Meet our Managing Director – Jon Atkinson

Jon Atkinson is the Managing Director at SalamanderSoft and joined the company in 2012 as its first Support Consultant after working in various IT roles in the education sector.

We caught up with Jon to find out more about his day-to-day role at SalamanderSoft and his vision for the future of the company. 

What led you to join SalamanderSoft?

I’ve been working in the education sector for about 15 years. I worked in a school as an IT technician supporting their computers, networks, printers etc. It was really rewarding, and I learned so much about so many different technologies in a really short window of time.

Moving on from that role, I became a network manager in various schools. 

When the opportunity came to work for Richard at SalamanderSoft, I was excited to take it on and help schools get access to this technology. I think it’s really worthwhile and it’s one of the reasons I get up in the morning. 

What’s your role at SalamanderSoft? What does a typical day look like?

This is a tough one, as every day is completely different.

As Managing Director, my role is to ensure that the company has a clear direction and vision.

It’s important that we stay ahead of the market trends and at the forefront of our industry to make sure that we continue supporting our customers in the best way possible, for a long time.

What’s your favourite part of working at SalamanderSoft?

Being able to support work that’s of real benefit to its users – our schools and the staff within the schools.

I also love that SalamanderSoft is completely remote – I like working from home and being my own boss. The ability to take ideas and make them a reality is very rewarding.

The friendly atmosphere that we’ve built among our team means that work doesn’t often feel like work.

How has the education technology sector changed?

There have been some very significant changes in education over the past couple of years, with everything that’s happened [for example, the pandemic]. 

What we found is that the need for online learning has changed a lot – there’s more urgency around online learning tools. And, we’ve had to adapt to support schools through this. 

The future of technology in schools is going to be important. Over the last few years, there’s been a lot of new ideas, new companies and products springing up all over the place.

One thing education has always been good at is they have always been at the forefront of technology and how they use it.

What’s next for SalamanderSoft?

First, we need to maintain what we do for our existing customers; they are the reason we have a business. We’re working hard as a business to increase our support team and thinking about how better we can deliver our services.

Secondly, we want to support as many schools as we can. We know there are lots of schools in the UK that could benefit from our service. So, we’re thinking about how we can adapt what we currently offer to support a wider market and get schools making use of these technologies.

Talk to a member of our team today to find out how we can support your school or trust with our Salamander Integration Suite that automatically synchronises user accounts, groups, permissions and more from your School Management Information System, allowing teachers and students to instantly access the tools they need to teach and learn.