Tax systems integration for SaaS providers

Determining tax rates is frustrating for customers, as tax rates can vary depending on the type of service or good being provided as well as location. Keeping up with data that changes daily can be difficult and errors can cause businesses great harm when it comes time for audits.

Tax Software as a Service (SaaS) vendors provide automated solutions for businesses to alleviate the problem of understanding and applying tax concepts. These SaaS providers need to be able to seamlessly connect their application to existing on-premises and cloud based billing apps while keeping tax content current (nexus, sourcing, exemptions, exceptions, etc). Without integration as a part of their solution, tax SaaS providers experience delayed sales cycles, longer implementation times, and lower customer satisfaction.

Cloud integration provides tax system SaaS providers a solution to synchronize communication between various applications and services while allowing end-users to utilize one platform. The problem with integration between on-premises and cloud based applications, however, is that it can be difficult and time consuming. With a robust integration platform as a service (iPaaS) such as CloudHub, SaaS tax vendors can easily connect their application to existing customer financial applications such as Quickbooks and Zuora. By offering cloud integration, tax SaaS vendors are able to reduce objections in their sales cycles and incrementally drive new business.

SaaS integration is a #1 concern for tax providers

End-users expect applications from tax SaaS providers to work seamlessly with their organization, regardless of what existing applications, services, legacy systems, or SaaS applications they have. Consequently, many SaaS providers are concerned with integration, as it is has become a barrier to adoption.

A study conducted showed that 90% of those who responded to the survey consider application integration to be the number one challenge with SaaS applications, and 75% of executives find it to be the a critical part of their SaaS solution. Moreover, 94% of respondents pinpoint integration as a top concern, playing a key role in helping acquire new customers. In order to drive business forward, SaaS providers need an efficient method to enable seamless connectivity between tax applications and services.

To create connectivity to existing customer applications, a solution many SaaS providers have resorted to is custom integration. Custom integration requires the building of custom connectors by in-house developers, and can be a quick way to establish connectivity between systems, services, and applications.

However, this method tends to be fragile, expensive, and often painstakingly difficult. In addition, custom integration has many restraints. Because custom integration requires intricate coding, the number of people who can write, test or deploy connectors is limited. Trying to diagnose errors becomes challenging and retaining a developer to manage specific integration tends to be expensive and complicated. Moreover, custom integration’s complex nature produces a high likelihood of yielding an influx of support tickets for the SaaS provider, resulting in excessive support and maintenance costs.

Cloud integration helps drive new business

Leveraging CloudHub as their connectivity layer allows SaaS providers can more easily drive new business. By developing repeatable integration apps, SaaS Providers can provide connectivity on-premises or in the cloud, all without custom coding. With integration applications and Anypoint™ connectors, synchronizing data between on-premises and cloud applications is a much easier process.

Cloud integration with CloudHub allows streamlined connectivity and automation of key business processes that may extend over numerous applications. Connecting a tax platform with a financial system such as Zuora or Quickbooks, makes it easy to address common integration scenarios, including proper calculation of sales tax, specifying product taxability, and determining Tax Jurisdiction Assignment. With applications such as the Zuora iApp4Tax, simplifying communication between accounting and tax systems is easy.

Solutions for Tax SaaS Companies Learn more about MuleSoft's solutions for tax and other financial services companies. And to find out how CloudHub can make your cloud-based and hybrid deployments easy and seamless, contact us today.