Software Development Company in Penang, Malaysia: Software Development

Showing posts with label Software Development. Show all posts

Lukas Tan January 25, 2021

How Do Software Customization Cost?

Every company will be paid for its labor. So does our company. So how much does our company charge?

Generally speaking, we get the basic knowledge of what the customer needs and then calculate the price according to the time cost.

After understanding the customer's requirements, we will accurately locate your requirements. There are ready-made templates can be purchased at market. If the templates are meeting your needs, we will advise customers to buy a template for a small amount of money. Because it takes a lot of time and funds for customers and us to rebuild a new equipment. And a lot of testing needs to be done.

But if you need to rebuild a new software, how do we charge for it?

Let's say your software takes three people a month to complete. Firstly we estimate it at the cost of three workers. The company will then make further detailed offers.

But firstly we would stand in our customers' position, whether there are ready-made templates qualified, save time and effort ? If not, we will build a website for customers.

Ask for More!

Unknown June 24, 2019

MIUI Goes Open Source

If you're into Android rooting and modding, chances are you will have heard about the popular replacement ROM known as 'MIUI.' In-case you haven't, MIUI is a ROM by Xiaomi, a Chinese tech company, and is based in Android Gingerbread v2.3.7. Unlike your typical version of Android, this ROM provides you with the awesomeness of Android amazingly combined with the great look and feel of iOS, providing a unique user experience.

Now, for the first time, MIUI has gone open-source and can be found on GitHub. These are a couple of MIUI applications and the ROM. That's not all, expect more source to be revealed in the near future.

This ROM was originally designed in Chinese, and was not intended to be translated or be available for people in the other parts of the world, so a big advantage of it being open sourced is that the modding community will take it upon themselves to translate it and also make it available for many new devices, like the hundreds that CyanogenMod supports, which is at present the most popular ROM available for android yet.

Now that its open source, we're probably going to see some crazy mods and what not.

website: https://theultralinx.com/2012/02/miui-open-source/

Unknown May 27, 2019

With Open-Source Software, You Don't Have to Start From Scratch

As an entrepreneur, you always have questions to answer: “How do I efficiently manage my people?” “How can I keep track of my projects?” “Where do I start with my website?”

It can all feel pretty overwhelming, but luckily, there’s a fantastic resource you can use to solve an abundance of entrepreneurial problems: open-source technology.

It all began in the '90s when there was a big push to create operating systems to make using new computer technology more efficient. Companies saw the value in these operating systems and acquired creators such as Linux to write the code.

Then, when the code was written, databases were created to store the information that was relevant to the company. Finally, the era of applications that execute functions within an operating system began, which brings us to open-source software.

Open-source software allows you to customize applications to suit your business’s needs. Companies can take a developer’s open-source environment and build on top of existing platforms to create a customized solution at a relatively low cost.

Gauging open-source software. With 86.3 percent of companies in non-technical segments adopting open-source software, it’s pretty clear that it can be leveraged to benefit your business. However, as with any new technology, you should always understand the pros and cons of utilizing it before making any decisions.

A big advantage of open-source software is that it reduces supplier risk. OneVentureBeat post put it really well: “Selecting innovation involves risks.” But with open-source software, your customers know that your product and community will endure.

What’s more, open-source software saves you money because many are entirely free. WordPress, for example, lets you build your company website with little web-design knowledge. Even big brands such as The New Yorker, Sony Music, Xerox and Best Buy use the platform.

Not only is open-source software free, but it’s also readily available. This may seem like a good thing, but remember the code is available to everyone, your competitors included. Economically, however, it’s still a better choice, and it’s just as effective as the licensed software that costs an arm and a leg.

Lastly, like anything in business, you need the right people. If you’re going to leverage open-source software, you need team members who really know how to use it and understand your business’s needs. If you don’t have the right people to customize and build on open-source tech, you’ll simply be moving in circles.

Which path will you choose? After you’ve looked at the pros and cons, you have to decide how you’re going to leverage this great resource -- and don’t be afraid to get creative.

