Money and Software-plus-Services

And by "Money" I mean not the "Show me the money" kind of money, but the Microsoft Money product. You know, the product that Microsoft just announced it is whacking.

The obvious winner in this epic battle that goes several years back seems to be Intuit, with its Quicken line of services and products - so congratulations to the Intuit team - I hope that with their major competitor out they will nonetheless continue innovating and producing a good product. But without taking away from Intuit's effort, there's also a lot to be said for on-line services like Mint.com (a personal note: I've been a user for a while and I love it). Mint in particular has been quite successful as of late, adding users and generating a lot of buzz in the media. Of course, we should also note that Quicken also offers a 100%-web (and free) money management service, Quicken Online.

What is interesting here is that Microsoft Money was, without ever being officially called so, one of Microsoft's first products to follow their "Software plus Services" strategy. Software-plus-Services is the name that Microsoft uses to justify not fully moving into a SaaS model. And Microsoft Money could have really been the poster boy for software-plus-services: buy a piece of boxed software from your favorite electronics store, install it in your computer and complement/augment it with the kind of additional value/information that you can only get on-line.

So, why did Microsoft kill Money? Well, here's the official explanation:

With banks, brokerage firms and Web sites now providing a range of options

for managing personal finances, the consumer need for Microsoft Money Plus

has changed...

Now, let's see... my two banks (two of the biggest ones in the nation) provide some services, but nothing close to a full solution like Mint or Quicken. My brokerage doesn't provide that centralized view either. Neither does my credit card company. So that leaves websites like Mint.com and Quicken Online as probably the biggest factors that contributed to the demise of Microsoft Money.

Well, so there you have it. Software-plus-Services just yielded its first result.

Rodrigo

ps. Credit when it is due - kudos to Microsoft for working with Intuit to help Money customers easily migrate to Quicken.