This paper analyzes three interconnected business information systems topics through a case study format. First, it examines how software applications decline without continuous customer-driven innovation, using Intuit's tax software development practices as a model. Second, it compares Intuit's employee-based customer research model against Microsoft's professional anthropologist approach, drawing on lessons from Japanese market research methods. Third, it presents a weighted hardware evaluation framework for selecting a business smartphone for an insurance sales force. Finally, it outlines an ERP- and web-based turnaround strategy for the furniture retailer This End Up, incorporating product configuration systems and supply chain integration.
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The paper demonstrates applied comparative analysis — evaluating two competing methodologies (Intuit's employee-led customer visits versus Microsoft's professional anthropologist model) against a set of organizational criteria, specifically how well each approach diffuses customer knowledge throughout a company. This technique moves beyond simple preference statements by anchoring judgments in management theory and documented business outcomes.
The paper is divided into four discrete response sections, each addressing a distinct prompt. The first two sections focus on software strategy and customer research methodology using the Intuit case. The third section shifts to a quantitative hardware evaluation exercise, presenting a weighted scoring table for smartphone selection. The fourth section synthesizes multiple information systems concepts — ERP, supply chain integration, and web commerce — into a strategic turnaround recommendation for a furniture retailer.
Any software application that does not stay in step with the preferences, wants, and needs of customers over time will become increasingly irrelevant and fall out of use. This is one of the factors that contributed to Netscape's browser being eventually overtaken by Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. In the Intuit case study, researchers are continually looking for ways to add value to the 20 million American citizens who prepare their taxes by hand, in addition to those already using a competing tax application or those hiring tax preparers. For those completing their tax returns manually, this has proven to be an incredibly time-consuming, tedious task that, given the myriad of new laws and regulations, could potentially lead to significant errors.
What is refreshing about the research practices of Intuit is that the company is on a mission to enrich the user experience of its application. This is demonstrated clearly by the drastic reduction of 125 setup screens to just three, based directly on customer feedback. It would be far easier to use fear as a motivator — for instance, by showing statistics on how many people who complete returns by hand are audited. Yet instead of relying on fear, the company continually aligns its applications to the unmet needs and pain points of its customers. That recognition of how critical it is to build applications around customers' pain points is itself the key insight into how to stay relevant as both a software product and a company.
For this approach to innovation to be applied consistently across all product lines over many years, it must be an integral part of Intuit's culture. The case study notes that failure is tolerated — even celebrated — within the company. In an interview, the CEO of Intuit confirmed that nurturing innovation by taking customer listening to an entirely new level is a core company value (Mendonca & Sneader, 2007). As with any major initiative, there must be strong support from the CEO for it to matter and to be applied consistently across product lines. This commitment to never stop innovating clearly starts at the top.
All of these factors contribute to the principle that any application, to remain relevant, must be anchored in pain points representing the unmet needs of the customers it is designed to serve. Intuit clearly sees this as so valuable that the company does not simply purchase market research reports about tax software; instead, it actively seeks the voice of its customers firsthand.
Both approaches — Intuit's model of sending hundreds of employees and managers to consult with customers in their homes or places of business, and Microsoft's model of using professional anthropologists — will deliver exceptional insights, far beyond what can be learned from a summarized market research report. In choosing between the two, it is useful to reflect on lessons learned by Japanese managers as they sought to understand the distribution channels of the photography market in the United States (Johansson & Nonaka, 1987). Much can be understood and appreciated, and invaluable lessons can be learned, from having product development, engineering, marketing, sales, and service teams present in customers' homes or offices, listening directly to unmet needs and observing how customers try to achieve their goals. Software, to stay relevant, must continually help customers attain their objectives and overcome their pain points (Mendonca & Sneader, 2007).
The Microsoft approach of using anthropologists is quite effective for capturing ethnographic data that can be used to produce software applications and games aligned to user preferences (McMillan & Ng, 2007). However, the diffusion of this knowledge throughout the broader organization could be problematic. It is better to adopt an approach to capturing customer insights that permeates an organization, as Intuit does, so that key assumptions about customer value can be interpreted across teams and quickly integrated into products.
Of the two approaches, the Intuit model would create a greater level of innovation within the culture of any company. Microsoft's use of ethnographic research to define branding strategies, including its well-known "People Ready" campaign, is documented (Maddox, 2006), yet this approach does not lend itself well to making knowledge permeate throughout an organization. It does, however, produce targeted company-wide strategies. On balance, the Intuit approach better serves the goal of embedding a customer-centered development culture at every level of the organization.
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