Capabilities of the former DiscoverOrg product are now supplied by ZoomInfo, since the merger of DiscoverOrg and ZoomInfo into a single brand in 2019.
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Vertex
Score 8.6 out of 10
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Vertex combines tax research with technology to improve tax accuracy and
consistency on sales and purchase transactions. The automation aims to support high volume and complex transactions at speed and scale to streamline internal
processes and improve audit performance. Integrations to
ERP, e-commerce, procurement, and other billing systems enables a single tax
engine to seamlessly support a growing business. In addition to tax
determination, Vertex provides tools and services to automate and…
Uses [of DiscoverOrg] include searching for prospects in accounts. Getting all of the relevant contact information in one place. Using the export button saves time by allowing you to select one or more leads to import into CRM. Sophisticated search allows for you to build lists, and export as above. Good support with various experts available to help you get started and get better at using it.
I have used Vertex since the very beginning of my career. I have always found the information clear, and easy to use. The documentation to use the product was thorough. We file returns in all 45 states that have sales / use taxes and having the ability to import data, key additional data in and print out a signature ready return has made life easy. I've never wanted to look at any other return preparation software as none of them come close to the product that Vertex created.
Prospecting Lists/Lead Gen - Discover Org does this very well because of it's ability to provide current information (email/phone) on an individual at a company. It's easy to segment & drill down by categories - to find the right targets to reach out to.
Insights - DiscoverOrg is great at providing insights or "scopes" on prospects as well. Meaning it will show who is handling what project (Decision-Maker) and what projects they are particularly interested in at the moment/what initiatives. For example, the scopes may show that they are interested in AI initiatives or a Merger & Acquisition or Digital Transformation & will say who is in charge of the initiative.
Stellar filtering capabilities - you can filter lists in so many ways. You can go by function, or even look at companies with small marketing teams (let's say less than 10), or you can search for companies with an "x" amount of $ budget for IT spend. Or even companies that use a specific HR workplace management system.
Vertex does a great job of building in-house industry expertise (leasing in our case) so they truly understand the tax technical and compliance obstacles we face day to day.
Vertex actively solicits for and responds to customer feedback on development and product roadmap suggestions. The Leasing users group is an example where Vertex takes an active role in communicating with and taking feedback from our industry.
Vertex tax updates are very timely and thorough, which makes the compliance process less stressful for our team.
Improvement on the search capabilities - since there is so much to search (which is a plus) it makes it harder to do this in a timely manner. You have to dedicate a certain amount of time to be able to pull a proper, useful and clean list.
Make it more user friendly - there are so many different tabs, search buttons, pull down, etc. I think it can be quite confusing to a new user.
Reporting: Vertex VAT Compliance is not fully ready to support all EU country's requirements.
Data storage.
Online reporting in VVC: many countries require to report VAT Declaration in an electronic way. This function is still missing for some of the countries from VVC.
The tool is simply better than most other lead/company data repositories, and they are dedicated to keeping their data clean, even if they are far from accomplishing this task at present. The tool works, and it is relatively easy to use. Overall, DiscoverOrg provides the level of lead/contact, customer, and even industry level data the sales orgs have come to expect from this sort of tool in a format that is fairly easy to use. They do also provide support for sales teams looking to use the tool effectively, which is great!
We are satisfied with the overall performance of Vertex. The software has provided my company with many efficiencies. We have shorted our audits and found that many audits are happy that we are using Vertex to calculate our taxes. We no longer need to worry about updating our rates each month since Vertex sends us a file to upload
Vertex itself is very good software. Its tax calculation is very accurate, and there should be no doubt whether Vertex is calculating the tax. Customer support is also good, and the response is quick. The updates are also good and easy to understand, making this an excellent application.
Our Vertex performance is good, although we are now experiencing Error 502 when adding additional data points to our transaction tester single tests. At Exchange, I was told to reach out to support....that most likely the On Demand system needed some additional CPU resource added. I have a currently open ticket, that has not yet been fixed on this matter
Level 1 support has always been kind and understanding but times they do not always provided the technical help sometimes their response or protocol is not related. I feel that I have to beg for a developer to look over my issue. On the other hand, there have been times a Level 1 support person has taken the time to research my issue and provide valid feedback & solution
By training I'm referring to our engagement with Vertex Consulting's professional services group. Each person on the engagement had prior leasing industry tax experience and most if not all used O Series before joining Vertex. Consultants with industry specific tax experience provide so much more than just "training". They are able to engage in deep tax technical discussions with actual experience while in private practice. This coupled with having visibility to how numerous other leasing peers approach similar tax issues is a huge plus on top of the standard training.
Vertex has offered multiple webinars for the products we have purchased that are informative and helpful. I've also attended a few of the Vertex annual conferences where I was able to strength my knowledge of Vertex. I also found that their online library and videos can be helpful in resolving issues and answering questions.
The implementation is challenging, make no mistake but will provide much value over time. Make sure you have full support of IT and your major stakeholders in your company. I found that while many people claimed to understand tax was important, they had no idea how deep tax in entrenched throughout the lease life cycle.
ZoomInfo acquired DiscoverOrg and I believe legacy DiscoverOrg will phase out in the near future. ZoomInfo is 100x better than DiscoverOrg and are very pleased with it's functionality and easy of use. We only selected DiscoverOrg because we were on an auto-renewal contract and did not unsubscribe in time. We did not plan to renew DiscoverOrg. But since then we have been upgraded to ZoomInfo and are finding much more value in that platform than we did in DiscoverOrg.
In comparison specifically with Avalara, Vertex is better in every way. It is much more customizable and allows us to change the way our tax software is set up for our business needs. Avalara is much more constricted, and is using the SST system which can allow for simplified returns, but in our case was causing more problems. Avalara is also much more expensive than Vertex, for less capabilities. Vertex' customer support is much stronger than Avalara's, as they are focused on obtaining and retaining customers whereas Avalara was continually trying to find ways to get money from us
There needs to be a time-consuming setup both in the Enterprise Resource Platform and in Vertex and the related tools as well but once this is all established, Vertex is very proficient at calculating Sales and Use Tax in the USA and in Canada with GST/HST, as well as several of the provinces where we are located. As we added plants in different jurisdictions via greenfield expansion and aquisition, Vertex was able to integrate those as long as the tax department is fully informed of the system.
After using DiscoverOrg, our lead are now well qualified and suitable. We are able to generate good and qualified. This is the positive impact.
After using DiscoverOrg, our sales team is now able to cold call the target contacts, the number provided by DiscoverOrg, the interaction held is now increased and we are able to produce good leads.
After using DiscoverOrg, we are able to understand better because of their reports and dashboards which is very informative.
We use Vertex on a monthly basis to see if tax has been over-accrued or over-charged on invoices. We do save tax every month using the tool. Not at liberty to share too much more - the technology does assist the human efforts.
