Wolters Kluwer was founded in 1836 — the year the Whig Party first formed in the U.S., the year Charles Darwin returned on the Beagle, the year Sam Houston became governor of the Republic of Texas. One of its most familiar products is the only-slightly-less-venerable CCH, the core of its tax group, which was founded in 1913 — the same year the U.S. income tax came into being.
During its 185-odd years, the company has gone from being a print publisher to a software and service provider for a wide array of business challenges. With so much history in so many areas behind it, it can be difficult to pin the company down to a single thing, as its products cover a tremendous variety of different professional needs, both broad and niche. Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting supports the CCH Axcess Portfolio, a suite of cloud-based tax, accounting and audit tools, developed collaboratively with customers and used by tens of thousands of U.S. professional firms, including 90% of the Top 100 Firms in accounting.
Jason Marx has been the CEO of Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting since March 2023, having previously served as president and CEO of the division’s North America office. Marx spoke to Accounting Today about recent projects, new initiatives and the direction of the accounting technology world.
What was the last big initiative or project your company completed?
Marx: In 2022 we started the process of delivering state content into CCH Axcess iQ. We will have 100% of state coverage delivered by Q2 2023.
Providing state content into CCH Axcess iQ provides significant coverage to help our firms provide proactive advisory service to the taxpayer not only at the federal level but also at the state level, where legislative changes can be harder to track.
In December we also rolled out our beta of CCH Axcess Data Lake. The CCH Axcess Data Lake solution enhances firms’ visibility into their performance, efficiency, and profitability. Through integrations with business intelligence platforms or within Excel, firms can create custom reports and dashboards. This rich data will allow firms to enhance how they advise their clients, maximize revenue, and make proactive business decisions. This is just our first phase into the Data Lake and CCH Axcess is in a unique position to provide these insights as the only full cloud platform.
What is the most exciting new thing you’re working on?
Marx: Customer-driven innovation continues to be central to everything we do, incorporating industry-leading technologies, like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain to ensure firms stay as productive and profitable as possible.
What differentiates Wolters Kluwer? What makes you different?
Marx: Every day, we develop new ideas to help professionals improve the way they work, how they make critical decisions, and solve complex problems by providing expert solutions that combine our deep domain knowledge and specialized technology.
By focusing on innovation, we help the profession navigate a rapidly changing landscape, effectively plan for the future of accounting, and take advantage of new technologies to grow, manage, and protect their businesses and their clients’ businesses.
Wolters Kluwer was, for example, first to market with a comprehensive cloud suite of solutions for the profession, driving industry innovation and transformation over the past decade. Wherever a firm is in its digital transformation journey, we provide the personalized tech tools, guidance, and support to get them where they want to go.
What is the biggest tech challenge facing accountants today?
Marx: I’m certainly invigorated by the forward-thinking that is happening in the accounting profession, but the pace of technology adoption could and should be moving faster.
The advantages of emerging technologies in tax, audit and firm management and their delivery through cloud solutions and their efficiencies are real, yet many firms have clung to the past. The collaboration and innovation happening in our industry is exciting and continues to make us all better.
Wolters Kluwer Tax and Accounting at a glance:
Headquarters: Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands
Number of countries with WK operations: 40
Employees: 20,000
Number of CCH Axcess users: 380,000
Renewal rate for CCH Axcess: 95%
Website: www.wolterskluwer.com
This is part of our regular Vendor Spotlight series, where we highlight technology vendors that are fueling the accounting profession’s digital transformation.
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