Tax Dimensions' underlying technology uses a multidimensional database with an Excel user interface. For large clients, or for those with SAP, Tax Dimensions adds a second Oracle database.

Unlike the older design technology found in other tax compliance software, which limits one to a single database with severe limitations on planning and simultaneous multi-users, Tax Dimensions' advanced database has no such limitations allowing clients to integrate sophisticated planning with compliance data.

Don't think it is just an Excel application. The power is in the database; Excel is just the interface. As far as users are concerned they are working in standard Excel; all of the commands in Excel are the same commands in Tax Dimensions; the databases and programming routines are transparent. Therefore, a new user can learn the Federal System in a day and the State System in less than a day.

Tax Dimensions runs easily on all servers. Since it utilizes Microsoft's Excel to run on the server, it has significantly fewer network issues than other software. First because it is not an alien entity for the IS department and second, Microsoft has spent major development time to run efficiently on a network; it is not a special one-off system built to run a tax application.

Tax Dimensions has also been rewritten at each platform level of Excel. That is why it can run a 1,000 company consolidation on a three-pound notebook while other compliance software requires a dedicated file server to consolidate a small number of entities.

Despite what some vendors say, they still have significant amounts of old DOS code and programming design remain in their system with the consequential problems in bugs, speed, and size. The size of the system is reflective of how well the software is written. The larger the size, the sloppier the code and the higher amount of old DOS code is lurking behind a Windows front end.