Elasticsearch, for example, used open-source software to build something entirely new: a cheap, light search technology that provides companies with actionable, real-time insights from almost any data source -- structured or unstructured. Before you can start revolutionizing the business landscape, however, you have to decide which path you’ll walk down when using open-source software within your startup:

1. Enabler. Open-source tech can be used to help you execute what you already do and assist your preset processes to become more efficient as a whole. Think of it like using an HR or customer-relationship management system to better manage the company structure you already have in place.

2. Business model. You can also use open-source tech as a foundation for building your own apps or creating a new product. This allows you to make money off of existing tech by using open source as a key ingredient with which to build a software model. A word of caution, though: Using open source as a business model only works if you keep building and adapting the tech.

Whether you use open source as an enabler or a business model, it’s a gift. Use open source to differentiate your business or simply to get your business up and running quickly from a relatively advanced stage.

The available options are organized, low-cost and sophisticated -- you don’t have to start from scratch, so why would you? Entrepreneurs have enough to do already.

Unknown April 29, 2019

Embracing open source An expert look at the cutting edge of corporate technology

Open source solutions have changed the way people think about software and hardware alike.

As defined by Don Duet, head of the Technology Division at Goldman Sachs, "Open source is fundamentally the ability to take intellectual property and make it broadly available. People can look at it, enhance it, change it, incorporate it into their own solutions and really enable that IP to become much freer and much more able to create value over time."

In other words, open source computing lets users get the most out of their IP. They have the flexibility to apply the framework to several applications without starting from scratch.

"Open source has changed dramatically in the last several years. We've thought about these changes in three major categories: Variety, volume and velocity."

DON DUET

Variety speaks to how open source used to be confined to software – programming that could be improved or adjusted to fit different business needs – but has now evolved into hardware IP, like specs, servers, and data center designs.

Volume speaks to the amount of open source content that's available, which has grown astronomically in the past few years. Major growth in volume is largely due to the fact that open source IP isn't just created by individuals anymore – it's created by huge corporations, too.

Open source also must be viewed in terms of velocity, or how quickly it develops everyday use-cases. Duet says that open source is now fully permeated in technology, and points to the rise of the Internet of Things – made possible by the ability to analyze disparate data sets on a massive scale – as a triumph of open source philosophy.

As Duet mentions, open source began as a software innovation for individuals, but has now become a major asset for large companies like Goldman Sachs.

On June 22, 2015, Goldman Sachs took a leap forward in open source software by joining the Linux Foundation’s Open Container Initiative, a coalition of technology firms working to establish open industry standards for software containers.

A lightweight alternative to virtual machines, containers allow automation of application deployments. Instead of replicating a full compute stack, containers are highly available, horizontally scalable micro-services that can run on any server regardless of the underlying hardware. The container bundles all requirements and dependencies needed to run a process, delivers them to the cloud, and relies on cloud infrastructure to make sure that the service level agreements are met.

The Open Container platform leverages two elements native to the Linux O/S: Control groups which determine the size of available storage, compute and network resources; and kernel namespaces which ensure container isolation. As a result, multiple containers running as isolated processes on a server can share the same kernel and executables.

Containers are more efficient than virtual machines because they represent a fundamentally different architectural approach. We have found they yield several dramatic efficiencies:

Quick iterations for our software development lifecycle: Provisioning time has been reduced from hours to minutes or seconds.
Improved utilization: We can multiplex our infrastructure to allocate enough resources for any given process and for the exact duration it requires.
Automated business continuity and failover: Machine-readable application modelling allows higher-level declarative statements to be intelligently handled by a platform; when a machine is lost, we resurrect the process it ran on a different machine or datacenter and update the runtime dependencies to ensure continuity of the applications and services it supports.
DevOps efficiency: Standardizing process descriptors and embedding application owner knowledge into the application model provides a consistent, traceable link throughout the product lifecycle and runtime management.
Infrastructure updates: By decoupling the application owners from infrastructure, platform owners can now update the underlying OS version, hardware specs and other components autonomously.

The story of open source doesn't end with software, however: Open source hardware is now an irreplaceable piece of the IT puzzle. For Goldman Sachs, the Open Compute Project (OCP) – originally developed at Facebook – represents the future of efficient hardware deployment.

The OCP is a community formed on the open source software model to drive the design, operation and management of server, storage, network and data center hardware and management. It consists of engineers from both the vendor and client communities.

