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Rich Preece, Intuit UK

New Intuit MD promises more for UK accountants

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19th Feb 2014
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Ex-pat Intuit executive Rich Preece has returned to take charge at the company’s UK headquarters in London and tie it in more closely with the strategy and tactics that have helped dominate the US market for accountancy software.

Having grown up near Bristol, Preece has spent most of his career in the States and worked in several different divisions during his past 11 years at Intuit. He takes over as UK country manager from former CFO Mike Williams, who has led the UK subsidiary as interim managing director for the past nine months.

Preece said Intuit considered two options for its long-term UK appointment: someone with local experience and knowledge; or a US insider who understands Intuit and how it operates. “I was identified as someone who might have best of both worlds who can draw on Intuit experience and connection points,” Preece said.

Mike Williams will continue to head the company’s UK finance operation and is “critical to my leadership team”, the new MD added.

Preece told AccountingWEB he has a very clear plan of action for Intuit in the UK.

“Because of the success we’ve had elsewhere, we believe we uniquely understand accountants and small businesses and the synergies of working together. We know UK accountants increasingly want to be cloud-based. They want to have more collaboration with clients and we want to make it easier,” he explained.

Intuit’s UK expansion programme has already seen it double its staff to more than 100 and moving them to a base in central London. “Almost half of those staff are focused entirely on accountants,” Preece said.

“What we’re doing is working. We will continue to invest in the notion of Pro Advisors. This has been very successful in the US. We’ve got tens of thousands of accountants in the US who are Pro Advisors and help influence QuickBooks, and have access to training and certification along with product discounts for clients.”

While aware that Intuit couldn’t just “plug and play” its US strategy in the UK market, Preece said his objective was to borrow wherever possible on existing initiatives that will work for UK accountants.

On AccountingWEB recently, members discussed recent shifts in the QuickBooks Online pricing strategy, which included a new cloud partner offer from January of a plus version available for clients at £4.99 a month.

“We heard that pricing feedback loud and clear and made a significant change,” said Preece. “The action we took shows a genuine sincerity on our part to listen and act. Before long you’ll see further changes to show that we’re here to work with accountants and understand that building that relationship is the only thing that matters.”

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By Sirius
06th Mar 2014 12:51

New MD

Hopefully this will mean that long standing advisors are more valued. I have been an advisor and a lecturer for Intuit for many years BUT they do things like to forget to send me my pack then try to charge me.

This year I didn't get my proper disks until May 2013 but I was due an invoice in Sept which hasn't appeared. Does this mean they have extended my subscription?  I bet it doesn't and that I will not get my payroll yearend update.

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