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The Total Economic Impact™ Of Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Indirect Tax

Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By ONESOURCE Indirect Tax Platform

A Forrester Total Economic Impact Study Commissioned By Thomson Reuters, June 2022

Indirect tax is an unavoidable part of doing business. As organizations expand, complying with all relevant indirect tax rules and regulations becomes increasingly difficult, and keeping track of rule or rate changes comes with its own set of challenges. Leveraging a global, cloud-based tax engine that automatically calculates accurate indirect tax on all transactions while keeping all rules and rates up to date is one way for organizations to take back control and ease the burden on their IT and tax teams.

Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Indirect Tax (IDT) solution is a cloud-based, tax determination engine and compliance automation tool. It enables organizations to automate indirect tax calculations and compliance reporting, while eliminating the need for IT and Tax teams to constantly keep up with regulatory changes as well as update and test new rates and rules.

Thomson Reuters commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying ONESOURCE IDT.1 The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of ONESOURCE IDT on their organizations.

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Return on investment (ROI)

120%

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Net present value (NPV)

$2.1M

To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed seven representatives with experience using ONESOURCE IDT. For the purposes of this study, Forrester aggregated the interviewees’ experiences and combined the results into a single composite organization, that is a global conglomerate with multiple lines of business (LOBs) selling both products and services. The composite organization generates $5 billion per year in revenue and has 28,000 employees.

Prior to using ONESOURCE IDT, these interviewees noted how their organizations lacked a centralized solution. They were leveraging multiple tax solutions across different LOBs ranging from digital spreadsheets to custom build-outs to out-of-the box cloud solutions. However, these legacy solutions became less effective as rules and regulations changed and as the organizations expanded their operations across borders and into new regions. These limitations led to a lack of visibility for compliance and audits, high error rates on invoices, and labor-intensive processes for both tax and IT teams to keep the solution running.

After the investment in ONESOURCE IDT, the interviewees had a central, global solution in place that automatically calculated IDT tax, kept rules and rates up to date, and had automated tools to enable various country return preparations. Key results from the investment include reducing tax-related risk; improving operational efficiency of tax, compliance and IT teams; and improving invoice accuracy.

Compliance team reallocated to higher-value tasks

50%

Key Findings

Quantified benefits. Three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits for the composite organization include:

  • Reduced error rate on invoices by more than 75%, saving $2.6 million. With ONESOURCE IDT, the solution automatically calculates all tax rates using the latest rates and guidance, significantly reducing the number of errors on invoices and the amount of work required to correct those errors. The composite organization brings its error rate from 3% prior to the investment down to well below 1%.
  • Gained efficiency for the compliance team, saving $494,000. With a centralized, cloud-based, global solution, compliance teams have a single platform to track and manage compliance, reducing complexity. Additionally, the built-in reporting capabilities and automated exemption certificate management allows the compliance team to reallocate three FTEs to higher-value tasks and reduce the workload for the compliance team by 50% compared to when it uses legacy solutions.
  • Gained efficiency for indirect tax team, saving $468,000. Similar to the compliance team, having a centralized platform to manage indirect taxes globally creates efficiencies for the tax team. The solution automates or significantly simplifies day-to-day tasks such as pulling reports, working with internal and external auditors, and filing taxes. Because of ONESOURCE IDT’s consistent platform and global reach, more complex initiatives like entering a new market; building out a new product, service, or capability; or integrating a newly acquired business become simpler and less time consuming. The tax accounting team reallocates three FTE to more strategic areas of the business while reducing the workload related to indirect tax by 50%.
  • Reduced IT maintenance through automated change updates, saving $297,000. Keeping track of all tax rate and code changes across multiple countries is extremely challenging for the global composite organization. Additionally, manually updating the rates and codes is labor intensive and error prone for its IT teams. ONESOURCE IDT’s cloud-based platform tracks these changes globally and automatically implements them, improving accuracy while eliminating the need for IT to monitor and update the solution.