Our goal is to create designs that are vanity-free, low in cost and use significantly fewer parts. At the same time, by keeping the management of these components simple and similar, we encourage designs that can scale to high-performance computing (HPC), cloud and other large deployment use cases.

RANJEEV, ENGINEER, GOLDMAN SACHS DATA CENTER PRODUCT GROUP

The OCP is organized into eight tracks: Server, Storage, Data Center Design, Networking, Hardware Management, Certification, Open Rack and Solution Providers.

A track is basically an open forum for vendors and clients.

"We typically have two meetings per month: One is a high-level hardware management meeting, the other is the working track meeting for the multi-node management spec," says Ranjeev. "We have 10 to 15 people who are regular participants, and of course others come and go for shorter periods of time. Like the OCP community, we have both vendors and clients, representing financial institutions, social networking companies and so forth. Clients come up with the wish lists; vendors explain what can and can’t be done and the costs for each feature; and collectively we agree on the feature set."

Goldman Sachs has already started deploying OCP hardware in both its dynamic computing and compute farm environments. The firm is also writing a common hardware management framework.

Open source is already a powerful business asset, but part of its beauty is how easy it can evolve with changing business needs.

Duet isn't ready to predict the future just yet, but he is confident that there are bright years ahead for open source.

"Open source has changed so much in the last several years. Looking forward, one thing that we think is going to be a constant is the impact that it has."

Unknown March 25, 2019

Selecting network configuration software for automation

This week, bloggers look into choosing the right network configuration software for an automation project, endpoint security and the future of SD-WAN as a stand-alone service.

Ivan Pepelnjak, blogging in IP Space, explored what network configuration software is best for automation. Ansible,Chef and Puppet are commonly cited network configuration software options, with Salt becoming increasingly commonplace and CFEngine used occasionally. According to Pepelnjak, most network engineers prefer Ansible. Chef and Puppet focus mainly on configuration and state management and don't make changes unless necessary and tend to manage dependencies -- such as creating groups and then accounts within a group.

In Pepelnjak's view, managing configuration and soft state services is a good goal but doesn't go far enough. Among network configuration software, Ansible is unique, aiding in device provisioning, validating network topologies, upgrading software, helping with compliance and generating reports. Engineers can often get started more quickly with Ansible, learning the basics in a matter of hours. "Maybe it's just our mentality, or maybe we have to do things a bit different because of the huge blast radius of our mistakes. In any case, Ansible (which is just a generic automation/orchestration framework) fits better to our way of doing things," he said.

Read more of Pepelnjak's thoughts on network configuration software.

New developments in endpoint detection and response

Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., reflected on a 2016 project where he interviewed 30 enterprises about endpoint security strategies. At the time, Oltsik came up with a concept he termed a continuum of endpoint tools, with advanced threat detection at one end and endpoint detection and response (EDR) on the other end.

Based on the interviews, Oltsik and his colleague guessed that 75% to 80% of the market would steer toward advanced protection, while the remainder would pursue EDR. He also predicted that vendors would work to bridge the gap with combined offerings.

Now, in 2018, Oltsik said that the hypothesis has mostly played out. ESG research indicates that 87% of organizations are planning to buy comprehensive endpoint security suites and 28% of cybersecurity professionals identified EDR as the most attractive feature of the offerings. He projected that EDR will now undergo additional market segmentation. Traditional EDR, anchored by on-premises infrastructure, will continue as a niche market for high-security industries. A lighter, "trigger-based" version of EDR -- one that collects data when a behavioral anomaly occurs -- will appeal to purchasers in the midmarket, he said.

Managed EDR may also appear, with subsegments, catering to companies that want full EDR capabilities but lack personnel to oversee it. "Rather than default to a product, security managers really need to assess their needs, resources, and skills before making an EDR decision. There will be a lot of options to choose from, so CISOs must choose wisely," Oltsik said.

Dig deeper into Oltsik's predictions about EDR.

Streamlining with SD-WAN and network functions virtualization

Mike Fratto, an analyst at GlobalData in Sterling, Va., said he's heard commentary about stand-alone SD-WAN disappearing, instead becoming just another feature on routers and firewalls. Although he said many vendors will eventually consolidate features like these into a single appliance, he does not see the end of single-function SD-WAN devices.

