The slow march towards the Single European market is bringing with it changes in the way that value-added tax on products moving from one country to another is reconciled between each government, and to help civil servants struggling with their sums, the European Community is planning to set up a pan-European X25 packet-switched network-based VAT Information Exchange System. The decision is good news for Brussels-based Unix systems integrator Sof-X BV, which receives a significant revenue boost by being chosen as the main contractor in the $10.9m-a-year project, although the money is only trickling out – for the first phase of the project, it has so far received only $6.3m. The network will be provided by Infonet as joint contractor: Infonet is now owned by several public phone companies, mainly in Europe, and by MCI Communications Corp. Sof-X will be linking NCR Corp Unix-based computer systems in each of the member states via the 25 network, which is due to be ready for testing in November – the so-called VAT Information Exchange System itself has to be ready for January 1 1993. Sof-X says it has a development team of 25 working on the network, and intends to employ eight full-time support staff when it goes operational.
