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Innovative Data Visualization Tool Transforms Microsoft Tax Department’s Complex Internal Processes

6 min read

Client Snapshot

Profile

Microsoft creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of its customers. Its tax department serves many legal entities across the global organization.

 

Situation

Microsoft’s tax department needed to transform how it handled the complex needs of each of the entities it serves. Its existing infrastructure was manual and inefficient.

 

Work Performed

Protiviti developed a data visualization solution, combining 12+ data sources into one tool, using Microsoft’s own technologies, with a focus on data integration, automation, and advanced analytics. This tool eliminates cumbersome manual processes into one streamlined solution.

 

Outcome/Benefits

With the tool in place, the department has seen a reduction in the time required to complete routine tasks, an improvement in tax planning efficiency, and an increase in overall operational efficiency.

 

Microsoft’s tax department, which serves the many legal entities across this large global organization, was at a pivotal moment. While it was effectively meeting the needs of those internal entities, the group recognized their processes were largely manual and particularly inefficient. The team wanted to transform itself to drive efficiencies, both within the department and across the larger organization. Protiviti, a long-time Microsoft partner, offered our expertise to help successfully achieve this transformation.

Driving to a transformational solution

The initial assessment of the tax department’s processes, including a series of workshops and interviews with key stakeholders, revealed several opportunities to drive process transformation, including fragmented data sources, manual processes, and a lack of real-time insights.

Armed with this knowledge, and working closely with the team, it was determined that developing a unique solution integrating data, automating processes, and leveraging advanced analytics would be this group’s key to success. The project team dove into creating a custom visualization tool, using Microsoft products, complete with underlying data architecture and a conversational AI interface designed for complex decision support. Among the solutions incorporated were:

  • A Fabric medallion architecture and semantic model, combining legal contract information with official financial reporting to support reporting with robust, trustworthy data
  • A custom, data-driven SharePoint Framework (SPFx) Web Part, a rich, interactive experience directly within the SharePoint Online environment
  • A custom API to facilitate communication between the front-end SPFx Web Part and Microsoft Fabric
  • A custom data visualization and integrated AI assistant to display the complex entity landscape, relationships between entities, and transaction flows.
This tool enhances how we visualize our corporate structure, intercompany agreements and more. It will provide lasting benefits for Microsoft tax practitioners.
-Kirk Muzzy, VP, –Chief Tax Counsel

Three success factors

The tool’s development focused on three key pillars; each aimed to address specific challenges identified during the assessment phase.

Data integration

The foundation of the modernization effort was data integration, utilizing cloud computing service Microsoft Azure, to centralize all tax-related data. This involved migrating data from various legacy systems into a unified data lake, ensuring seamless access and consistency across the department. By leveraging Azure Data Factory, the data ingestion process was automated, reducing the time and effort required to consolidate information from disparate sources.

Automation

The next step was to automate routine tasks, implementing Microsoft Power Automate to streamline workflows and eliminate manual intervention. Tasks such as data entry, reconciliation, and report generation were automated, significantly reducing the risk of errors and freeing up valuable time for the tax professionals to focus on strategic activities.

AI-based tools like Microsoft Power BI and Azure Machine Learning were also deployed to enhance data visualization for quicker decision-making. This automated the task, enabling the tax department to proactively address potential issues before they escalated, minimizing financial exposure.

Advanced analytics

The final pillar of the modernization effort was advanced analytics. The project team leveraged Microsoft Power BI to create interactive dashboards and visualizations, providing a holistic view of the tax landscape. These dashboards offered drill-down capabilities, allowing users to explore data at granular levels and gain deeper insights into specific areas of interest.

Azure Machine Learning models were also used to perform sophisticated analyses. These models could identify patterns and trends in tax data, enabling the department to make informed decisions based on historical and predictive insights. For example, the models helped identify potential tax-saving opportunities and optimize tax planning strategies.

Rigorous testing was carried out to ensure the tool's accuracy and reliability throughout the project to validate results and make necessary adjustments. Comprehensive training sessions were provided to Microsoft's tax professionals to ensure they could effectively use the new tool. Ongoing support was also made available to address any issues and provide updates.

Transformed processes deliver

This powerful visualization tool allows the tax department to view its entire organizational structure digitally, fully understanding where each entity ‘lives’ within the company. It enhances how the tax team interacts with the entities it supports and visualizes intercompany transactions occurring with those entities. This is compared to the manual searches previously needed to gather critical information. With the new tool in place, the team now has a dynamic view of data in a structure that allows more targeted focus. The department can now quickly look at chat details of each legal entity and can filter searches to deliver a targeted scope of insights. The tool delivers an interactive, secure environment, a considerable transformation from the static, manual environment of the past.

By leveraging AI-based models, the tax department could access relevant data in a single place with greater accuracy, resulting in an improvement in process efficiency. This not only minimized manual errors in creating data visualizations but also allowed the department to allocate resources more effectively.

The elimination of manual processes for data visualization, reporting and automation of routine tasks enabled the department to internally report and analyze their entity org structure digitally allowing them to reduce level of effort, allowing them to focus their time on more strategic activities.

Integrating data, automating processes, and leveraging advanced analytics, transformed Microsoft’s tax department into a model of efficiency and compliance. The measurable results achieved underscore the value of innovative solutions in addressing complex challenges and driving sustainable growth.

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