Mexico City — June 12, 2014 — With the goal of continuing to improve the services offered to Mexican taxpayers, Mexico’s Tax Administration System (SAT) chose Microsoft Azure cloud computing services, a solution that has allowed it to receive electronic documents in a more secure and reliable manner.

Through Microsoft Azure, the government agency took advantage of the elasticity of cloud computing services to help perform the following tasks:

• Issue electronic invoices
  

• Provide direct customer support from the portal to all taxpayers who require to check, cancel or download electronic invoices issued by themselves or on their behalf
  

• Support more than 85 authorized certification providers with filing-related services
  

For the 2013 annual tax returns process, a version of DeclaraSAT was designed in the open and flexible Microsoft Azure cloud platform to facilitate the timely and efficient completion of the annual return for taxpayers. The implementation of this solution helped the tax agency record, at the end of April, an increase of 8.24 percent more tax returns compared with the previous year’s statements. DeclaraSAT on Microsoft Azure reached more than 1,539,000 filings, compared with traditional DeclaraSAT, which recorded 299,300.

Through the SAT, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit reported that at the end of the April 2014 period, it had received the largest number of annual individual statements ever recorded.

“Since we started using Microsoft Azure services with the SAT, we have processed close to 4 billion documents with the peace of mind that Microsoft Azure helps keep the information secure, which is fundamental for the organization,” said Juan Manuel Galarza, general administrator for communications at the SAT. Microsoft Azure has also allowed the agency to process daily peaks of up to 34 million electronic invoices.

“At Microsoft we are proud to be able to provide our technological tools to government institutions, especially when they result in benefits for citizens,” said Carlos Allende, director of Public Sector and Education of Microsoft Mexico. “An example of this is Microsoft Azure, which offers external connectivity at least 99.95 percent of the time and allows institutions to run cloud solutions while providing absolute security in the management of processed information. In addition, it provides automatic software updates, network load balancing and high availability.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services, devices and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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