Tax Consultation Questionnaire & Single Source Of Truth For Customer Data Software

Project

Tax Consultation Questionnaire & Single Source Of Truth For Customer Data

Challenge

Traditionally, the client’s teams have used Microsoft Excel for storing and manipulating customer data. While Excel does offer flexibility and a well-known interface, tax professionals and customers spend lots of time emailing various spreadsheets. It wasn’t always clear which spreadsheet data was most up-to-date or complete for a given customer. The client engaged Intertech to help build a more efficient system where the data could come from a single source of truth for every customer.

Additionally, the client chose Intertech for our consultants’ unique mentorship and instruction capabilities. This is the client’s first foray into custom enterprise software development. Their internal development team needs training and support, and Intertech consultants are well-suited to provide that training in addition to developing the software.

One other challenge is the client’s historical adherence to a waterfall development methodology. With this new custom development project, switching to an agile methodology is important. Intertech also supports and trains the teams for that transition.

Result

The client’s tax professionals can now use a single data source to author their reports, documents, and forms. So far, Form 990 organizations have been the focus of the trial project. However, business divisions responsible for partnerships, hedge funds taxes, and auditing have already begun to show interest in the project.

The next steps for the project involve automating more manual input tasks. Specifically, Excel mapping capabilities and optical character recognition for PDFs are important for getting data uploaded efficiently and correctly into the system. Down the line, using machine learning to process some types of unstructured data is another potential point of leverage and automation for the project.

The client has also experienced significant success with implementing agile development practices. As a result, the ongoing development process can be responsive to business needs and priorities. Moreover, Intertech has helped the client’s team implement DevOps best practices so that continuous integration and delivery are now key parts of the development workflow.

Modernizing data entry, storage, and use within the client’s organization is a critical business goal for protecting their customer base. In addition, as the competition develops new data-driven solutions, the client sees Intertech’s ongoing work as an essential strategy for retaining customers and attracting new ones.

Process

The client indicated that the project’s first phase would support their teams working on 990 and 990EZ tax forms for nonprofit organizations. Working with the in-house team, our Intertech consultants put together a web-based questionnaire of common information for preparing these forms. Tax professionals can then use this information during consultations with the nonprofit organization.

Within a few months, Intertech’s consultants produced a first release of the software, enough for business leaders and other stakeholders to test and familiarize themselves with the new approach. That initial product was met with positive reviews. Originally a team of seven consultants, Intertech has since expanded its presence in the client’s office to thirteen consultants as the project continues to gain traction.

All project teams are currently using agile development practices, with some implementing scrum methodology while others use kanban project management.

The application itself is a .NET Core backend with a modern React frontend. The application’s services are designed using a microservice approach so they will be fully scalable to meet future needs. By Q1 2020, Intertech anticipates tens of thousands of users will interact with the application. That number will eventually scale to over 100,000 users as new business divisions build off the existing microservices.