Transforming the mobility sector as a disruptive technologist with Jim Day

Jim Day brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the tax and accountancy sector. Having worked for the big four accountancy firms for a number of years, in 2007, Jim decided to take a leap of faith and set up Aethersys writing software for KPMG’s mobility practice. Like all good adventures, there is a time when they come to their natural end.?

?In January 2023, Aethersys announced their new partnership agreement with Vialto Partners. Their mission remains clear - to transform the mobility sector and to promote globalisation.?

Our Client Engagement Lead, Shivani Shah sat down with Jim to discuss his inspiration for setting up Aethersys, what this new partnership will mean for his business, how COVID-19 has impacted him as a business owner and how his disruptive technology will help shape our future.???

Can you start by introducing yourself?

Hi, I’m Jim Day. I am the founder and CEO of Aethersys. By way of background, I graduated with an undergraduate degree in Economics followed by a master’s in the same degree discipline. I have spent the majority of my career working for big four accountancy firms, including Deloitte and UBS. My career began in the UK and US tax compliance space, but within two years of working in that role, I decided to move into the IT sector. Our goal was to try and automate some of the things that were done manually back then. Following this, I took a couple of years out in industry, working in the mobility department at UBS, the Swiss Bank. By 2007, I decided to embark on a new chapter and Aethersys was born. Outside of work, I’m a huge water lover. I couldn’t be happier going for a swim in the sea!?

What inspired you to pursue a career in technology?

Well, I would describe myself as a problem-solver. I believe that IT gives you the means of automating manual tasks or allows you to solve issues that could not be done manually. Despite running Aethersys, I still cut code on a daily basis, and I get a great deal of satisfaction from solving problems in an elegant way through code. On a more macro-level, we look to solve complex, business processes within large organisations so it is nice to be able to use software to solve those large-scale business process problems.?

Working for the big 4 is no mean feat, what encouraged you to set up your own business and how does working for Aethersys compare to working for both Deloitte and UBS?

Having worked for the large accountancy firms for a number of years, I have first-hand experience of what it is like to work for some fantastic multinational organisations. However, the big four accountancy firms are not so great at building global software. The issue lies with their partnership structure, and essentially they are different businesses in each country which creates tension for the IT sector. The IT wants to cut across those geographic structures and this tension is a problem within that environment.?

?As you know, software is centralising. It ordinarily wants to create a monopoly. You see that in big household names like Google and Facebook. Economies of scale, critical mass are key to the success of these types of systems.??The same is true within an organisation. So, within any business, one piece of software needs to provide a service across that organisation.?

The reason for starting up Aethersys was to try and negotiate that contradiction. We have been successful in achieving this because we are more nimble and can react quicker to our clients’ needs rather than always having an eye on the geographic issues that happen within the big four accountancy firms. As I always say, there are not many firms of our size that build software for the likes of Barclays, HSBC, Spotify, Walmart, Siemens, Chevron Corporation. The list goes on and on. The tie-up with a large client is fantastic for us but the real driver was having the agility that you don’t really get within those large organisations.?

As a disruptor within the tax space, what makes Aethersys stand out?

Aethersys is built in my image to a certain extent. As I said before, I am a problem solver. For any problem, you cannot solve the problem without first understanding it and knowing which tools to employ. The key difference with Aethersys is that we are not just another IT shop that will provide you with development resources, we really understand the domain. Not just understanding the compliance and the taxation type issues that you get in different countries, it is also about understanding how multinational businesses go around negotiating that environment.?

I started my career when the worldwide web didn’t really exist but the tools at our disposal are getting better and better. Moore’s law combined with improvements to development environments, automated code-reviews, AI, data analytics are coming into the field, we can use these to improve the services and applications that we build. One of the other key differences with us is our longevity in the world of IT means that we can tell the difference between new tools, software and environments that are really bringing improvements to this business versus the fads which will come and go within a year or two.?

