Accelerating global expansion: the power of the cloud with Avalara & NetSuite

Trying to keep up with the demands of global tax compliance? Or does it all feel a bit hazy to you? Navigating the complexities of different tax regulations around the world can feel like a balancing act, especially given the pace at which rates and rules change. 

While the Covid-19 pandemic meant our physical environment paused and our movements stalled, the digital world has led to us being more mobile and able to access more markets than ever before. Needless to say, central to a successful transition is the adoption of technology - particularly cloud-based tax applications. 

During an exclusive webinar, Avalara joined forces with industry experts Oracle NetSuite and leading analysts IDC, to help businesses explore cloud-based tax applications which are helping to accelerate global expansion and improve productivity. 

It will come as no surprise that the generation of businesses that have embraced new technologies – such as cloud-based platforms - into their daily operations is affording them a level of resilience and scalability which is enabling them to thrive. Especially at a time where legislation requirements are becoming increasingly complex.

Avalara’s senior director, indirect tax, Alex Baulf said: “A lot of the drive towards adopting cloud technology is coming from businesses that are expanding fast and need a way to overcome barriers. For example, if there’s a new tax registration requirement, they’re turning to technology to be able to meet that requirement in order to do business in that country.”

Jamie Sargent, Principal Solutions Consultant, Oracle NetSuite, supports this view: “We rarely find customers that are purely UK-centric. Now, they are looking across EMEA, they're looking globally…you might have customers, suppliers in lots of different regions. [It’s about] finding a system that will meet these needs without requiring 15 different logins.”

Compliance is a growing pain

To maintain such a growth trajectory, however, the finance function must keep pace with the business. Tom Seal, Senior Research Director, European Enterprise Applications highlighted recent IDC research, commenting: “compliance is the number one pain point for CFOs and tax applications are the most highly sought after, most in demand of the financial applications.”

Increasing digitally driven compliance requirements mean the risk of doing nothing, now outweighs the perceived risk of change. In short, we are at a tipping point. Seal continued “many of those businesses finding it easier to expand [following the pandemic], have been capitalising on cloud technologies to accelerate their growth to solve problems as they expand.”

During the discussion, Sargent shares an example of one organisation which adopted SuiteSuccess from NetSuite to help companies to consume capabilities based on their business needs: We had one customer who opened a new office which required more tax compliance. As regulation changed, we were able to provide real time feeds into their systems - pushing the data directly to the regulatory authorities.”

If you’re not yet using cloud technology, looking for some support to make the transition or would like to explore how you can make the best of what you have, our experts are on hand to help you understand the power of the cloud. 

Register to playback the Smart scaling for your business in 2022 webinar or download the latest IDC research report today.