Corporate tax departments must take a strategic approach to their technology investments, which will enable them to better use their technology and develop skills.
FREMONT, CA: Before the global epidemic posed a slew of additional issues, corporate tax departments were under pressure from within. Corporate management encouraged their tax departments to boost efficiencies, cut expenses, and generate better outcomes that would help its bottom line, with the responsibility of doing more with less.
Getting new technology was frequently viewed as a solution for these issues, which is understandable. Technology can improve efficiency by streamlining repetitive operations, allowing for faster analysis and, eventually, improved decision-making, and cost savings.
But new technologies are also causing concern among many corporate tax executives. As most tax teams lacked the expertise, training, external help, and even the time to properly use their existing technology, it was not being utilized to its full potential.
Even while planned new technology projects are halted, for the time being, the present COVID-19 pandemic adds to the need to ensure that current technology is fully incorporated and operational to facilitate the new remote working environment.
Resolving the gap in new technology skills among their tax team and developing a new role for a tax technologist who could guide the team's attempt to adopt and effectively utilize their technology are two significant ways corporate tax departments may better manage their utilization problem.
Addressing the skills gap
Corporate tax department heads saw significant skill gaps in their staff, with most of them believing their teams lacked technology expertise. Fortunately, the tax department can solve these skills gaps among their employees in several ways.
Team leaders must take a step back and examine their teams' present skill set before devising a long-term strategy for addressing any gaps. Long-term strategic thinking is a privilege that several team leaders cannot afford, considering their time and workload constraints.
While it may be challenging in these trying times, it is more critical than ever to define and convey a clear plan, implement necessary skills training, bring in new skills and technology, and measure the success of work processes. It will considerably enhance corporate tax departments' ability to provide more value to their businesses while increasing employee satisfaction.
The role of the tax technologist
The development of a new role of tax technologist, which combines tax experience with technological abilities, is the second approach corporate tax departments are attempting to tackle their technology utilization problem.
There is a significant disagreement among tax departments over how to hire a tax technologist. While few tax departments preferred training technology professionals in the rigors of tax strategy, some tax departments preferred retraining a tax expert about the various forms of data analytics, artificial intelligence, and other technologies.
Many department heads also advocated for bringing in professional technologists to work with the team and improve the team's overall technological knowledge.
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