That's because enterprise IT teams like bespoke products and many teams like the ability to swap out older stand-alone products for newer offerings as they become available.

Second, the shift to software-defined everything will let enterprises rely more on virtualized instances of SD-WAN. This will permit companies to consolidate network functions into fewer appliances.

Third is the fact that enterprise IT teams are often loath to replace tried and true systems with new options that may not be as capable.

"What enterprises want -- what they would pay for but will likely never get -- is an environment of deep management integration across multiple vendor products which could ultimately reduce operational overhead, unlock more efficient workflows, and generate significant operational cost savings along with way," Fratto said. "Here's where managed service providers have a unique advantage, provided they dedicate the resources to creating a portal that integrates the management functions across vendor products," he added.

Unknown February 25, 2019

IFTTT App Brings Easy Task Automation To Your Android Device

There are apps and services that can practically reinvent the way you do certain things, but you had no idea they existed. One of them is IFTTT, formerly known as If This Then That, which is a powerful tool for managing tasks and social activities. Until recently, IFTTT was available only to web and iPhone users, but from now on can download it also on any Android device.

Just like on other platforms, IFTTT for Android allows you to create recipes that you can program to perform various tasks automatically. For instance, it will immediately update your Facebook profile as soon as you publish a tweet, share a photo you've uploaded to your Tumblr blog on Google+ or send a starred e-mail to Evernote.

IFTTT offers plenty of customization options for both the recipes and messages that are posted along with selected content and encourages you to experiment with different combinations. If you're a heavy social network user or have a popular fanpage, you can use the service to reach all your friends and fans at once, with just a few taps on your phone's screen.

FTTT for Android takes advantage of software's openness to integrate its functionality deep into the system. As a result, it bears a few features exclusive to Google's mobile platform. It can trigger selected actions based on device settings, location, notifications, texts, photos, and more. To save your precious time and effort, the app can automatically activate silent mode when you connect to your office Wi-Fi network or send a message to your spouse when you'll be heading back home.

Intrigued? Take IFTTT for Android for a spin and see how much easier your life will get.

Unknown January 28, 2019

Workflow automation software improves LA court productivity

Court's in session, and the jury is unanimous: Automation software can help IT departments provide simpler workflows for end users on both desktops and mobile devices.

About five years ago, the Los Angeles Superior Court began moving all of its end-user computing resources to the cloud. That migration brought IT management benefits. But to simplify employees' business processes, something was still missing: a way to automate complex workflows.

As organizations adopt subscription models and aim to digitize paper-based processes, many turn to workflow automation software that streamlines common tasks. The LA Superior Court deployed Microsoft Office 365 to help judges and other employees store, share and edit data, particularly through SharePoint Online. With five to 10 people sometimes being involved in a single workflow, automation software from Nintex helped better integrate those processes between multiple apps and users.

"We are able to build what they need," said Marco Papa, SharePoint project manager at the LA Superior Court. "Our goal is to build something that enhances their ability to go through a court case and get [information] that is useful."

Workflow apps on the docket

The workflow automation software market is predicted to reach $17.3 billion by 2023, according toResearch and Markets. The software can help many organizations overcome the challenges of legacy, paper-based processes.

Using Nintex's Forms and Workflow products, Papa's team of developers has built around 20 different apps that combine multiple tasks -- many of which used to be done on paper -- into single workflows.

All of the apps integrate with SharePoint. For instance, the court system receives judicial complaints from the public in the form of letters. Employees can use a Nintex workflow app to enter information from these letters -- such as case numbers, plaintiff names and the judges involved -- into a form and share the data with multiple parties through SharePoint. They can set triggers -- for example, they could send a Nintex app notification to the supervising judge to remind him or her when they need to respond to the complaint.

"You wouldn't believe how many complaints come in, so we have a fairly complex workflow that manages receiving those letters," Papa said. "Without the workflow functionality, none of these would be possible."

