RSM’s ONESOURCE Determination Implementation Partnership yields substantial results

Michael Giannettino is a partner in state and local tax at RSM and has been part of the Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Determination Implementation Partner Program for years — both during his time working at RSM and in previous positions. In his current position, he says his relationship with ONESOURCE is more active and productive than ever. 

“I would say we’ve had a 20 – 30% increase in revenues,” he says. “The Thomson Reuters team has been focusing on the middle market, and it fits really well with our approach to the middle market globally. I would say in the last four years that pace and interaction has really made an impact.” Giannettino explains that while sometimes RSM identifies opportunities and brings ONESOURCE in, there are also times that the ONESOURCE team will do the same for them. He says that he attributes their success in the program to the mutual trust between RSM and ONESOURCE.

“We trust each other and work well together, and that’s always what you look for in a relationship,” he says. “If you don’t have that trust in the relationship, you won’t be able to be successful — and we’ve been successful.” He says that with trust comes the ability to learn from one another and work together as a team. “I think what works well is the openness of conversation and willingness of both sides to hear, listen, learn, and respond,” he says. “I think the willingness to listen and make change based on feedback that either side is receiving is what drives success in that program.”

RSM works closely with ONESOURCE on leads. “When we identify a lead opportunity, they’re responsive and request additional information about the client,” Giannettino says. “They find out what the opportunity is and try to help us scope it out together — really that responsiveness is what drives this.”

But the teamwork doesn’t stop there. When it comes to implementation and support, he says RSM can count on ONESOURCE to deliver. “The professional services team has been very supportive and helpful,” he says. “There are some technical elements with the installation and implementation, and we leverage that team a lot. When we run into a roadblock, we have the opportunity to connect with them directly as opposed to our clients going through the normal RSM Case Study   3 succession and process of service. It elevates and expedites the process to get a better result more quickly for our clients.”

Giannettino says ONESOURCE Determination has been a game-changer for clients — particularly when it comes to flexibility and ease of use. “From a technology perspective, the platform is great. It has a tremendous amount of functionality. It meets a lot of our clients’ [sales tax] needs — not just from a U.S. perspective, but also global with ease of implementation and overall functionality, along with different attributes we’re able to leverage from an ERP environment,” he says. “If the standard out of the box connector isn’t sufficient, we have the ability to alter that.”

“Our clients want options,” he says. “I think historically there were maybe one or two vendors in the middle market space. Now that we’ve developed this relationship, and the technology is flexible and within the middle market price, we’ve had the opportunity to introduce another solution to our clients and give them another option to consider. That’s where I think we’ve been able to be just that much more consultative in our approach to our clients.”

Giannettino says that in the highly competitive service business, the ONESOURCE Determination Partnership Program has given RSM a leg up on the competition — and the solution’s flexibility as well as the team’s responsiveness have both played a large role in that. “The opportunity for us to present a requirement or change or some additional functionality that may be needed and the responsiveness of ONESOURCE to enable that change and bring that to the market is what drives success for us,” he says. “We can actually say we have this relationship. We can leverage it, and we’re able to do that because Thomson Reuters enables that process.”

The results speak for themselves. In addition to RSM’s substantial increase in revenues, customers’ feedback has been positive. Giannettino says that he’s heard that customers have enjoyed their experience working with RSM and Thomson Reuters on a joint solution. 

Giannettino says he would recommend partnering with Thomson Reuters to other consultants. “I think, from a consultative firm perspective, we’ve been able to drive more success based on the partnering relationship we have with Thomson Reuters,” he says. “I would recommend leveraging this relationship because we’ve been able to see success, and it’s something that I look forward to expanding in the future.”

RSM US LLP is a limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of RSM International, a global network of independent audit, tax, and consulting firms. The member firms of RSM international collaborate to provide services to global clients, but are separate and distinct legal entities that cannot obligate each other. Each member firm is responsible only for its own acts and omissions, and not those of any other party. Visit rsmus.com for more information. 

The ONESOURCE Determination Implementation Partner Program provides the opportunity for partners to bring a world class sales, use, and VAT tax engine to customers while bringing realtime automation capabilities into implementation projects for ERP, financial, accounting, and e-commerce applications.