By Keith Nichols
As the newly appointed managing director for Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting Government business, I am excited about the opportunities to serve government communities across the nation and around the world. Before assuming my new role, I headed Thomson Reuters businesses in Africa, and began my professional career as an officer in the United States Army following graduation from West Point. So, it’s with pride that I am again working with governments.
Today, Thomson Reuters is harnessing technology to support local governments collect tax revenues in a fair and equitable manner, identify threats to our public safety, and develop more just legal systems. I’m proud to be a partner in this important work. The potential for the application of technology to support the needs of our governments and communities is far reaching – everything from blockchain and big data to machine learning and artificial intelligence are making a positive difference.
I have a vision for this business: a vision that supports you – our customers charged with operating land and property tax information systems. A big part of that vision involves changing how the software industry develops, implements, and serves the technology needs of governments. To revolutionize our industry, Thomson Reuters is thinking differently about technology platforms and how we use them to support our customers. The custom mainframe, green-screen, point-in-time systems of yesteryear are quickly fading – along with the build it yourself, only for yourself (or for your state) approach to software development.
Now our systems must be scalable well into the future. They must be capable of adapting to the rapidly changing technology landscape, and accommodate seamless integration with innovations on the horizon. In this age of cyber attacks and cyber crime, it’s more imperative than ever that our systems are secure – a mandate that requires constant upgrades and improvements designed to counter the growing vulnerabilities faced by aging systems.
Sustainability is also critical. Ongoing research and investment are required to ensure a platform remains evergreen. Sustainability comes, in part, from strength in numbers – namely from you, our community of government software users. From feedback and requests for system improvements, you contribute expertise and knowledge that is encoded in our common software platform.
I’m following in good footsteps. Thomson Reuters has invested financial and human capital in our single-code line base for the Aumentum platform. Through this ‘Community Connect’ e-newsletter, you will hear from other members of our government customer community, along with our colleagues at Thomson Reuters, about the ways we are working in partnership to achieve this shared vision for revolutionizing technology designed to manage land information and administer property tax.
I look forward to meeting all of you through our conferences and visits to your offices.
