The presentation provided a smattering of information about products for firms in the United States. Martin noted the recent launch of the Accounting CS application and said that the next generation tax preparation product will receive full multi-lingual support next month. Tax & Accounting will introduce its first mobile products this month, although he gave no details.
Martin also presented slides showing that Thomson had 18 percent of the market for American firms, compared to 11 percent for CCH and 7 percent for Intuit. He said that the market share figures for Thomson and CCH were possibly reversed from five years ago. He also tried to pigeonhole CCH and its parent Wolters Kluwer for being predominately in the public firm market and not having a large corporate business.
But the emphasis was growth internationally and corporate products. Martin said only 6 percent of Tax & Accounting's revenue in 2009 came from outside the United States and that will change as Thomson opens more sites overseas and launches more global products.Thomson has acquired tax applications in other countries and the company will continue buying to fill in offerings at the local level.
It will tie those together with Checkpoint and OneSource. In terms of the research platform, "It’s taking our Checkpoint platform and creating a global information appliance," Martin said. He also labeled OneSource his unit's "core brand."
Checkpoint World scheduled for a fourth-quarter launch as is the Global Tax Workstation, which will tie together the corporate offerings in the OneSource line. Martin said there would be another name for the workstation when it hits the market.
The recently introduced Checkpoint Learning is also going to be a global product. Checkpoint Learning provides a common platform for Thomson's wide variety of continuing education offerings. But Martin spoke of the new platform as much more than an aggregation of educational products.
"It's an automated way accountants can be certified," he says. And in many countries, "Checkpoint Learning will be the basis of our entry into the market."
