VAI Adds Tax Management Features to ERP Suite

August 7, 2007 Dan Burger

Companies in the distribution, manufacturing, retail, and service industries aren’t the only organizations that find it difficult to deal with complex process of state sales tax management. However, they are the only industries that have reason to take note of an alliance between VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.) and Independent Systems, an Illinois-based provider of tax software for businesses.

VAI is a well-known System i software vendor with a track record of helping companies lower inventory levels, streamline business operations, reduce costs, and improve customer service. Its lead product, S2K Enterprise, is a popular choice for small to mid size businesses. S2K Enterprise is an i5/OS-based ERP suite written in ILE RPG.

The VAI customer base numbers approximately 750 firms, and the company has more than 100 dealers across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, with plans for adding more.

The partnership with Independent Systems fits in with VAI’s practice of partnering with companies in specialized market niches. Independent Systems’ applications are time tested and stable. They add value by automating state sales tax, sales tax rates and sales, and use tax compliance and integrating those features into the ERP system. Independent Systems possesses the expertise required to interact with state, county, and city government agencies that levy and regulate sales, and use tax on personal tangible property, a prerequisite to maintaining an accurate tax database.

Earlier this year, New York-based VAI opened the doors to a hosted application business when it announced a partnership with Invision, a managed service provider (MSP) based in Commack, New York. Invision hosts S2K Enterprise on its System i servers and allows customer access to the ERP suite from a Web-based interface delivered through a virtual private connection (VPN) across the Internet.