Employees can access their Office 365 applications on desktops or their personal mobile devices. The apps built from Nintex's workflow automation software are essentially SharePoint extensions, so users can access them via a URL through web browsers. For mobile workflows, the IT department doesn't recommend employees use the native SharePoint app, because it's not as easy to interact with the Nintex forms from there, Papa said. IT instead suggests using the web on a tablet with a large screen, so the forms look the same as on a desktop. With such long lists of information, it's easier to read that way, Papa said.

The department has not yet moved to Windows 10, because Internet Explorer 11 is all workers really need to access these cloud-based apps, Papa said. Users no longer access many of their local desktop apps, so by moving to Office 365, the organization isn't as reliant on the operating system anymore.

"The browser is the OS," Papa said.

Workflow automation software providers

IBM
Oracle
Pegasystems Inc.
Software AG
Appian
Vision Software S.A.
IPsoft Inc.
Newgen Software
Nintex

Source: Global Workflow Automation Market Analysis (2017-2023), Research and Markets

The verdict's in

Moving to Office 365 means application maintenance and updates are Microsoft's responsibility, which takes a load off the court's IT department in terms of time and effort.

The addition of Nintex workflow automation software brought more simplicity, as well. Over an eight-month evaluation process, the department also considered an automation competitor called K2, but that software had too many development environments, Papa said. Nintex workflow automation software was easier to use, because its development platform is similar to C#, and it offers more visual, point-and-click, drag-and-drop, app-building features, he said.

"That makes it really easy, even for me, to add one more person to the development framework," he added.

The development team that builds the Nintex workflows includes pros with computer science backgrounds and around 10 years of SharePoint experience. It was easy to train even junior staff members on the workflow automation software, using short courses to teach them how to create the workflows, Papa said. The team has not yet given end users the ability to build the workflow capabilities themselves, however.

"It would be a lot of support calls, probably," Papa said, adding that already 20% of the department's time goes toward supporting SharePoint. "We don't have the ability of supporting them that way."

Feedback from users has been positive so far. Some of the almost 600 judges in LA are resistant to any new technology, but even they are satisfied with the workflows, Papa said. One app that's particularly useful to judges allows them to access lists of information they need to work on cases and get email notifications about data they need to review in SharePoint.

Once IT started providing these workflow apps, users wanted more, Papa said. The original licenses with Nintex charged per workflow, but the court didn't have the ability to tack on more over time without knowing how many apps it would eventually need. Papa worked with Nintex to develop a new license for the workflow automation software that the company previously didn't offer, which now provides unlimited workflows at a single subscription price.

Unknown December 31, 2018

4 Steps to Choosing Marketing-Automation Software That Actually Works

In football, the playbook is sacred. It contains a wealth of knowledge that guides a player’s every move on the field. When it comes to data and marketing, entrepreneurs should take a page from the pros and create a playbook to help them choose a comprehensive marketing-automation platform that serves every department.

Tracking and identifying the return on investment of your marketing efforts has become much simpler, yet many companies aren’t turning metrics into meaningful, actionable insight. That’s because most entrepreneurs accumulate data without taking into account each department’s data-tracking needs.

Accessing the right data starts with choosing marketing-automation software that works for your company. But you have to step outside your marketing mindset to see the broader applications of automation tools. Sales needs information to expedite the purchase process, and customer service needs data to alleviate customer pain points.

In the NFL, every player has a playbook. To achieve unified reporting, take every department’s playbook into account when choosing your automation software.

When you develop a guide for each department, you can focus your data-tracking efforts and expedite your lead generation and retention efforts. Marketing can find people ready to purchase. Sales can ignite the purchase process. Service can keep customers happy.

To make the best decision for your company’s needs, follow these four steps before purchasing marketing-automation software:

1. Devise a comprehensive plan before you buy.

Many entrepreneurs rush into a marketing-automation purchase before they’ve outlined a plan -- but that’s a huge mistake. Before you buy a tool to solve a problem, you must create a process to solve the problem. This process should include steps for creating, managing and tracking campaigns.

Define what each campaign means to every invested department by asking: What will it cost? How will we track performance? How will we associate leads and opportunities with the campaign?

Your process has to be unified across the board, or the best platform in the world won’t do you any good. Decide what matters, then find a platform that will measure it.

