Lessons learnt while building a Global SaaS product

that serves 1.3M+ users, 150 countries

Anshu Verma, Architect, Intuit, India

What will I talk about ?

• Innovative technology transformations to fuel GLOBAL growth

What is QuickBooks ?

Facebook of Accounting#1 accounting solution for small businesses, worldwide

150 countries

46 languages

143 currencies

Used by businesses ranging from “Cradle to Grave”

1.3M+ users

2000+ industries

Commerce of 11B , 100K transactions/minute

Available via Web, mobile & tablets

Developer APIs

Why are we globalizing ?

Why do we really need a different approach ?

Simplify the “business of life”

Vision – Simplify the “business of life”

via, Products are So LOCAL

that it feels it was tailor-made for them.

Opportunity Balance Sheet

7

>500MSBOs worldwide

INTUIT’S SHARE

5M

Opportunity Balance Sheet

8

1%

SBOs in the world are our opportunity !!

SBOs use Intuit’s Products, worldwide

99%

The steep curve

TIME

Subs

crib

ers

500M

Today

5M in 10 years

Tech. transformations

to “LIFT” the curve

Equation to solve

Relevance Scale Velocity

?

Do it right Do it for many Do it fast

Durable Technology – 3 tenets

Table Stakes

Flexibility, Configurability

Network Effects via “Power of Many”

1

2

3

Dur

able

Table Stakes

12

I18N

Multi-tenant, multi-shard architecture

Global Hosting : 24x7, secure, resilient, performant

Language

Cultures

Formatting

Currency

Time

The first step

The first step leap

4 additional countries after 10

years !!

Localizing country by country

Effort and Time Consuming

From “us” to “users”

We were localizing country by country

Users localize themselves(currency, formatting, taxes, reports, etc.)

Traditional Modularization

Module UI

DB

Module BL

Module APIs

Traditional Modularization

Module UI

DB

Module BL

Module APIs

India

Tin#

Australia

Bank Routing#

US

VAT,Sales

State, District

reports

SG

IRAS ExemptTax

setup

calc

Complexity Curve

Geographies & variability

Func

tiona

l Com

plex

ity a

nd m

aint

enan

ce

Bad gets worse faster than

Good gets better

Modularization in Global world (for scale and variability)

Module UI

DB

Module BL

Module APIsMeta-Data/ Extension APIs

Meta-Data DBUser (Extended) Data

Extension logic to w/ meta-data

Enabling meta-data

Tax Models – definition , forms

structure, etc.

Complexity curve - smoothened

New way

Upfront investments on technology lead to velocity gains

Geographies & variability

Func

tiona

l Com

plex

ity a

nd m

aint

enan

ce

Leap #2150 countries in ~8

weeks!!

Pet Shop, Brazil, sets up for his business

Can be used by anyone, anywhere

Finland

BUT …

Local(host) not found ?

… missing delight …

Personalization is DelightfulSpeak my language

Personalize for me

Ok, so why not

personalize for

everyone ?

28

WELL, WELL, WELL, …

80+ staff years problem

80+ ?? .. Not me, it’s my grandson ..

30

Eureka moment!!

Using power of many

MoreUsers

Network Effects

Virtuous CircleMore

Benefits

Using power of many

ProductUse

Users

GenerateData

Machine LearningIntelligence

Derive

Personalize

Awakening: We already have peta-bytes of data !!

Personalization

Tax rates Reports Settings, preferences

Forms customization Business terms Accountant

Templates

Who is the user ?Where is s/he from ?

Crunching similar users’ data (anonymously)

Personalized based on similar profiles

1

23

Challenge

Machine Learning system view

Profile Classification(Who’s data)

Clustering(What is the data)

Bucketing(How is it similar to

others)

Variability Detector(profile attributes that

are important)

Rank(A > B)

Humanized Data(based on meta-data)

UserImplicit feedback (Watch and learn)

Near real time triggers

API

Self-serviceable, Self-learning

(another) Pet Shop, Brazil – now personalized auto-magically

1-800-ultra-personalization

Cecilia, florist Alex, coffee house Liang, gardener

Vijay, merchant

Craig, landscape & furnishing

One product, automagically configured into 1000s while we sleep!!

Leap #3Personalized QB for every user worldwide while we

sleep!!

Ciao

PrivetHello

HiHola

Aloha Bon Jour

Hallo

Merhaba

Sayonara

Demo

41

Summary

Technology Transformations (towards durability)

Bene

fit

Table stakes (I18N, sharding, hosting)

Flexible, Open Architecture

150 countries in 8 weeks

New Horizons

Network Effects, Power of many

Delighted & active customers

Higher conversion

500M

Future ?

Personalized newspaper at your door steps based on contribution of others ..who knows !!

Q&A

All the work was driven and done in India, E2E.

anshu_verma@intuit.com

Always hiring GREAT engineering talent. http://www.intuit.in/html/careers.htm