The Next Stage of Automation

Video Overview

In this World Finance video, Geoff Peck, founder and chief taxologist at PawPaw Technology, explains why simple automation of tax processes in today's world of big data is not enough.

Tax automation, Geoff Peck says, is not necessarily new. For roughly 20 years, lots of companies have had tax automation strategies. But the simple idea of automation is not exactly enough. Industrial thinking of automation—i.e. replacing a human's work with a computer—is not what organizations are doing to stay ahead. Understanding concepts around big data technologies, instead, is what forward-thinking organizations are looking toward.

• Good quality implementations in ERP and making great use of technology is still very important but now what we need to be thinking about is adding a layer on top of that, which is to truly understand the new concepts that exist: digitalization, transformation, data-first, etc.
• We've always had good tax technologists, who can implement the tax technology properly. But implementing the technology alone, in isolation, has not proved to be enough. You must bring the process and the people together and implement for the correct reasons.
• Tax technology has a far-reaching journey, particularly when you bring data into the picture.

World Finance + Vertex

In March 2019, tax professionals, solution experts, and our very own customers met in Munich for Vertex Exchange Europe. World Finance interviewed half a dozen delegates for an update on Europe’s tax compliance challenges and technological advancements.