About me, Jackie Latham
Bringing you over 40 years experience of making technology work for organisations
I've worked in IT since 1986. I started out on the technical side, developing and supporting business systems, before moving into roles where I was responsible for the people, suppliers and technology needed to keep those systems running.
Over time, my work became less about the technology itself and more about making sure organisations were buying the right things, managing the risks and getting what they needed from their IT.
For the last 12 years I've run my own business, working directly with charities and SMEs on websites, accessibility, user experience and the wider digital problems that inevitably come with them.
This consultancy brings those two parts of my career together.
From creating technology to managing technology
I began my career as an analyst/programmer with the Department of Social Security, before moving to Newcastle University as a database administrator and then joining British Airways.
My early career gave me a strong technical grounding in systems analysis and software development for business-critical systems.
At British Airways, I progressed from development into technical leadership, managing teams responsible for production systems across mainframe, Unix and Windows environments.
As my career developed, my focus increasingly shifted from building technology to making sure technology worked effectively for the organisation using it.
Service, suppliers and risk
As a Service Manager at British Airways, my responsibilities included operational readiness, service quality, risk and supplier relationships. I managed a team of around 30 developers and support analysts responsible for 25 business-critical corporate systems.
The work wasn't simply technical. It meant managing change, service quality and risk. I worked with internal and external suppliers to understand business requirements and challenge proposed solutions, then made sure systems could be supported properly once they went live.
Key projects I was involved with included:
- coordinating the implementation of a new HR system for over 70,000 staff who worked 24/7 in all parts of the world.
- onboarding a new offshore supplier based in Kolkata, India.
- procuring and assessing the global application for managing the IT estate and fault reporting.
- testing, assessing and signing off development projects before they moved into the live environment.
- coordinating the risk management plans for the whole of the Newcastle IT office.
- managing the project to allow external app developers access to the data they needed for their apps while protecting the data they didn't need.
Then I saw it from the other side
In 2014 I set up Jackdaw Web Design, and since 2015 I've worked full-time in my own business.
Working directly with charities and SMEs showed me a very different digital environment. Smaller organisations often have to make significant decisions about all aspects of their IT estate without any specialist technical staff behind them.
I've spent more than a decade helping organisations navigate those decisions, as well as designing and supporting WordPress websites.
I now have experience on both sides of the supplier relationship
I've been the person inside a large organisation responsible for technology, risk, suppliers and service delivery. I've also been the small supplier working directly with organisations that have limited time, budgets and technical expertise.
That combination is what I bring to my consultancy work.
- My work is independent.
- I always use plain English.
- I focus on practical solutions.
- And I am always prepared to challenge: if I don't think something is right for your organisation, I'll say so and explain why.