Systems and Technology

Question 1

What does ERP stand for and what is it?

Answer 1

• Enterprise Resource Planning
• It is any system that’s designed to centralize, integrate, automate, and support core business processes.

Question 2

What are 4 common tax systems?

Answer 2

• Vertex
• Taxware
• Avalara
• CCH
• OneSource

Question 3

What does SME stand for?

Answer 3

Subject matter expert

Question 4

What are power users?

Answer 4

Users with functional and technical knowledge

Question 5

What are end-users?

Answer 5

Users who manage the process day-to-day

Question 6

Tax technology helps link what 3 functions together?

Answer 6

IT, Tax, and Core business functions

Question 7

Tax technology understands the perspectives of all….., thus tax technology can ensure that all tax requirements are being met

Answer 7

shareholders

Question 8

Tax should be perceived as a….. partner not a “…..”

Answer 8

collaborative, “blocker”

Question 9

What are 6 system implementations or solutions that should be of importance to all sales tax professionals?

Answer 9

• ERP solutions (enterprise resource planning)
• E-commerce solutions
• POS solutions (point-of-sale)
• CRM solutions (customer relationship management)
• S2P solutions (source-to-pay)
• Tax system solutions

Question 10

What are the 7 key phases of the Traditional Project Lifecycle, along with alternative tax project management approaches

Answer 10

1. Blueprinting
2. Design
3. Development
4. Testing
5. Training
6. Deployment
7. Post go live Maint & support

Alternatives:
- Agile - Fast and Efficient
- Lean - Cut out the waste

Question 11

What does BOR stand for and what is it?

Answer 11

• Book of Record
• Am accounting system that contains a company’s key financial records

Question 12

What is a tax system?

Answer 12

Any IT system that determines the taxability of a transaction and if applicable, records and reports the corresponding tax.

Question 13

What happens during the Visioning/Blueprinting phase of the Traditional Project Lifecycle?

Answer 13

• Knowledge gathering/Tax Requirement gathering.
• SME’s are identified from various functions of the business and they discuss current processes and determine what the future process should look like.

Question 14

What happens during the Design phase of the Traditional Project Lifecycle?

Answer 14

• The functional (the “What”) and technical specifications (the “How”) are written and formally are agreed upon by the business and IT.

Question 15

Explain the difference between the functional and technical specs created during the Design phase of the Traditional Project Lifecycle?

Answer 15

• Functional spec: Created by the tax SME. Describes the desired function (What is being developed).
• Technical spec: Created by IT. Describes how the system will perform the desired business process and how the system will be configured to carry out the requirements set in the functional spec.

Question 16

What happens during the Development phase of the Traditional Project Lifecycle?

Answer 16

• The development team performs the actual coding and configuration of the system.

Question 17

What are the 3 sub-phases that occur during the Testing phase of the Traditional Project Lifecycle and what happens during each.

Answer 17

• Unit testing: IT tests an individual component of a business process to ensure it works properly.
• Integration testing: Power Users and SMEs test one or more components, validating that they work together properly within a process. (Ex: Creation of POs (1st component) and the Execution of goods receipts (2nd component))
• User Acceptance testing: A small group of end-users test across an entire business scenario to ensure each component is working properly. (Ex: the entire purchasing-to-payables process)

Question 18

What happens during the Training phase of the Traditional Project Lifecycle?

Answer 18

• Key people from each area of the business get trained on how the tax technology systems work and how to use them. (“Train the trainer”)

Question 19

What are the 2 most common approaches to take when deploying a tax technology system during the Deployment phase and what are the differences in each?

Answer 19

• Phased-In approach: When different locations, plants, offices, business lines, etc., go-live at different times.
  Pro: More availability for planning, development, testing and training.
  Con: An additional system is being added to an existing process and thus, must be
  supported, until the old system can be successfully retired.
• Big Bang approach: When all locations are deployed with the new system simultaneously.
  Pro: All your resources are moving in one direction; the successful launch and
  maintenance of the new system
  Con: If the new system supports critical business functions and it fails, your business
  operations can suffer irreparable damage.

Question 20

…… methods of project management focus on the delivery of smaller, more compact enhancements to production environments, compared to the Traditional Project Lifecycle.

Answer 20

Agile

Question 21

What are the 5 steps in the Agile Methods approach to a project and which steps from the Traditional Project Lifecycle fall under each step?

Answer 21

1. Prepare
   
   • Visioning/Blueprinting
2. Explore
   
   • Design
3. Realize
   
   • Development
   • Testing
4. Deploy
   
   • Training
   • Development
5. Run
   
   • Post Go-Live Maintenance and Support

Question 22

…… methods of project management focus on the continual movement or usage of project resources on value-added tasks, while reducing project waste.

Answer 22

Lean