NetSuite’s OneWorld goes centurion
- Summary:
- If you want to do business in 100 different countries – more than 200 if you count dependent territories – then OneWorld makes it possible, from a `single pane of glass’ if that is what you fancy.
The need for an enterprise to operate globally with one financial system, especially when it comes to issues such as harmonizing different tax regimes using different languages, is a major requirement, and often a major stumbling block.
As an example, the recent news that the gargantuan Dell:EMC merger might yet fall foul of a US tax bill for as much as $9 billion demonstrates that, even in one country, getting tax management right is fraught.
Yet in an increasingly global village for businesses, international mergers are becoming increasingly common, and the associated tax management issues probably beyond the scope of the mere human mind to grapple with.
With this in mind, one of the key developments in the latest update of OneWorld is the ability to manage configurable tax compliance across 190 currencies. And with the addition of Turkish as the latest language, it now offers this across more than 100 countries and 20 different languages.
When the dependent territories of some countries are included into the mix, it brings the total coverage to more than 200 countries.
Essentially, NetSuite is now getting close to being able to claim that OneWorld can provide business management services anywhere that a phone connection is possible and business is conducted.
The company sees the new version helping businesses to enter new markets, manage mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and expand globally without having to arm-wrestle business management systems that are siloed by department, geography or legal entity structures.
The biggest problem, especially for companies with global growth expectations, is that these siloed applications cannot scale with business growth. In addition, they can add excessive costs and induce potential errors, all the while inhibiting any businesses’ ability to respond to changing markets and customer needs.
As well as providing indirect tax calculation and reporting capabilities, materially simplifying tax management, tax compliance, filing and audit accountability, the system’s global tax engine also provides Tax Audit File generation in various formats, including SAF-T. This is designed to bridge the gap between traditional ERP and external tax engines with seamless access to the key data required to satisfy those tax authorities that use standards-based eGovernment and audit methodologies.
This is key to supporting omnichannel, omni-country business operations, and takes into account where goods are shipped from and shipped to. This helps to calculate the correct tax for the correct jurisdiction for any given transaction.
Within the EU, NetSuite Global Tax also handles triangulation reporting requirements for business engagements that span three or more countries, in addition to Mini-One-Stop-Shop (MOSS) tax calculation and reporting obligations for companies delivering electronic services to European customers.
According to the company, the updated OneWorld includes improvements in most of its existing capabilities. For example, it can support B2Anything operations such as ecommerce, in-store, telesales and social channels and, in conjunction with SuiteCommerce Advanced, provide enhanced business agility.
It also now supports automated exchange rate updates for all 190-plus ISO currencies and, in conjunction with global order management, enables businesses to transact with any customer, anywhere. To help this along, NetSuite’s SuitePayments Program now counts 10 partners, and supports electronic payments in an unlimited number of bank formats. These include over 80 predefined formats (including SEPA) across more than 20 countries.
In addition, the Alternate Payment Methods API is also included to allow any payment type for any country — from bank transfers to gift cards.
My take:
OneWorld has long been a rarity amongst the business management tools market in addressing the issues of managing global business operations from, in effect, one pane of glass. So extending and enriching its capabilities is an obvious step that is likely to appeal to many CIOs and business managers.
Disclosure - at time of writing, NetSuite is a premier partner of diginomica