The Sales & Tax Database solution offered to the client ensured a hassle free service for the customers. It helped customers to calculate taxes in different countries without dealing with long searches and complex calculations. In short, it was a web service which provided a basic and complete edition of sales tax databases. The development
was performed on both hardware and software fronts.
1. Case Study
Sales & Tax Database System
For Finance Consulting Firm
About The Client:
Client is an European company which provides sales and tax databases to clients.
Within the short span of time, it has established itself as one of the leading provider of
sales and tax databases to hundreds of companies of all sizes. The streamlined
operation and the availability of the specific consultant services make the client capable
of providing the cost effective solution. The client tracks down the tax rates of
thousands of taxing jurisdictions throughout the country and provides users with the
most accurate data available. They also provide many versions of databases to help
ensure the users receive the data that works best for their needs.
Client Situation & Challenges:
The main challenge faced by the client was stiff competition. With the rise in technology
worldwide, the client wanted to have a software solution which could be sold as a
service to the customers of the client. Till date, the data provided to the customers was
through emails, text files and there was a lack of availability of any option of electronic
data for customers. Also the zip code details for all the subscribed cities made searching
a tough & tedious activity for the customers.
Solution Offered:
The Sales & Tax Database solution offered to the client ensured a hassle free service for
the customers. It helped customers to calculate taxes in different countries without
dealing with long searches and complex calculations. In short, it was a web service
which provided a basic and complete edition of sales tax databases. The development
was performed on both hardware and software fronts.
On the hardware side, the client was looking for US web hosting companies that would
provide 100% uptime with redundant backup facilities and which were cost effective.
At the software end, the client required connection access using multiple software
2. languages, an easy to use online lookup tool and a robust administration panel which
would provide reporting functions and track all lookups.
Our SaaS model based solution (added on the recommendation of the development
team) encapsulated following features:
Ease of use in finding zip code details
Automatic email notification
Automatic invoice generation
Overage calculation
One of the salient features was that this web service could be added in any website built
in any technology to get the requested tax details.
Agile Methodology Features:
Automated Invoice Generation: Every month when recursive payments were
made, client had the difficulty of generating invoices for every customer. We
suggested a service which would take care of the entire Invoice Generation process.
The automated invoice generation service now executes at a particular time and
automatically generates emails for all the customers whose recursive payments
have happened on that particular day. It has actually reduced the work of the client
to a major extent.
Automated Data transition: The sales tax rates are updated very frequently
which makes the management of sales tax rates more critical with every product
outflow. Moreover, the administrator had to ensure a regular and proper update of
the sales tax rates at the respective date and time. He had to wait for the start of
every month and upload the new list at an exact time of 00:00hrs to make the
effective transition, which was a tedious process. We provided an automated data
transition feature wherein the administrator need not have to worry about data
uploading on the exact date and time but instead he could now do it anytime and
the system would take care of the transition. The automated data transition feature
allows the administrator to upload the new set of rates, effective for any particular
month whenever he receives the file and just select the transition date. On that
particular date, the system automatically moves the old value to the history table
and the new rates are updated. This assisted in the data authenticity of the product
outflow by adding the right value to the final product of the client and ended his
agony of maintaining the entire sales tax fluctuation.
3. Technologies Used:
Visual Studio 2008
Windows application
ASP.NET MVC framework
Linq
SQL 2005
Web Services
Windows services
Benefits:
The main benefits to the client after implementing the solution offered were:
The customers can get the details of tax for any country without the tedious part
of searching through the large files making client’s services more easy to use and
thus preferable over others.
The users can call this web service from any website to get the tax details rather
than the long and tedious process of logging on to client’s website first and get the
tax details and then moving on to calculate the tax on their e-commerce site.
The users of the client’s service can also earn through the affiliate programme.
The users can buy the client’s services in a few clicks as the payment system is
both secure and simple.
The customers can download a desktop application and then calculate the taxes
without logging into the main site.
The electronically maintained website reduces the paper work involved.
4. Reducing the pain of sending email notification, payment reminders, invoice
generation, database migration etc which are all now automated.
A separate admin panel to enable the client to manage his products and clients
without any difficulty.
A separate CMS to manage the contents in the system.
About vEmployee:
vEmployee is a leading IT Service provider based out of India. With services spanning
over the technology chain, vEmployee is a one stop chain for enterprise wide IT needs.
With over a decade long experience in the industry, vEmployee has established itself as
a trusted partner to various companies by providing timely project delivery coupled with
high quality. Our parent organization Clarion Technologies is a SEI CMMi 3 level
assessed company whose singular focus is on 'client satisfaction'.
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