When Intuit developed its small business accounting software package, the product developers realized that most small business owners were not familiar with accounting jargon, and in fact were intimidated by it.
QuickBooks has more than 90% retail market share for small business accounting software.
"Taking money from people is always hard, " says Zachary Nelson, chief executive of NetSuite, a small-business software firm in San Mateo, Calif.
For the first time in the history of business software, small businesses can use software that is as good, if not better, than the software bigger corporations use.
FORBES: Revolution: A New Era In Software For Small Businesses
The problem with new IRS software requests, according to AICPA, is that small-business record-keeping software is flexible enough to bring in unrelated financial data that are fully integrated with the tax-preparation information.
In October the software giant agreed to link the 2.8 million small-business users of its QuickBooks management and accounting software to Intelisys' network of 600 suppliers.
As for office management software, Microsoft Office Small Business--with its suite of tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook--is still the standard.
This powerful machine also includes dedicated software tools specifically for small business including Lenovo Solutions for Small Business powered by Intel Small Business Advantage and Lenovo Cloud Storage by SugarSync.
Kaspersky has had considerable success in the retail internet security market in the US. That success has ultimately translated into growth into enterprise business software, especially in the small-to-media businesses, or SMB.
FORBES: Kaspersky's Market Share Rises as Symantec & McAfee's Falls
The App Center is targeted at companies like mine: small businesses looking for better software to run their business, particularly in the cloud.
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"Nothing could be less content-neutral than doing self-help law, " says Stephen Elias, associate publisher at Nolo Press, a privately held Berkeley, Calif. book and software company that publishes WillMaker, Small Business Legal Pro and other self-help guides.
Even as the software-applications business consolidates around a small handful of major players, IBM appears committed to its decision to keep out.
Like consumers, small business owners are becoming more and more sophisticated in discovering such software.
FORBES: Revolution: A New Era In Software For Small Businesses
She says that as a small business with only five employees, paying a monthly subscription for software services that are properly upgraded is much more cost-effective than paying for and maintaining a new system.
To rev up growth, the company has tried shifting its business into new areas including discounted online goods, software for small businesses and electronic payments.
While a keyword job search for "certified public accountant" might turn up ads seeking a small-business chief financial officer who is also a CPA, semantic-search software would intuit that the user is looking for accounting jobs and list only those openings.
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