Part 1 of 5: Key Concepts in the Future of Tax
Cliché Busting: The Substance Behind the Sound Bites
In one sense, taxology is about delivering tax technology with built-in digital future-proofing.
Xyto and its partners are all about realizing both for the price of one, such that…
Their combined value is far greater than the sum (cost) of their parts.
But how? … Well, it’s no big mystery.
We run journeys that involve unshackling the most powerful concepts available today!
Many in tax will have heard of them, yet they remain curiously out of reach.
This 5 part series looks at the truth behind five critical common keywords.
Part 1: The Essence of Agile
The Agile movement, which began 20 years ago with the goal of building better software, has grown to be applicable in nearly every field. Yet, its core principles, that are central to its value proposition, are easily side-stepped.
One key Agile theme states that, “good digital solutions must be ‘discovered’ through collaboration and iteration, rather than predefined upfront”. This applies because digital technologies change the rules of the game in ways impossible to fully grasp in advance.
Yet, many organizations hesitate to adopt true Agile because it lacks predictability. But by doing so, they suppress the learning, exploring, and innovating so vital for digital success. Instead, they opt for the illusion of control at all costs, even as those costs reach debilitating levels, especially for tax.
Therefore, to break through this impasse, we must bust some taboos and listen to what Agile is really telling us. Here are three vital pillars that few dare speak:
In the digital world, the users do not know their requirements;
Even if they did, IT could not deliver it for them; and
Business and technology are not independent of each other.
This is a hammer blow to some, almost too much to take, even if in their hearts they felt it was true all along. Nowhere is this more true than in tax, which has now irreversibly gone digital. The tax profession is still figuring out what that means, both for day-to-day and the big picture.
However, the only way forward is to boost their own digital journeys. Each person must discover it for themselves, and the first step is to jettison any notion of already knowing what the destination must look like!
Xyto and its partners make that happen in a way that today’s organizations can get behind.
By adopting Agile methods and working hand-in-hand with our customers, we are collapsing the gap between tax and technology such that each is altered fundamentally (some might call it transformation). The results are extraordinary.
Overall, in the context of people, process & technology, Agile is key to the “process” part. It’s so critical that meaningful digital journeys cannot happen without it.
Therefore, it’s vital that real Agile is core to every tax function’s digital ambitions.
In Part 2, we look at Transformation, and reveal why so many projects are called “transformation”, yet have little or no transformation in them.
Until next time…
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