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Avalara Announces 75th Solution Provider Joins Alliance Program - Doubling Program Participation Validates Avalara's Leadership Position
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. --(Business Wire)-- Avalara (www.avalara.com), the leading provider of sales, use and VAT tax automation solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, today announced that Exact Software, one of the world's leading providers of business software solutions, is the 75th solution provider to join the Avalara Alliance program. Setting a new record in integrated offerings within the transactional (sales, use and value-added tax) tax management application market space and more than doubling program participation since June of 2007, the Avalara Alliance program now includes a breadth of partners representing e-commerce, retail point-of-sale (POS) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions in addition to traditional enterprise resource management (ERP) and financial application providers. With Avalara Alliance partners representing an ecosystem of more than 2 million businesses using one of more than 100 different front- or back-office applications, partners' confidence in Avalara as the unequivocal midmarket sales tax leader is clear.
In addition to Exact Software, new partners now extending the benefits of a fully integrated sales and use tax management service integrated into their business applications include EPORIA, Celerant Technology Corp., Solid Cactus, ICINITI Corporation and TigerTrak. These partners, along with previously announced program participants such as Epicor, NetSuite and Sage, offer "Powered by AvaTax" solutions, leveraging Avalara's market-leading, Web-service-based sales tax solution. With Avalara's recent acquisition of Independent Systems Programming Inc. (www.taxrates.com), the company also partners with Syspro, VAI, Datatel, Everest Software, TDCI and Solarsoft to deliver sales and use tax calculation and compliance solutions to their customers.
Growth of the Avalara Alliance program can be attributed to the increasing demands for an affordable sales and use tax management solution for the 85 million small and mid-sized (SMBs) businesses worldwide. As a result of the silent convergence of pressures including increased interstate commerce, the need for real-time tax calculation and collection during e-business transactions, governmental pressures to increase audits during times of widespread budget shortfalls, and emerging technology advancements now accessible to SMBs, businesses are looking for automated solutions integrated into their existing business applications to reduce the burden and complexities of transactional tax compliance.
With more than 12,500 taxing regions in North America alone, many with constantly-changing rates, boundaries, sourcing and taxing requirements, the transactional tax applications market is poised to follow the path of the payroll tax market, becoming a commonly outsourced business function.
"Transactional tax calculation and compliance is certain to be automated, and Software-as-a-Service is the only practical solution that streamlines the once manual, error- and risk-prone sales tax compliance process from end-to-end - saving time, money and liability along the way," said Scott McFarlane, CEO of Avalara. "Avalara remains the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) leader while our competitors still scramble to switch from traditional enterprise software models. Since AvaTax(TM) and AvaFile(TM) are offered as SaaS, they leverage efficiencies and offer a less expensive, more adaptive sales tax management solution for SMBs."
SMBs expect essential functionality to include calculation, collection, reporting and remitting transactional taxes in real-time from their ERP, e-commerce, retail point-of-sale or CRM vendor. "Through our relationships with our Alliance partners, we enable customers to focus on growing their businesses rather than spending excessive time and resources on tax compliance issues," said Marshal Kushniruk, executive vice president of strategic accounts and customer experience of Avalara. Partner members of the Avalara Alliance program not only provide this functionality, but they also benefit from co-marketing initiatives and recurring revenues from margin share.
Celerant Technology Corporation, a point-of-sale Avalara Alliance partner, develops in-house and provides high quality, advanced retail management software systems to retail organizations. "We're doing a great deal of work across the nation with multichannel businesses as well as e-commerce, mail order and brick-and-mortar retailers. Finding a streamlined sales and use tax solution was critically important to us," said Ian Goldman, CEO of Celerant Technology. "Partnering with Avalara brings exactly the expertise and efficiency needed for this complex area of retail accounting."
EPORIA, an e-commerce Avalara Alliance partner, enables B2B and B2C e-commerce initiatives for all industries and specializes in e-commerce Web site development and promotion. "After an extensive review of the transactional tax service providers, Avalara emerged as the top choice. Their solution and technical expertise are heads above everyone else. We're proud to offer our clients a seamless integration with Avalara's innovative tools," said Doug Adams, CEO of EPORIA. "EPORIA's e-commerce Web site management tools are easy to use, and our clients expect nothing less. That's why choosing to integrate AvaTax with our e-commerce solutions makes so much sense. The straightforward set-up and invisible, behind-the-scenes calculations make this complex issue as easy for our clients as everything else we do."
"Transactional tax is a statutory requirement that impacts every SMB. In the past, transactional tax functionality within accounting or e-commerce was considered 'nice to have'," said McFarlane. "Today, it's a critical business requirement, and our Alliance members are definitely at a competitive advantage."
About AvaTax(TM):
An SMB market-leading, Web-service-based sales tax solution, AvaTax instantly and accurately calculates sales tax for clients and provides detailed, real-time reporting, and effortless returns and remittance. AvaTax serves more businesses than any other solution on the market today and integrates with numerous SMB financial applications, including Epicor Enterprise, Epicor CRS Retail Suite, Microsoft Dynamics(TM) GP, Microsoft Dynamics(TM) NAV, Microsoft Dynamics(TM) AX, Intuit's QuickBooks, Sage Software's Sage MAS 90 ERP, Sage MAS 200 ERP, Sage MAS 500 ERP, and Sage Accpac ERP. Additionally, with AvaTax On-Demand(TM), developers can integrate Avalara's sales tax Web service with any e-commerce, third party or custom-built solution with use of a comprehensive Software Developer's Kit (SDK).
About Avalara:
Headquartered on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington, Avalara is changing the sales and use tax landscape by delivering innovative and affordable solutions to small and medium businesses. Led by a team of industry experts in sales and use tax, and security and information technology, Avalara is focused on providing the easiest, most accurate and affordable way for businesses to address all their statutory sales and use tax requirements. Additional news and information are available at www.avalara.com.
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