'10 Minute Tip' by Michael Latham
Michael Latham shares his background and how WorkDeskPro was founded
“After studying engineering and joining the RAF at 18, I realised that being bound to a fixed occupation and perhaps more importantly for many - a fixed salary scheme was not what I wanted in life.
"I left the Air Force and worked many different jobs before realising my passion was in IT. I began creating websites and other small projects for friends and family, but soon realised that experience with a company would give me access to valuable skills and knowledge as well as a stable income.
I found employment as a junior software developer at a firm in Milton Keynes and took on any and all responsibility they could give me. I took the opportunity to learn from the MD and senior staff and during my time there I took on development, implementation, project management and finally global product management or their key software products.
This gave me experience in not just a set of technical skills, but also valuable skills managing a remote team of 10 developers in India, sales pitching, product strategising and working with customer stakeholders at blue chip companies in 4 continents by the age of 27."
In 2013 the company was sold to an Australian venture capitalist and the MD moved on to take early retirement, so I decided it was time to start my own business.
I started WorkDeskPro, and using a team of outsourced developers as well as myself, developed the service management SaaS application that drastically reduces the workload and increases the productivity of its target users - teams of field based engineers.
At WorkDeskPro we also create bespoke software applications, custom web applications and other software integrations.”
About the conversation:
For small businesses and start-ups, especially, ultra-wise outsourcing can chop back overheads to very lean proportions - with the right know-how in place.
Two elements are, of course, critical:
1) Making the right choices of outsources – talent, micro services, which ones?
2) Managing those outsources intelligently and cost-effectively
At this Friday’s Business Growth Club, 10 Minute Tipper Michael Latham – head of local outsourcing software enterprise WorkDeskPro – will share the key issues you need to grasp so you can open up the opportunities high-level, lower-cost outsourcing offers to businesses like yours.
Points Michael will cover include:
· Why would you want to or need to outsource tasks?
· Types of tasks that can be outsourced
· How to prepare for outsourcing
· Continually evaluate
· Pay expectations & Budgeting
· Traditions and customs
· Useful resources
He will also give some tips on:
· How to manage projects efficiently with staff you have never met
· How to write an effective brief for smaller one off projects
· What to expect in terms of cost, timescales and results.
