Aqilla has appointed Charis Thomas as chief product officer.
Thomas will be responsible for developing Aqilla’s product roadmap strategy and overseeing its implementation.
She said, “I was attracted to Aqilla because of the company’s culture and the potential for innovation—especially the intelligent and considered use of AI and machine learning to automate key tasks and processes. Hugh, our CEO, is a true visionary. His thoughts and plans for Aqilla immediately drew me in, and, straight away, I wanted to be on that journey with him.”
The next stage of Aqilla’s evolution will use AI and machine learning to automate the purchase invoicing process, including automated invoice capture and supplier allocation. It will also automatically forward invoices to the person responsible for settlement.
Thomas has worked on product development for more than a decade. Before joining Aqilla, she was payments product manager for domestic payments at Lloyds Bank, overseeing the development of digital onboarding processes for Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland and Halifax business debit card customers.
She was also a product manager at Zoopla, where she was involved in developing its main solution as a cloud-based financial CRM offering. In addition, she has more than 10 years’ experience in accounting and six as a business analyst, with roles at PayPoint and within the charity sector.
“It’s an exciting time for us,” said Hugh Scantlebury, Aqilla’s CEO. “The technology to take this next step in our product’s evolution exists. It’s just a matter of planning our strategy and ensuring it’s configured and implemented in the most user-friendly way. That’s where Charis’ invaluable experience and knowledge come into play.”
He added, “It’s true that many accounting solutions providers are trying to achieve this level of automation with third-party plug-ins. By contrast, we want to keep AI and automation—alongside business intelligence and analytics—within the main product. This will be our key differentiator as we continue to develop. Taking a plug-in approach can quickly become expensive for end-users, so keeping AI, business intelligence, and analytics within the core product will ensure we continue to deliver high-value services and value for money for our customers.”