As the Manager of Information Technology, Ian Rees is responsible for turning the often complex array of financial services that Octet offers businesses, into comprehensive user-friendly details on the Octet portal.
With an accounting tertiary qualification and proven software developer experience, Ian joined Scottish Pacific Business Finance (SPBF) in 1989 to build, extend and improve the application that enabled SPBF to service their clients. Since 2001, Ian has served on the Communications Committee of Factors Chain International, which is charged with the responsibility of overseeing the management and ongoing development of the communications portal that allows its 252 members in 66 countries to transact with one another.
In recent months, Ian has been a group leader at Factors Chain International Communications Seminars examining the feasibility of introducing a PO management product into the FCI community.
Ian moved from SPBF to Octet with Clive Isenberg to set up Octet’s intricate online Business Transaction Facility and to oversee the development of the company’s portal.
Ian says, “The Octet website is the first port of call for many of our clients to investigate the facilities that we can offer their businesses. It needs to be easy to understand, succinct and uncomplicated to navigate. Allowing our clients to find information quickly on the site has been a feature we have placed considerable emphasis on throughout the website’s development.
“We take the same care with the design and styling of the portal that our clients use on a day to day basis, as we do with the publicly facing website. We want to ensure that their experience is a uniformly positive one.”
Particularly as the new Total Working Capital Solution is now available for Octet members, the portal has become even more important because Octet’s reach has extended to other areas within our clients business and at the same time opened up new markets for them as well.
“The portal helps our clients to apply online and get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for approval in a timely fashion”, Ian explains. “Once they come on board as a client, the portal helps them to monitor their transactions and track their spending. The portal provides an overview of their flexible funding, with a comprehensive back-end system to allow our clients to monitor their account. The new Total Working Capital Solution Octet has developed will provide our clients with greater flexibility in spending their funds, and still allow them to monitor this spending through the Business Transaction Facility.”