Intuit Developer Case Study: shopVOX
Intuit 開發者案例研究：shopVOX

Based in San Francisco 總部位於舊金山

Employees 11 – 50 員工 11 – 50

Specialists in Custom manufacturing management software
客製化製造管理軟體專家

Founded 2009 成立於2009年

Published on QuickBooks App Store in 2017
2017年在QuickBooks應用程式商店發布

Our Story 我們的故事

This is the story of an app that was originally designed to be an online proofing tool and how it evolved into the complete solution for one of manufacturing’s biggest problems: chaos on the production floor.
這是一個故事，講述了一個最初設計為線上打樣工具的應用程序，以及它如何演變成製造業最大問題之一的完整解決方案：生產車間的混亂。

It’s also a story of perseverance for developers who dreamt of creating a business-management app that targets small businesses, providing them with a solution that makes their lives easier—just like Intuit has done with Apps.com and the QuickBooks ecosystem of apps.
對於那些夢想創建小型企業的業務管理應用程式、為他們提供讓他們的生活更輕鬆的解決方案的開發人員來說，這也是一個堅持不懈的故事，就像Intuit 對Apps.com 和QuickBooks應用程式生態系統所做的那樣。

Intuit’s access to more than 4.2 million QuickBooks users, combined with its passion for supporting small businesses, allows developers to get their ideas and apps to those who need it most.
Intuit 擁有超過 420 萬 QuickBooks 用戶，加上其對支援小型企業的熱情，使開發人員能夠將他們的想法和應用程式提供給最需要的人。

“The whole Intuit team has done an amazing job. One of the things that made it easy for me is the meticulous planning they have done. I always knew exactly what I was supposed to do, when I was supposed to do it, and how I was supposed to do it.” Rao Meka, shopVOX co-founder
「整個 Intuit 團隊做得非常出色。讓我感到輕鬆的事情之一是他們所做的精心計劃。我總是清楚地知道自己應該做什麼、什麼時候應該做以及應該如何做。 Rao Meka，shopVOX 共同創辦人

Let’s look at shopVOX and learn how the app came to be and it’s fantastic growth over the past few years.
讓我們看看 shopVOX，了解這款應用程式的誕生過程以及它在過去幾年中的驚人增長。

The company’s co-founders, Rao Meka and Ravi Duvvuri, were like most entrepreneurs and didn’t take the simple route to developing their app. Their story is full of amazing connections, twisting trajectories, and, ultimately, satisfying success.
該公司的聯合創始人 Rao Meka 和 Ravi Duvvuri 與大多數企業家一樣，並沒有採取簡單的路線來開發他們的應用程式。他們的故事充滿了驚人的連結、曲折的軌跡，以及最終令人滿意的成功。

“Ravi and I have been friends for about 25 years now. We both are from Hyderabad, India—we both grew up there, studied there, then came to America, but didn’t know each other at the time,” Rao says.
「拉維和我已經成為朋友大約 25 年了。我們都來自印度海得拉巴，我們都在那裡長大，在那裡學習，然後來到美國，但當時彼此並不認識，」拉奧說。

Both men ended up in the San Francisco Bay Area and shared friends and a common interest in volleyball.
兩人最終來到了舊金山灣區，並擁有共同的朋友和對排球的共同興趣。

In 1997, Rao, a software project manager, started an online forum business, a “Craiglist for Indians, if you will”. And Ravi, a Nokia engineer, was Rao’s choice to help him with the coding. They ran their online business while holding down their day jobs. By 2000, however, they couldn’t keep it up and sold the business.
1997 年，軟體專案經理 Rao 創辦了一家線上論壇業務，名為「印度人的 Craiglist，如果你願意的話」。 Rao 選擇了諾基亞工程師 Ravi 來幫助他進行程式設計。他們一邊做日常工作，一邊經營網路業務。然而，到了 2000 年，他們無法維持下去並出售了業務。

But this wasn’t the end of their partnership, and it became even stronger when Intuit entered the picture (more on that in a moment).
但這並不是他們合作關係的結束，當 Intuit 介入後，這種合作關係變得更加牢固（稍後會詳細介紹）。

