Platform Transact has recruited Investec’s head of IT Damien Francis to the newly-created role of chief technology officer.

He has 20 years’ experience of working in technology in the finance and wealth sector.

At Investec he was head of information technology services and looked after a large globally dispersed team. Before that he was at Janus Henderson.

Jonathan Gunby, Transact chief executive, said: "As the number of people working in our various IT teams has grown, it is now appropriate to appoint a chief technology officer. We are delighted to be joined by Damien Francis."

Mr Francis will be based in London and will be charged with ensuring that Transact’s IT teams in London, Norwich and Melbourne are coordinated and work closely together.

The platform said it has been busy developing its IT capability over the past two years. As a result it said the majority of instructions can be completed online allowing its staff to spend more time helping Financial Planners and advisers with more complex requirements.

It has also migrated operations to new data centres and moved some elements to the cloud, while de-commissioning an old data centre.

Following the acquisition of Time4Advice, it has launched the next version of its cloud-based back office application.

Meanwhile it said it is growing its business intelligence team to make full use of the new systems and has enhanced its systems infrastructure which supports its Isle of Man operation.