A strong business cased for an Integrated Tax System (ITS) replacement

Client

The Vermont Department of Taxes (VDT) serves the State to collect money to fund principal governmental functions. The VDT promotes state program coordination, responds to administrative and policy changes, and ensures transparency for public tax dollars. The services provided by the department directly impact all Vermonters.

Challenge

Over the past several years, the VDT has focused on extensive modernization efforts, advancing technologies, communications with taxpayers, practices, and workforce development. In support of their goal, “Using Technology to Process Taxes More Efficiently,” they sought an independent consultant to provide project management and business analysis services to help them decide the most effective way to move forward with an Integrated Tax System (ITS). An ITS is a single information technology system and platform designed to process all taxes and associated functions, removing reliance on separate, disparate, and poorly integrated systems.

Solution

The BerryDunn team conducted peer state, industry, and best practices research, reviewed the VDT’s functional and technical requirements through joint requirement planning sessions, and engaged in a deliberate process of defining the benefits and drawbacks of a new system as part of the business case. These were all critical steps in the project given the VDT’s desire to adopt an ITS.

The BerryDunn team used its expertise in both project management and business analysis for state agencies to engage a cross-section of VDT project stakeholders to achieve:

• An assessment of the current documentation and business processes that resulted in a written business case for the ITS implementation
• A review and update of business requirements from a prior ITS RFP that resulted in a thorough, but more streamlined, set of business and technical system requirements
• The development of a request for proposals (RFP) for an ITS
• Project management to oversee this phase of the VDT’s ITS planning

Outcome

With a strong business case in place, the Department of Taxes has been able to drive towards an RFP and eventual replacement of their ITS. The last of their tax types will convert to their new ITS. In November of 2017, with effort and teamwork from their staff, Vermont will be shutting down the last of their legacy taxation systems.