"Needless to say, it’s a big market. One dominated by not 800 pound, but by 800,000 pound gorilla’s. ADP. Paychex. Intuit. Combined, they represent $50 billion in publicly traded market cap. They also represent slow-moving incumbents, disincentivized to pursue innovation."
The last sentence is why I have not added PandoDaily to my feed subscription list. The fact that they list three companies competing in a market means they are unlikely to be "disincentivized to pursue innovation." In fact, Intuit has regularly been acknowledged by the likes of Forbes[1], Inc and Fast Company and Eric Ries's Lean Startup book as being one of the most innovative public companies. Not only does it show a lack of critical thinking on the subject at hand, but it's passing that lack of knowledge onto the reader.
ZenPayroll is tackling a huge and highly profitable market. They're probably attacking it faster than their public counterparts. But to say a company like Intuit, along with Paychex and ADP, are not innovating because they're "disincentivized" does a disservice to ZenPayroll and its competitors.
I'm just guessing, but I don't think ZenPayroll takes any of its competition lightly and is working as hard as it can to break into this market precisely because it has formidable competitors.
For what it's worth, I use intuit's payroll (formerly paycycle) and while it's functional, it is neither innovative or progressing. It's very much stagnant, with a UI straight from 2000. I've been with them for two years and nothing has been changed.
I can't speak for the others, but there's very much a "it works, lets not mess with it" vibe from Intuit's offering.
Errm, that really isn't true. The vast majority of the Paycycle engineering team is still at Intuit and working on Intuit Online Payroll and/or related projects. The amount of people that have left over the past few years feels inline with normal attrition rates (or slightly better than).
The last sentence is why I have not added PandoDaily to my feed subscription list. The fact that they list three companies competing in a market means they are unlikely to be "disincentivized to pursue innovation." In fact, Intuit has regularly been acknowledged by the likes of Forbes[1], Inc and Fast Company and Eric Ries's Lean Startup book as being one of the most innovative public companies. Not only does it show a lack of critical thinking on the subject at hand, but it's passing that lack of knowledge onto the reader.
ZenPayroll is tackling a huge and highly profitable market. They're probably attacking it faster than their public counterparts. But to say a company like Intuit, along with Paychex and ADP, are not innovating because they're "disincentivized" does a disservice to ZenPayroll and its competitors.
I'm just guessing, but I don't think ZenPayroll takes any of its competition lightly and is working as hard as it can to break into this market precisely because it has formidable competitors.
[1]: Why Intuit is More Innovative Than Your Startup: http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/09/04/intuit-the...