A Press Release From - Barnett Marketing Communications

For Immediate Release              For More Information, Contact: Ned Barnett 

Avalara Makes Three Major Announcements at Convergence 2005

On-Demand Sales Tax Calculation Service For Microsoft Navision and Small Business Financials

On-Demand Address Validation Service To Integrate With Microsoft CRM

San Diego, California – March 9, 2005: Avalara, the on-demand sales and use tax solution provider serving small and medium businesses with integrated ERP solutions, made three major announcements of new service interfaces during the just-completed Microsoft Convergence Conference in San Diego, March 6-8th.  These three announcements included new interfaces for AvaTax ST – within both Navision and Small Business Financials – as well as on-demand AutoAddress+ address validation service, which now integrates with Microsoft CRM. 

In addition, Avalara announced a marketing and technology partnership with STF Services Corporation, the creator of Super Form Products, the week before the Convergence show.  This announcement further reflects Avalara’s commitment to end-to-end tax compliance for the SMB-market accounting and business services market, with the addition of automatic remittance forms generation.

Exhibiting as a gold-level sponsor at Microsoft-sponsored Convergence this past week, Avalara marked the occasion with previews of these three significant new Microsoft integrations.  Action was brisk at Avalara’s exhibit at Convergence, as analysts, reporters and hundreds of event participants got a chance to experience first-hand demonstrations of the ways that AvaTax ST and AutoAddress+ work within the framework of some of Microsoft’s most popular SMB-market software solutions.  “We’ve signed up 24 new partners and end-users in the first ten hours on the floor,” Jared Vogt, Avalara’s CEO, said on Tuesday morning.  “This grew to 30 in the first day, and is on track for 200 during the full range of the show.”

“AvaTax ST for Navision and AvaTax ST for Small Business Financials are our second and third integrations developed for Microsoft Business Solutions accounting packages,” Vogt said.  “Alongside our existing Microsoft integrations – Great Plains 8.0, 7.5 and 7.0 – these two product introductions signify our continued commitment to Microsoft Business Solutions end-users.  We specifically address their need to deal with sales and use tax accurately, affordably – and with the added convenience of operating within tools they already rely on.”

“Avalara’s AutoAddress+ – integrated seamlessly within Microsoft CRM – also works behind the scenes to instantly validate a contact’s address,” Vogt explained.  “With our real-time address validation, contact management is assured of clean address data.  End-users working with Microsoft CRM can use AutoAddress+ to standardize contact addresses, correcting entry errors in the process.  In a split second, the address is automatically conformed to USPS standards – including ZIP +4.”

“Both of these solutions – AvaTax ST and AutoAddress+ – are on-demand web based solutions,” Vogt noted. “This approach keep end-users’ costs low while ensuring that they are always working with up-to-the-minute solutions.  With more than 8,000 tax jurisdictions generating more than 900 material changes to the nation’s complex net of sales tax laws and regulations each year, this ‘right now’ flexibility is critical to businesses that routinely sell products across tax-jurisdiction boundaries.”

About AvaTax ST
AvaTax ST is the fastest, easiest, most accurate and most affordable way to calculate and report sales and use taxes. It reflects Avalara’s commitment to deliver best practices in sales and use tax compliance, improved internal controls, and simply the best end-user experience.

AvaTax ST currently integrates with more third-party financial packages than any other sales and use tax solution on the market, including AvaTax ST for Microsoft’s Great Plains, Navision and Small Business Financials, as well as Microsoft Commerce Server systems, Best Software’s ACCPAC Advantage Series™, Best Software’s MAS 90® and MAS 200®, and Scala, among others. Additional significant integrations – with commonly-used ERPs – will be released in Q2 and Q3. Available through resellers internationally, AvaTax ST is priced on a scalable fee structure to accommodate any size business.  AvaTax ST monthly subscription prices start at $99.95 per month. 

About AutoAddress+
As with Avalara’s flagship product, AvaTax ST, Avalara’s AutoAddress+ is a hosted, Internet-based web service that performs address validation in real-time over a secure SSL internet connection. AutoAddress+ transparently connects the customer address record to Avalara's real-time database of U.S. Postal Service CASS Certified valid addresses.  AutoAddress+ compares the contact record with USPS formatting, and inserts the correct address back into the customer record – two features essential for effective end-user access to the Postal Service’s lowest-cost delivery systems.  AutoAddress+ currently comes integrated within Microsoft CRM, Best Software’s ACCPAC CRM®, and can be integrated with any accounting, ERP, e-commerce system or custom application.  AutoAddress+ fees start at just $49.95 a month

About Avalara
Headquartered on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington, Avalara is changing the sales and use tax landscape by delivering innovative and affordable solutions. Led by a team of industry experts in sales and use tax, as well as security and information technology, Avalara's goal is to provide the easiest, most accurate and most affordable way for any sized company to address all statutory sales and use tax requirements.  Avalara is a Microsoft Certified Partner.

For more information about Avalara, or to interview one of the Avalara principals, please contact Ned Barnett, Barnett Marketing Communications – 702-696-1200 or ned@barnettmarcom.com.