In 2008, Rao moved back to India to fulfill his dream of directing a movie—selling a couple of Subway restaurants he owned to do so. Ravi also returned to India to take care of his ailing parents.
2008 年，拉奧回到印度實現導演電影的夢想，為此他賣掉了幾家賽百味餐廳。拉維也返回印度照顧生病的父母。

That same year, Rao met an American businessman in the sign business. Though Rao didn’t know the business, he did understand franchising and offered to help. In return, he’d learn the sign industry.
同年，拉奧結識了一位從事招牌生意的美國商人。儘管拉奧不懂這個行業，但他確實了解特許經營並願意提供幫助。作為回報，他會學習標誌行業。

Rao traveled to West Palm Beach, Florida for training. He says, “I saw the software, and it was clunky. It was old Visual Basics, desktop software. I don’t think but one process that I saw was ideal for cloud business.”
拉奧前往佛羅裡達州西棕櫚灘接受訓練。他說：「我看到了這個軟體，它很笨重。它是舊的 Visual Basics 桌面軟體。我認為，只有我看到的一個流程對於雲端業務來說並不理想。

He goes on, “In the sign business, you have to get approval from your customers on the colors, size, font, the spelling—everything. The process they were using at the time was email, fax, and so on.”
他繼續說道，「在標誌行業，你必須在顏色、尺寸、字體、拼字等一切方面獲得客戶的認可。他們當時使用的流程是電子郵件、傳真等。

There was no sign or proofing software available, and Rao and Ravi knew they’d found their business. They created the first web-based proofing and job management system for the sign industry.
當時沒有可用的標誌或校對軟體，拉奧和拉維知道他們找到了自己的生意。他們為標牌產業創建了第一個基於網路的打樣和作業管理系統。

“If you’ve ever see any production or manufacturing floor, it’s chaos,” Rao said. “For the first time, there’s a 50” TV, and it shows the list of jobs they need to complete, when they’re due, how many pieces they need to make, and who the sales guy is.”
「如果你見過任何生產或製造車間，都會發現它很混亂，」拉奧說。 “第一次有一台 50 英寸的電視，它顯示了他們需要完成的工作清單、截止時間、需要製作多少件以及銷售人員是誰。”

Rao and Ravi’s app brought sanity to the shop floor.
Rao 和 Ravi 的應用程式讓車間保持理智。

The Right Dev Tools: Intuit’s platform and tools inspire app developers
正確的開發工具：Intuit 的平台和工具激勵應用程式開發人員

Just as shopVOX aids their customers in their proofing and production process, Intuit aids developers in the app development process.
就像 shopVOX 在打樣和生產過程中幫助客戶一樣，Intuit 在應用程式開發過程中幫助開發人員。

The company offers advice on how the app should present itself. One piece of advice from Intuit: Clearly define what your app does and the value it provides.
該公司就應用程式應如何呈現自身提供建議。 Intuit 的一條建議：明確定義您的應用程式的功能及其提供的價值。

Intuit also has well-documented APIs and SDKs, a developer team that is ready to assist in any way, and a community that can help solve issues.
Intuit 還擁有記錄完整的 API 和 SDK、隨時準備以任何方式提供協助的開發團隊以及可以協助解決問題的社群。

As they grew their business, Rao and Ravi knew their app needed to integrate with Intuit’s platform. “If you do anything for small business, you have to integrate because no matter which business you take in America, they first buy QuickBooks. All the sign shops had QuickBooks.”
隨著業務的發展，Rao 和 Ravi 知道他們的應用程式需要與 Intuit 的平台整合。 「如果你為小企業做任何事情，你就必須整合，因為無論你在美國從事哪項業務，他們都會先購買 QuickBooks。所有的標誌店都有 QuickBooks。

shopVOX became the collaboration platform between QuickBooks, customers, shop employees, and vendors.
shopVOX 成為 QuickBooks、顧客、商店員工和供應商之間的協作平台。

And for shopVOX, the timing of their app couldn’t have been better. Rao says cloud-based hosting was doable at that time. Their early adopter customers would request changes (such as field additions), and Ravi would take their feedback, code the changes, and push the code to the cloud.
對於 shopVOX 來說，他們的應用程式推出的時機再好不過了。 Rao 表示，基於雲端的託管在當時是可行的。他們的早期採用者客戶會要求更改（例如新增欄位），Ravi 將獲取他們的回饋，對變更進行編碼，並將程式碼推送到雲端。