2. Map your marketing funnel.

Overextended entrepreneurs often overlook this vital phase, but your sales funnel is full of valuable information and content ideas. Before you take another step, slow down and ask yourself these important questions: Who are we speaking to? What information do they need? Are we going to measure their interest and response?

These questions can help you define each phase of the marketing funnel and create targeted content the sales team can use to nurture leads. For it to work, however, you have to involve the sales team in the process.

3. Choose a comprehensive tool that can serve multiple departments.

Rather than purchasing multiple marketing-automation tools to suit each department, look for one that does 80 percent of what you need for sales, marketing and customer service. Then, plug in a content-creation system.

Using one platform -- instead of customer-relationship management for sales, a content platform for marketing, etc. -- will keep everyone on the same page. You’ll have a common language, and team members will know what they’re doing and why. Map out exactly what each leg of the buyer’s journey looks like, and give your team a script for handling every point of contact.

4. Don’t overcomplicate it.

New tools and strategies can be exciting and overwhelming. You want to add more fields because more data is always better, right? Not necessarily. Too much data can create scope creep and detract from the meaning behind the numbers.

Boil your tracking needs down to the essentials. Keep it simple, and your team members can more easily identify the value behind your metrics.

On football teams, everyone -- from the head coach to the fourth-string punter -- lives by the playbook. Each player knows his role and the roles of his teammates, which helps the team move down the field as a unit.

Outline the data playbook for your entire team, and choose marketing-automation software that supports each of their roles. That way, everyone will have access to meaningful information that drives the company forward.

Unknown November 26, 2018

Integrating Tax Automation Software

Taxes are a nightmare. They’re complicated, boring, difficult to manage, and expensive to neglect. What’s worse, there appears to be no easy (and legal) way around them. Or… is there?

Thankfully, taxes were annoying and routine enough for developers to get together and digitalize them, creating Tax Automation Software (TAS), which collects, calculates, and files properly prepared tax documents, effectively doing your taxes for you.

Now, if you’re a business, choosing the right TAS can be a bit of a hassle. What features are must-haves? What features are optional? What should you be on the look-out for in your search for the perfect TAS? We too had to face these questions when developing Possio, a European GPS tracking solution. Together with the client, we looked into a number of TAS available on the market, and, having done an extensive research, settled on using Taxamo, as it is a perfect solution for the European market.

However, our choice might not be the one for you, as some TAS can work for your business better that others. Below, we’re comparing four major tax automation services: Taxamo, Taxify, Avalara, and Octobat. You’ll learn about their features, pricing, geographical coverage, possibilities for payment gateway integration, and much more to hopefully assist you in making the right TAS choice for your company!

Tax Automation Software: Standard Features

Most TAS systems offer a standard level of features that include: integrating with your online business (store, website, application — doesn’t really matter what), settling tax amounts from transactions, preparing and filing relevant documents, and storing all of that data for future audits. However, there are differences between them that are most evident in the breadth of services on offer.

Some TAS cover only one country’s tax regulations, while others work across several. Some TAS can integrate with hundreds of payment gateways, while others are able to run only a couple of them. Some have strict, recurring pricing models, while others offer an adaptive pricing structure that works more like a pay-as-you-go service. You get the idea — the main differences between the various tax automation software out there are hidden within the smallest details.

Comparing TAS Features Offered

Taxamo

Tax Calculation
Real-time identification of the most appropriate tax treatment for each transaction, without disrupting customer checkout flow.

Tax Collection
Instant collection of Value Added Tax (VAT) and General Sales Tax (GST), directly from payment providers.

Variety of Payments
Supports two types of payments: subscriptions and one-time transactions.

International Support
Users are able to choose the countries and regions that they want Taxamo to take VAT and GST liability for.

Business2Business (B2B) & Business2Consumer (B2C)
Multiple-country compliant B2B support through real-time validation of VAT/business numbers.

Taxify

Real-Time Tax Rates
Accurate, up-to-date tax rates in over 14,000 state/local jurisdictions.

Reporting & Audit Trail
Clarity in all tax records, from historical data to current findings.

Self-Service Web Portal
An extremely easy-to-use platform, compatible with anyone’s skills.

