Vertex Takes a Less Taxing Approach to Efficiency

Driving Growth
Revenue Solution
Quote-to-Cash
Productivity Gains
AI-Powered Finance

Driving Efficiency and Growth

Vertex, Inc. helps businesses manage compliance accurately across various jurisdictions. As the company expanded globally, its operational performance and agility began to strain under the weight of outdated systems and processes. “We’re growing in different geographies, markets, and customer ecosystems, and all of that is driving us to a new level of operational performance,” says Vertex CIO Ben Askin. “So, we need the simplicity of Workday to help us scale and grow and go fast.”

The transformation began with a simplification of Vertex’s operations. With the help of Workday, Vertex reduced its 10,000 SKU inventory to a manageable 700. This not only cut down operational costs but also alleviated the teams’ stress, allowing them to focus on growth-oriented tasks. “Our operational costs were rising,” Askin explains. “We really had to take a step back and reimagine everything inside of the Vertex operation.”

Expert-Led Revenue Solution

Accenture’s Managing Director Deep Kular, who worked closely with Vertex on integrating Workday, emphasizes the opportunity for partners to support Workday through the Industry Accelerator Program. It brings together the best in breed of what Accenture has to offer from an advisory perspective with Workday’s technology. The customized nature of Vertex’s solutions was a result of this program. “The quote-to-cash solution that we developed is focused on helping B2B software companies look at the end-to-end process of revenue from an opportunity generation perspective, through to contracting, billing, and invoicing - that entire lifecycle.” The Industry Accelerator Program allowed Accenture and Workday to deliver a bespoke solution that is tailored to meet Vertex’s specific industry needs while allowing it to remain agile and adapt to changing demands.

“We leverage Salesforce Opportunity Management with Salesforce Revenue Cloud, which is their CPQ solution, to develop the quotes and customer contracts, integrate that with Workday to have the billing and revenue recognition processes, and then further integrate that with Vertex’s own product,” Kular explains.

Quote-to-Cash Innovation

This innovation was particularly transformative in harmonizing the sales processes for new and existing contracts. Previously plagued by inefficiencies, Vertex now has a unified, seamless process for handling sales and renewals. “We used to have completely different processes for new sales and renewals. Accenture helped us build and design our integration,” explains Askin. “We now can see our annual recurring revenue in real time. With Workday, we’ve been able to take our ARR analysis and sales analysis time frames from 14 days down to one.”

This improvement also contributed to maintaining a low total cost of ownership while streamlining operations.

Productivity Gains with HR, Planning, and Financials

By integrating Workday Adaptive Planning and Financials, Vertex reduced the time spent on analysis and planning. The connection between budgeting and actual headcount planning has freed up weeks of time for the team, marking a substantial increase in productivity. “By connecting Workday Adaptive Planning and Financials, we can put our resource planning against our job requisitions in Workday,” explains Askin. “This improves our productivity because we’re not constantly reconciling what’s in budgeting with the actual number of the headcount planning in Workday Adaptive Planning.”

AI-Powered Future of Finance

Looking ahead, Vertex is poised to leverage Workday AI capabilities within its financial transactions. This advanced AI oversight identifies anomalies and errors early in the transaction process, reducing month-end and quarter-end closing times. “The AI that exists within the Workday finance core is looking over your shoulder. That’s the kind of help we all need, because now things are just going so much faster,” says Askin.

Workday also catalyzed a shift in Vertex’s operational, financial, and HR efficiencies. Through Vertex’s strategic partnership with Accenture and the innovative integration of Workday, Vertex is not only poised for sustained growth but also equipped to navigate the complexities of global commerce with agility and insight.

In the evolving digital marketplace, Vertex, Inc., a tax software, content, and services company, stands out not just for its innovative tax solutions but also for its strategic approach to internal operations and growth. With the help of the Workday suite of financial and planning tools, Vertex CIO Ben Askin guided the company through a holistic end-to-end transformation of its enterprise operations.

The Workday platform checked all the boxes for our enterprise transformation program, enabling our global expansion.

Ben Askin, CIO

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Driving Efficiency and Growth