“I was able to ship them new versions of the software right then and there,” Rao says. “Now they had a tool which made their production process streamlined.”
「我能夠當場向他們提供新版本的軟體，」拉奧說。 “現在他們有了一個可以簡化生產流程的工具。”

By developing an app that any custom fabricator can use, shopVOX allows manufacturers to streamline and customize the preproduction, production, and post production processes. Employees are all on the same page—they have a visual job board that tells them what job is due when, where the job is in production; it shows them what items are being made and by whom.
透過開發任何客製化製造商都可以使用的應用程序，shopVOX 允許製造商簡化和客製化預生產、生產和後期生產流程。員工們都在同一頁上——他們有一個可視化的工作板，告訴他們什麼工作應該在何時、在哪裡進行生產；它向他們展示了正在製作的物品以及誰製作。

QuickBooks App Store: the leading app store for small businesses worldwide
QuickBooks 應用程式商店：面向全球小型企業的領先應用程式商店

Apps.com is where developers publish their apps once they’ve integrated with QuickBooks, and where developers can get noticed by new customers.
Apps.com 是開發人員在與 QuickBooks 整合後發布應用程式的地方，也是開發人員可以吸引新客戶注意的地方。

App developers like shopVOX—who joined in 2017—find that publishing on Apps.com introduces QuickBooks customers to their services or functionality. And shopVOX’s customers have rated them top notch, as noted by their reviews on Apps.com.
shopVOX 等應用程式開發人員（於 2017 年加入）發現，在 Apps.com 上發布可以向 QuickBooks 客戶介紹他們的服務或功能。正如 Apps.com 上的評論所示，shopVOX 的客戶對他們的評價是一流的。

One customer who gave shopVOX five stars, writes, “One of the things we like is how you can easily adapt it for the way you work. The team at shopVOX has been very helpful, and they are constantly adding improvements and enhancements to the software.”
一位給 shopVOX 五顆星的客戶寫道：「我們喜歡的一件事是您可以輕鬆地使其適應您的工作方式。 shopVOX 的團隊非常樂於助人，他們不斷對軟體進行改進和增強。

Another customer who gave shopVOX five stars, writes, “We love how it is user friendly, very customizable, and integrates well with QB Online.”
另一位給 shopVOX 打分五顆星的客戶寫道：“我們喜歡它的用戶友好性、高度可定制性以及與 QB Online 的良好集成。”

Positive reviews and high ratings such as these are important for these apps to succeed.
諸如此類的正面評價和高評級對於這些應用程式的成功非常重要。

Customers who choose Intuit’s platform connect with 300,000+ accounting professionals worldwide. Apps.com, which offers 650+ published apps, introduces these customers to shopVOX.
選擇 Intuit 平台的客戶可以與全球 30 萬多名會計專業人士建立聯繫。 Apps.com 提供 650 多個已發布的應用程序，向這些客戶介紹了 shopVOX。

Marketing with Intuit: how to get from starting to succeeding
Intuit 行銷：如何從起步走向成功

“I think QuickBooks and Intuit in the last three years has really transformed into a tech company and doing what a technology company should be doing.” Rao Meka
“我認為 QuickBooks 和 Intuit 在過去三年裡已經真正轉變為一家科技公司，並且做了一家科技公司應該做的事情。”拉奧·梅卡

shopVOX first took off with an exclusive, three-year deal with a sign manufacturing company and then, as other companies began to hear about their software’s benefits, other shops began calling from New Zealand, the U.K., Australia, and more.
shopVOX 最初與一家標牌製造公司簽訂了為期三年的獨家協議，然後，隨著其他公司開始了解其軟體的優勢，其他商店開始從紐西蘭、英國、澳洲等地致電。

“Come 2014, we never architected this thing to process so many customers. For three years, we had been patching things, we were adding features, we needed to architect it properly. This thing was getting brittle,” Rao said. “It was now seeing the end of days, and there were screen printing guys, digital printing guys, engraving guys and so on who wanted to use it.”
「到了 2014 年，我們從來沒有設計過這個東西來處理這麼多客戶。三年來，我們一直在修補東西，我們在添加功能，我們需要正確地建立它。這東西變得越來越脆弱，」拉奧說。 “現在它已經走到了盡頭，絲網印刷人員、數字印刷人員、雕刻人員等等都想使用它。”

