NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. - CCH plans a second release of IntelliConnect, its ambitious new tax research platform, for a Thanksgiving release to fix some of the issues users have been facing with the product, which is designed to replace the company's Tax Research Network. CCH president Mike Sabbatis said the next release would incorporate enhancements to enable users to get to content easier via the browser.CCH executives discussed the company's plans for its Internet-based products at the company's annual user conference. Sabbatis said some users also face difficulties simply because the tax research system is different than the one they have used. To help in the transition, CCH is providing a considerable amount of training. However, Sabbatis did not see the problems as major. "I think most of our customers are doing fine." Despite any difficulties users face, he continued that "people who are used to doing things a certain way are going to find IntelliConnect opens up research."
The company, which says more than 110,000 users have adopted IntelliConnect, rolled the product out this year as CCH and its parent, Wolters Kluwer, moved a wide variety of applications to a new search platform. One of the major improvements in IntelliConnect is that instead of needing to specify which publications should be searched, users can simply search for information. Enhancements include the expansion of the use of filters in searching, which can enable users to narrow search results by choosing criteria such as document type, tax type, a menu level in a library or a specific jurisdiction at the same time. The system also offers a new Nearby Documents folder which allows researchers to view adjacent documents in a publication as if they were reading a document in a book without leaving the search results list.
Sabbatis also predicted that by sometime next year, TRN will exit the market. "TRN is not going to exist through the next year," he said. "It’s not going to have to. There isn’t going to be any body left [using it]."
The IntelliConnect enhancements came as CCH continued on the broad introduction of Internet-based products this year with additional discussion. That included the release of the next generation of the ProSystem fx Suite, which will first be introduced as an Internet-based Software as a Service application and later with a desktop version. The first module released were the Tax, Document and Practice modules, along with the introduction of ProSystem fx Workstream and Portal. At a press briefing, executives said they expect as many as 60 percent of ProSystem users will work with SaaS applications within three-to-five years.
The company spent $7 million in developing a system which adheres to Microsoft’s software standards. Because CCH utilized Microsoft's .Net platform, it will be easier for adapt any acquired applications to the new ProSystem. Executives acknowledged that previously applications purchased from others companies were adapted to resemble CCH products, but did not always result in applications that integrated well.