In terms of our tech stack, we use a solid well-maintained community-based software. We use Microsoft SQL Server and Visual Studio. We also write all of our code in C# and then we use React on the front-end.?

What are some of the challenges that you personally have faced as both a Founder and Chief Technology Officer and how have you managed to overcome them?

Like anybody starting a business, the first thing you need is confidence. Confidence in yourself that you can make decisions that are always going to be good for the business. Sometimes you make mistakes but do not be troubled by them. Ultimately, if you are not making mistakes, you are not trying. Then I guess the next step when expanding the business is that you need to have confidence in your staff. That comes from good hiring, good training and ensuring that the people that are employed by Aethersys have a good career path. The final thing I would say is realising that the business is not just the sum of its parts. The connections between employees and clients and the framework that you build within the company to help people learn and develop has been fundamentally important to us as the business has grown. ?

Congratulations on the new partnership with Vialto Partners! The opportunity to transform the mobility industry is certainly exciting. What is your hope for Aethersys and Vialto Partner’s future together??

Thank you very much! I am very excited to be starting our partnership with Vialto. I will start by saying that at a big picture level, our job is to support globalisation. Personally, globalisation is a very good thing. It’s not perfect but in the last few decades, it’s undeniably taken hundreds of millions of people out of absolute poverty, not to mention the living standard improvements that have come to the developed world. The world has many challenges; we have climate change, we have ageing populations, we have to integrate AI into the workplace, we have social and economic inequality. These will not be solved at a country level. We need global cooperation. If the world returns to protectionism reshoring zero-sum trade policies, those challenges are not going to be resolved.?Aethersys is not going to solve the problems of the world, but we need to be on the right side of the argument and to my mind, it’s supporting globalisation and supporting those companies that cross borders which is what Vialto is all about. I am excited to work with them to deliver that.

The benefit of working with Vialto is that they have come from the big four world, so they have the scale of big four. By having a corporate structure, they have overcome the rigidities that you have within a big four organisation. They are unrestricted by those internal concerns which I was discussing before about being geographically located so that each individual country is its own business and Vialto does not have the burden of being an audit organisation. If you are an auditor, it’s very difficult to create connections with other organisations. You can’t have joint ventures, and what we really need in this world is an integrated solution working with other service partners, providing a holistic approach and not being constrained by the geographical focus that tends to come from the big four model. So, I think the corporate structure of Vialto coupled with the vision to provide a platform to promote globalisation and mobility is the thing I am most excited about!

With an ever-increasing digital workforce post-COVID, what opportunities & challenges has this raised for you as a business owner?

We have been really lucky during the pandemic in that we never stopped working. We were able to shift to home working very quickly. I would say that there is a balance that needs to be considered in every organisation. We have gone with a hybrid model which is 60% office based and 40% home-working based. This gives people the flexibility to work from home which offers a good work-life balance whilst still making sure we have enough office time together to ensure the good flow of ideas and knowledge. Ultimately, we really value the connections between individuals and so, creating a framework within the office that promotes training and relationship building is integral to our business.?

How will your disruptive technology overcome & take advantage of these opportunities and challenges?

?I don’t think de-globalisation will happen. I think what will happen in this world is that the resilience of supply chains will come from diversification rather than reshoring, bringing stuff back home. If you think of the internet, the internet is a network which creates resilience and I suspect the same will happen with global supply chains. Resilience will come from multiple supply lines rather than individual ones. If I’m right, this is going to increase the geographical footprint of organisations. Now our job and Vialto’s job is to bring infrastructure, people and technology that allows companies to realise that resilience of their supply chains through diversification. That’s got to mean that it’s as easy for an employee to move from London to Jakarta than it is for them to work from home in leafy Suffolk. It’s not a trivial problem and the stakes are high but it’s hugely motivational and its our job to use our domain knowledge, to use our understanding of technology and the tools available to realise that.

Enjoyed this article? Connect with Jim Day and Shivani Shah to follow their journeys.