Many banks are not aware of the Research and Development (R&D) tax credit program, on account of not recognizing themselves as eligible as software companies. In other cases, some organizations believes that only a portion of their activities can be qualified as innovation.
Both cases are common misconceptions pervasive throughout the business world, but innovation is more than only new inventions. Actually, almost every phase of a solution is considered an activities of R&D.
When claims are properly prepared in compliance – with correct standards –, the R&D tax credit can be a reliable funding source for IT solutions. Among the possibilities, any of the following activities can be considered as an R&D process:
- New or different solution to optimize the time inherent to some task or accuracy in the customer service perception and relationship by technology;
- Development of a platform for coordination of internal processes;
- Design of new platforms, such as channels or languages, in partnership with clients and suppliers (including memberships, rewards or cashback);
- New systemic solutions for the creation of inedited financial products, based on data collection and historical behavior, for preventing losses;
- Systems integration and data base interface;
- Manage clients through intelligent algorithms, which evaluates main indicators, such as the granting of credit;
- Development of new means of negotiating online via mobile applications;
- Self-service on-line or self-payment in stores connecting different payment platforms;
- Artificial intelligence (AI) for customer service;
- Algorithms to automate stock market operations;
- Developing new products to be offered in physical agencies and digital channels – through the design of new technological platforms to support the operations;
- Cross-selling or up-selling by a customized offer;
- Improve the security of automated teller machines (ATM) or virtual operating systems – such as biometric scans, security system (firewall) or malware recognition;
After the idealization phase, other activities can be included, as the ones corelated to:
- Specification definitions;
- Software architecture design;
- Software implementation (source code development);
- Systems Application;
- Software as part of a hardware product;
- Development of specialized technologies and algorithms;
- Functional requirements analysis engaging in systems process mapping and modeling.
Once the solution is done, must be assessed, and proved:
- Integration analysis and testing;
- Design defect identification;
- Software design modifications to eliminate design defects;
- Test procedure definition;
- Test specifications definition;
- Test procedure / process execution and system stress.
