Three Tax Software Firms Create Strategic Partnership (link to article)

By W. David Gardner, TechWeb.com

Three tax software firms that specialize in highly-automated sales tax systems are linking arms.
The strategic partnership was announced Tuesday by First Data Corp.'s Taxware, which targets large ERP-based sales tax solutions; Avalara, which addresses the SMB market; and Pitney Bowes' Group 1, which does geographic coding.

In the partnership, Taxware will be able to offer software tax solutions to small and medium sized businesses via Avalara.

Conversely, Avalara will have the opportunity of establishing a business relationship with Taxware's existing corporate customer base, which tends to use ERP software like Oracle and SAP.  Avalara will become a reseller of Taxware products.

Avalara's AvaTax ST software integrates with smaller businesses using ERP applications including Intuit's QuickBooks, ACCPAC International's Advantage Series, Epicor's iScale, Great Plains, Navision, MS Small Business Financials from Microsoft Business Solutions, and Sage Software's MAS 90 and MAS 2000.

"The partnership with Avalara gives Taxware end-to-end market capability," the Taxware announcement noted. "This agreement enables Taxware to gain a significant foothold in that SMB market."

An indication of the precision offered by the partnership is the use of satellite technology and GPS to pinpoint buyers and seller. "We can get right down to rooftops," said Jayme Fishman, Taxware senior Director of Sales, marketing and business development.

Fishman said that many directories are notorious for having inaccurate addresses and the satellite/GPS-based system helps "clean and fix" addresses when they are inaccurate.