By: Matt Bolch
Since becoming a Microsoft global independent software vendor (GISV) in 2014, Thomson Reuters has built out its ONESOURCE Indirect Tax and compliance product on the Dynamics AX and Dynamics GP platforms.
The enterprise market, which Thomson Reuters defines as $1 billion and up in annual sales, has long been the sweet spot for ONESOURCE and for Thomson Reuters as a whole. Its evolving partnership with Microsoft enables the company to now reach more effectively into the small and mid-market to meet a growing need for tax compliance.
“The integration with AX and GP gives smaller companies the same quality and breadth of offerings that our enterprise customers have, both in the cloud and on-premise,” says Chris Carlstead, managing director of indirect and property tax solutions for Thomson Reuters.
The company is also in active discussions with Microsoft to integrate ONESOURCE with Dynamics CRM and possibly with Dynamics NAV. “This is a great opportunity,” Carlstead says. “Microsoft and Thomson Reuters can sell more of our offerings to each other while helping our clients extend the reach and scope of their businesses.”
Before now, ONESOURCE sales in the mid-market and SMB spaces (companies under $1 billion) have been mainly opportunistic or for companies with complex tax needs. But says Carlstead, smaller companies are increasingly turning into multinationals, selling or buying on eBay, buying products directly from China and selling into European Union countries.
As Thomson Reuters describes ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Compliance, it helps companies determine, calculate and record indirect tax liability, which allows for consistent and accurate tax content and configuration rules across multiple business systems. Managing the constantly changing tax rate changes at various levels of government without an automated tax solution can be a huge burden to companies; and adding more countries exponentially increases the challenge. Carlstead says ONESOURCE Indirect Tax incorporates taxation information on 187 countries, which is organically sourced and updated frequently.
Carlstead has led the integration efforts for ONESOURCE Indirect Tax, which started about two years ago when Thomson Reuters and Microsoft business unit leaders got together to plan a go-to-market strategy. The company already has built its Thomson Reuters Elite risk management and business development product for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Carlstead notes a narrow field in tax and compliance, which in part inspired the relationship with Microsoft. Strategically speaking, “we were confident that if we pivoted and took [user experience] enhancements and integration to Dynamics that we’d be successful,” Carlstead says. The enhanced relationship between Microsoft and Thomson Reuters made perfect sense, he explains, as Thomson Reuters has long been among Microsoft’s top 100 customers, while Microsoft is a major client for Thomson Reuters, including using ONESOURCE.
For enterprise customers, ONESOURCE Indirect Tax is already available on Oracle and SAP platforms where customers include HP, Dell, IBM, Google, Salesforce, Walmart, GM, Cisco and Shell.