INTERVIEW WITH CLIENT – MARTYN OSWIN – HEAD OF IT DEVELOPMENT IN DFC
An interview with Mr. Martyn Oswin, The head of IT Development in DFC UK, a leading international provider of customer financial services (NYSE:DFC). For 2 years, we have been creating web-based applications for core financial processes of DFC.
Sii: Which areas of DFC business are supported by Sii?
Martyn Oswin: Currently I run online offering for short-term loans and also the back-office functions that support the online loan product.
Sii: How would you describe our cooperation?
MO: I think that the cooperation between the two teams is actually quite good. And I meet on a regular basis with your colleagues at Sii. We have a telephone conversation every fortnight. My colleagues in the office meet daily through video conferencing so we have what’s called a daily stand-up meeting. So the collaboration between the two team is really good.
Sii: Is there anything that has surprised you in cooperation with Sii?
MO: I think actually what surprised me most is that the values between our two companies are very, very similar. At Dollar we all have the same spirit. The spirit that stands for service, passion, innovation, respect, integrity and teamwork. So from the values perspective, we both put the customer at the heart of everything that we do. So I was very surprised that the two organizations have really identical values.
Sii: What are the advantages your company enjoys by working with Sii?
MO: I think that one of the key things for me that I really do appreciate is the fact that Sii is very responsive to my needs. I can be quite a demanding business partner and if I have a need to scale up results very quickly Sii are ready to meet that need. And I’ve never yet been disappointed. That’s been good.
Sii: In your opinion, what are the distinctive features of IT specialists in Poland?
MO: So I have worked with Polish specialists before and the technical excellence of Polish specialists wasn’t really a surprise to me. What was a surprise to me when I came over to Sii was the level of English the people speak. Their English in some instances seems better than my own, which was quite embarrassing. Also the key differential has been the enthusiasm of the people in the office, they really come across as they want to do a good job and not just they want to deliver on time – the time-cost quality, but they want to make a difference, they want to improve the process. So for short time I have been staying over in Poland and several people coming to my office with recommendations on how they can actually improve the process, improve our product, and generally make life better for everybody in the office. That’s been really enlightening and enjoyable to experience
Sii: What are the factors that influence your decision regarding long-term relations with a business partner?
MO: I need to provide a cost-effective service for my business partners. Clearly I need to have a quality solution I have to deliver it on time to very demanding business partners, and I need to make sure that I turn this business intent into working software as quickly as possible. I’m looking for a business partner that would allow me to do that, that would allow me to scale-up to meet my demand. When the demand isn’t there, maybe slow the pace down, to be very responsive, to understand the needs of my business. And ideally to understand the needs of my business as well as I do.
We do appreciate our relation and we wish many new common challanges in the future. Thank you for opinion and recommendation.
