impressed with how easy it is to install and use. (And, yes, I know it's not perfect!) But imagine the resources that Intuit, which has annual revenues of $1.5 billion, has committed to issues like electronic invoicing and bill payment.

MRI has been a part of Intuit for just over two months. But according to Lasser, "Over time our users will see the impact of Intuit on our products." Given the generally slow rate of adoption of real estate technology, it will be fun to see how a successful consumer brand might transform our business processes. After all, if I can easily pay my bills electronically via Quicken, why is our industry buried in paper?

--Peter Pike