They were at a turning point. Should they continue and build a product from the ground up? They said yes.
他們正處於一個轉折點。他們應該繼續從頭開始建立產品嗎？他們說是的。

“We’re not going to build this for a sign business, we’re going to build for what I called a custom manufacturer. Custom fabrication. All of this would be available via an app, and would allow us to bring in other industries,” Rao said.
「我們不會為標牌業務打造這個產品，而是為我所說的客製化製造商打造。客製化製造。所有這些都可以透過應用程式獲得，並使我們能夠引入其他行業，」拉奧說。

In 2017, shopVOX decided to join Apps.com for the incredible visibility it would bring to their app. They found the marketing team to be extremely helpful when going through the application process.
2017 年，shopVOX 決定加入 Apps.com，因為這將為他們的應用程式帶來令人難以置信的知名度。他們發現行銷團隊在完成申請過程時非常有幫助。

“The whole Intuit team has done an amazing job. One of the things that has made it easy for me is the meticulous planning that they have done. I always knew what I was supposed to do, when I was supposed to do it, and how I was supposed to do it,” Rao says. “I thought, even if I get five customers, then I’ll do this.”
「整個 Intuit 團隊做得非常出色。讓我感到輕鬆的事情之一是他們所做的精心計劃。我總是知道我應該做什麼、何時做以及如何做，」Rao 說。 “我想，即使我有五個顧客，我也會這樣做。”

Their initial concentration on the graphics industry—signs, screen printing, embroidery, and digital printing, for example—is now expanding to any industry that provides custom manufacturing and has workflows.
他們最初專注於圖形行業（例如標牌、絲網印刷、刺繡和數位印刷），現在正在擴展到任何提供客製化製造並具有工作流程的行業。

They currently have about 3,000 customers in 20 countries and supply their software in seven different languages.
目前，他們在 20 個國家/地區擁有約 3,000 名客戶，並以七種不同的語言提供軟體。

“Other industries are coming to us. I think that is totally because of this win. Intuit accountants are looking at it and wondering what it is. It was free publicity and helped us expand into other industries,” Rao says.
「其他行業正在向我們湧來。我認為這完全是因為這場勝利。 Intuit 會計師正在研究它並想知道它是什麼。這是免費的宣傳，幫助我們擴展到其他行業，」Rao 說。

What did they do with the $100,000 award?
他們用這10萬美元的獎金做了什麼？

It went in part to hiring an outside Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agency that has created blogs, write-ups, paid advertising, ad words, and Facebook management for the company. The content creation helps put customers into their pipeline.
其部分原因是聘請了一家外部搜尋引擎優化 (SEO) 機構，該機構為該公司創建部落格、文章、付費廣告、廣告詞和 Facebook 管理。內容創建有助於將客戶納入他們的管道。

Rao says, “That totally was because of this win. That was one of the big things we spent the money on, and it really helps.”
拉奧說：「這完全是因為這場勝利。這是我們花錢做的最重要的事情之一，它確實很有幫助。

In addition to the SEO company, Rao and Ravi used their award to take their employees to New Zealand, which made for an excellent team and community-building opportunity.
除了 SEO 公司之外，Rao 和 Ravi 還利用他們的獎項將員工帶到了紐西蘭，這為團隊和社區建設提供了絕佳的機會。

Thanks to Intuit’s development support and marketing tools, shopVOX has the resources to pursue other custom manufacturing industries—and to pursue even further success.
由於 Intuit 的開發支援和行銷工具，shopVOX 擁有資源來發展其他客製化製造業，並追求進一步的成功。

“I think QuickBooks and Intuit in the last three years has really transformed into a tech company and doing what a technology company should be doing. I think the Intuit Developer group plays a big part in that,” Rao says.
「我認為 QuickBooks 和 Intuit 在過去三年裡已經真正轉型為一家科技公司，並且做了一家科技公司應該做的事情。我認為 Intuit 開發者團隊在這方面發揮了重要作用，」Rao 說。