Automated Filing and Remittance
Complete automation of the taxing process, with no stamps, paper, or checks.

Print-Ready Tax Forms
Ready-to-sign forms for any state, with accurate, up-to-date tax rates for more than 14,000 US jurisdictions.

Government Certification
Taxify is a member of the Streamlined Sales Tax Project. This future-proofs your business against the changing US federal and state tax laws.

On-Demand Tax Research
With 20 tax attorneys on staff at all times, Taxify can present their customers with the most current tax rates and rules, enabling them to make smart decisions for the future of their business.

Avalara

Avalara Standard Features

Tax Calculator
Regularly updated, accurate calculation of tax rates for more than 12,000 US jurisdictions.

Supports Complex Organizations
Multiple-entity support for every location and/or department of a given organization.

Product Taxability
Thousands of sales tax rates for each product your business sells, ensuring careful calculation of taxes in every jurisdiction.

Address Validation
Automatic validation and correction of addresses for the highest level house-by-house tax calculation.

Avalara Premium Features

VAT Calculation
Automation of VAT calculations for more than 190 countries.

The AvaTax service works with many global businesses, including:

U.S. companies trading with EU companies or consumers;
EU companies trading with U.S. companies or consumers;
EU companies with wholly-owned subsidiaries in the U.S.

AvaTax Exemption
A compliance document management solution for collecting, storing, and managing exemption certificates.

With AvaTax Exemption, users may:

manage exempt customer information to determine jurisdictional exemption requirements;
upload and store exemption certificate images, and create or request exemption certificates directly from their customers.
request new exemptions or update certificates via a standard email template.
provide customers with a mobile-friendly certificate creation wizard using CertExpress.

Additional Integrations
A number of standards certified integrations with more than 650 accounting systems, as well as ERPs, CRMs, and other e-commerce software.

Returns Filing
Automatic preparation of sales tax returns within a single state or across hundreds of jurisdictions. To make sure that everything is calculated and filed properly, tax content is regularly updated to include the latest tax forms and instructions.

Consumer Use Tax
Simple and affordable solutions for handling use tax accruals for untaxed purchase transactions which are determined to be subject to consumer use tax. With this feature on hand, users can:

generate the use tax accruals through a batch upload process; integrate with payable accounts or General Ledger (GL) systems for use tax analysis and calculation;
integrate with payable accounts or General Ledger (GL) systems for use tax analysis and calculation;
produce reports that identify the required use tax accruals for filing within state and local jurisdictions.

Landed Cost Calculation
Avalara’s custom duty and import tax calculator provides accurate, real-time calculation of the true cost of cross-border transactions. This feature allows users to:

reduce the time spent calculating proper duty rates for the countries you work with; make use of a constantly updated cloud platform that automatically takes care of the ever-changing customs duty and import regulations;
make use of a constantly updated cloud platform that automatically takes care of the ever-changing customs duty and import regulations;
seamlessly integrate the API into shopping cart software;
easily assign tariff codes to every product in your catalog, covering every country you work with.

Octobat

Real-Time VAT/GST/Sales Tax Calculation
Multi-regional tax compliance through accurate identification of international laws applicable to every given online transaction. Taxes can be calculated either at checkout or after the payment has been processed.

Automatic Invoice Delivery
By synchronizing the data from payment providers, Octobat can automatically deliver PDF tax invoices to your customers. These documents are in strict compliance with both local and international laws.

Reports
Octobat’s detailed reports can easily be synchronized with any accounting solution. They include both real-time and consolidated revenue, along with tax calculation splitting.

Audit-Friendly Compliance
Tax settlement reports are generated with automated currency conversion. Every transaction is thoroughly analyzed to identify the applicable governing tax laws (VAT number, billing country, purchase IP address, etc.). This data is then stored for a period of 10 years and can be easily accessed from the application at any time.

Seamless Integration at Checkout
Octobat offers:

an embeddable form which is ready to be integrated with any website/application. This enables users to charge customers at the proper tax rate in just a few minutes (for both subscriptions and one-time payments);
built-in forms that allow for easy implementation of a customizable tax pricing strategy. These forms include instant tax rate calculation and pricing updates, both of which are based on customer type (end-consumer or VAT-registered business) and location.