A Hull woman who has served some of the city’s top employers has had her lockdown writing published as an authority on digital transformation.
Jayne Mather used time afforded by the restrictive pandemic measures to put her career learnings down, and the debut author was delighted to net a publishing deal with The British Computer Society - the chartered institute for information technology - on completion. Having worked for Ideal Standard, Smith & Nephew, Arco and Reckitt, she has credited colleagues for imparting their wisdom, as the book launches this month.
Super User Networks for Software Projects is designed to help key figures in businesses use best practice methods to accelerate digital transformation, implement new systems and adopt new technology into an organisation. Described as a valuable methodology, it draws on her experiences with some of Hull’s best known businesses.
Read more: £4.5m tech centre opens at University of Hull to keep graduates at the forefront of AI
Ms Mather, who now works from her city home for a London tech firm, said: “I started writing in lockdown, I thought ‘what have I got to lose?’ then got offered a publishing deal.
“It was on top of work, I was just trying to fill in the extra hours - I had decorated the house, mastered banana bread, so why not write a book! And I’m really proud of it.
“I have always worked on technology and software projects, I’m a local Hull girl who has worked for some of the big employers here. They were brilliant, wonderful experiences, working for all of them in the same or similar roles, training people on new technology and managing projects. All were great employers.
“I have worked with some incredible people, learnt such a lot in 25 years, so putting everything I knew into a book for others, giving people a framework to bring in new technology into organisations, felt like the right thing to do.”
It is published with artificial intelligence high on the current affairs agenda.
“I feel like it is very timely and on trend because the job I have now involves AI and automation projects, and the book is very much about that as well,” Ms Mather said.
Having studied business at Lincoln and then completed an MBA, she quickly took to enterprise software, becoming skilled in SAP, the market-leading business processes software suite.
“I’m such an IT geek. I love the future of work, how technology is changing the world in terms of how we live and work,” she said. “I’m constantly consuming information about that, staying on top of current trends, and I guess that gives me the authority to speak on it.”
Next week she will host a book-signing at Hull’s C4DI - on Wednesday (July 12) between noon and 2pm - and is grateful for the confidence shown in her with her first attempt.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better publisher,” she said. “The British Computer Society sets standards, influences policy, and for the organisation to say it is a great book and agree with everything I wrote is a huge endorsement.”
And there’s more in the pipeline too. “I cannot wait to write again,” she said. “I have a lot on at the moment, but I am in the arena of automation and AI, and I’d like to focus on that for a next book.”