Unquantified benefits. Benefits that are not quantified in this study include:

  • Reduced risk of errors, violations, and over- or underpayment. Thomson Reuters keeps all tax rules, rates, and codes up to date. This removes the burden from internal teams while also reducing the risk of human error when implementing the changes.
  • Reduced time-to-value. With a centralized platform, organizations reduce the need to remap products and services when entering new markets or releasing a new product.
  • Improved uptime and reliability. ONESOURCE IDT’s cloud-based platform is more reliable than legacy on-premises solutions.
  • Reduced costs related to legacy tax solutions. With ONESOURCE IDT replacing legacy solutions, the composite organization could remove legacy infrastructure and reduce license costs.

Costs. Three-year, risk-adjusted PV costs for the composite organization include:

  • Implementation costs totaling $795,000 over three years. Deploying ONESOURCE IDT globally requires some time and effort to ensure the system is properly set up and all relevant products and services are accurately mapped. The composite organization leveraged internal resources and took a phased approach to deployment, onboarding one LOB at a time.
  • ONESOURCE IDT licensing costs total $759,000 over three years. The licensing costs are predictable and lined up with expectations for the composite organization.
  • Ongoing maintenance and training cost $185,000 over three years. The composite organization invests roughly three hours of training per year for employees using the platform. Ongoing maintenance is minimal and the tax/accounting team is responsible for it.

The representative interviews and financial analysis found that a composite organization experiences benefits of $3.8M over three years versus costs of $1.7M, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $2.1M and an ROI of 120%.

Error rate with ONESOURCE IDT

Before 3%       After 1%

“We’re more open to registering in different countries if it means we can service our customers better. ONESOURCE IDT has given us more opportunity and flexibility to move products around Europe or to engage with key customers and meet their needs where they are.”

Tax manager, manufacturing

Key Statistics

  • icon icon

    Return on investment (ROI)

    120%
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    Benefits PV

    $3.8M
  • icon icon

    Net present value (NPV)

    $2.1M
  • icon icon

    Payback

    15 months
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Benefits (Three-Year)

Created with Highcharts 11.4.3$2.6M$493.8K$468.1K$297.1K
Reduction in annual error impactEfficiency gains for compliance teamEfficiency gains for tax teamIT support and maintenance efficiency gains
Reduction in annual error impact Efficiency gains for compliance team Efficiency gains for tax team IT support and maintenance efficiency gains

TEI Framework And Methodology

From the information provided in the interviews, Forrester constructed a Total Economic Impact™ framework for those organizations considering an investment ONESOURCE IDT.

The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that ONESOURCE IDT can have on an organization.

  1. Due Diligence

    Interviewed Thomson Reuters stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to ONESOURCE IDT.

  2. Interviews

    Interviewed seven representatives at organizations using ONESOURCE IDT to obtain data about costs, benefits, and risks.

  3. Composite Organization

    Designed a composite organization based on characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations.

  4. Financial Model Framework

    Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.

  5. Case Study

    Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication of ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology provides a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.

Disclosures and Disclaimers

Readers should be aware of the following:

This study is commissioned by Thomson Reuters and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.

Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the study to determine the appropriateness of an investment in ONESOURCE IDT. For the interactive functionality using Configure Data/Custom Data, the intent is for the questions to solicit inputs specific to a prospect’s business. Forrester believes that this analysis is representative of what companies may achieve with ONESOURCE IDT based on the inputs provided and any assumptions made. Forrester does not endorse Thomson Reuters or its offerings. Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and completeness of this model, Thomson Reuters and Forrester Research are unable to accept any legal responsibility for any actions taken on the basis of the information contained herein. The interactive tool is provided ‘AS IS,’ and Forrester and Thomson Reuters make no warranties of any kind.

Thomson Reuters reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.

Thomson Reuters provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.

Consulting Team:

Nicholas Ferrif

Kara Luk

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