Item: Vertex
Rating: 10
Author: Josephine Koziol

Overall Satisfaction with Vertex

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Isagenix uses Vertex as their primary tax solutions engine. Types of transactions are: sales transactions Tax Types are Global: SUT, GST, VAT

Pros and Cons

Pros

Accuracy of tax determination to jurisdictional level
Address Cleansing
Report generation - easily created and understood
Ability to create tax rule changes
Simple Exemption Certificate record creation
Contracted with Vertex Managed Returns for US & CA reporting
Simplicity of managing Drivers & Mappings
Vertex University
Vertex Annual Exchange

Cons

Log Files Area - Ability to search for a sales order in real time rather than pulling several files to find one sales order - this will help during live testing rather than waiting until the sales order is posted to the database.

Return on Investment

Due to the vast Vertex tax determination Isagenix has reduced its tax risk when audited
Isagenix has invested in educating their staff at Vertex Exchange and Vertex Learning
Vertex customer service and knowledge of their IT specialists has assisted Isagenix in launching new countries & jurisdictions

Isagenix is a global retailer in United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia, New Zealand & Japan. The complexities of each of these countries can be difficult, Vertex quality in maintaining up to date tax rules and tax rates in their tax determination enables Isagenix to manage compliance accurately and effectively and furthermore ensuring our customers are experience most accurate pricing at point of sale.

Scalability

Previous comment applies here

Usability

Isagenix is not required to maintain the vast changes in tax rules nor do we need to make constant changes to our ERP system. Vertex tax engine determines the correct VAT treatment and calculate the correct VAT rate and amount in real time.

Alternatives Considered

Vertex real time tax rate & tax determination updates is second to none. The quality of and accuracy in report generation is simple & easily understood.

Key Insights

Do you think Vertex delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Vertex's feature set?

Yes

Did Vertex live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Vertex go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Vertex again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Customer Service team is top notch, they've assisted me on my issues and have also educated me in some. I appreciate when my issue is brought to Vertex IT to decipher if a problem truly requires a fix. Accuracy of Vertex tax determination and complexity of taxing jurisdictions makes for better customer experience as well as quality reporting to the tax authorities

Vertex Feature Ratings

Using Vertex

Users and Roles

3 - Majority are myself and manager who have full access in Vertex, we manage SKU mapping, Exemption Certificates, Taxpayer Registrations, Extract monthly reporting, liason to internal IT groups who test the code.

Support Headcount Required

3 - Tax Team - all major functionality as previous stated in prior question
IT team - assist with testing and provide alerts if/when there are issues

Business Processes Supported

Provide Efficient Tax Determination
Accuracy of everchanging tax laws
Simplicity of User Interface

Future Planned Uses

EU VIES Validation - currently processed internally
EU Vanity Pricing of VAT Inclusive pricing
Systems Review/Updates- implementation of 2018 to now may have updates
Insight on New & Upcoming Retail Delivery Fees - Understand how Vertex will apply the charge and provide feedback on how to code within our internal systems

Likelihood to Renew

Vertex O Series platform accuracy & efficiency

Post-Sale Experience

Support & Account Manager have been attentive since implementation 2018

Evaluating Vertex and Competitors

Products Replaced

Yes - Vertex O Series replaced SOVOS Taxware - Sovos platform was outdated and caused many uncertainties when determining tax rates.

Vertex Implementation

Implementation Rating

Although I was not the primary individual - the process was fairly quick, 6months but I can add from the start the reporting accuracy was a game changer.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

Yes - I would assume Implementation was in phases - However, I was not the primary person who implemented the software.

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - Our new VP of Finance at the time discovered the Tax Teams efforts in monthly reporting was heavily wasted on staff hours dedicated to collect reports and complete filings.

Implementation Issues

Multiple Country Reporting - Understanding a new system and how to create Taxpayers correctly - now this is a no brainer
Creating and Mapping Products - at implementation each product was mapped individual to the Taxpayer - As of 2 yrs ago we now create & map to Parent - this is a lot more efficient process
Report - understanding what reports will best suit each Taxpayer's reporting - now this is a no brainer
Taxability Mapping - understanding how each product behaves in each market/jurisdiction

Vertex Support

Vertex Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

No we have not purchased premium support. We have engaged with developers several times to support major upcoming changes when needed, service of work approx 10-20 hours at a time.

Using Vertex

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Easy to use Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using	Unnecessarily complex

Easy Tasks

Exemption Certificate Manager
Drivers & Driver Mapping
Calculation Rules

Difficult Tasks

Pre-Calculation - Tax Assist Rules - not so savvy on Ifs, Ands, Ors but eventually I figure them out.

Comments

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