Spotlight on... Sovos with Alexis Desjardins
Sovos is a global company capable of meeting your tax and regulatory compliance needs anywhere you do business.
- Could you introduce yourself ?
I’m a French Canadian from Montreal, who settled in Brighton in the UK five years ago and I’m now married with two kids! I am a Sales Director at Sovos in the VAT Compliance Services team and manage a team of seven account representatives.
- What does Sovos do? What are Sovos specialities?
Sovos is a global company capable of meeting your tax and regulatory compliance needs anywhere you do business. We believe that tax should never be an impediment to business success. Whether your goal is greater efficiency or growth, we provide you with the tools and services to improve processes and scale your operations.
Our mission is to Solve Tax for Good®! Our specialised and blended approach to VAT compliance includes a mix of tax experts and cutting-edge technology to ease the pain of compliance all from one point of contact.
- In how many countries are you present?
Sovos has 2,400+ employees working in 14+ countries and we support tens of thousands of customers (including half the Fortune 500) that operate in more than 70 countries. In the EMEA region, we cover all of the EU, plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and further afield in Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and more!
- In what way do you distinguish yourself from other tax companies?
Sovos supports businesses with a global strategy and local expertise to meet the demands of today’s digital transformation of tax. You’ll see this approach in everything that we do. Our SaaS products and proprietary Sovos S1 Platform integrate with a wide variety of business applications and government compliance processes.
Our unique approach to VAT compliance is based on the high expertise of our team of senior VAT consultants and cutting-edge technology. We always approach our clients’ VAT obligations by paying attention to the wider position and understanding their transactions, in the first instance. This enables complete clarity on the requirements, which limit the risk and allow us to identify cost saving opportunities. Our software platform, Sovos Advanced Periodic Reporting, ensures our clients’ compliance profile is future proofed in light of increasing mandates for continuous transaction controls, e-invoicing, SAF-T and many more regulatory requirements. Both combined offer a unique solution that is cost effective, sustainable, scalable, and ultimately, provides the reassurance businesses need today when trading internationally.
- What would be your three best practices/advice for a company doing cross-border business ?
1) Don’t guess it! At the end of the day, you don’t know what you don’t know and if you get the VAT wrong it can be very expensive to put right – I’ve seen companies paying the ultimate business price.
2) Keep talking to your VAT advisor. VAT challenges within the business can be shared and a solution crafted together. Plans for supply chains expansion should be shared at an early stage so VAT considerations can be outlined from the outset so to enable informed business decisions.
3) Make sure you have a trusted and constant source of information. Governments are driving the digital transformation of tax and the VAT landscape is continuously changing. Businesses have no choice but to keep up.
- What is the link between Sovos and the French Chamber of Commerce ?
Sovos is a global company with local expertise and we want to create strong relationships with every business community across the regions. Through working with the French Chamber of Commerce, we’ll continue to help French businesses thrive when trading internationally by raising awareness of complex and key VAT considerations. With many long-standing French clients, we’re proud to work alongside the French Chamber of Commerce to support local businesses.