Transform
Technology, infrastructure, cloud, applications or suppliers need significant change, and the organisation needs a clear, well-supported route from strategy and design through to delivery.
Independent senior technology consulting · UK
Technology clarity for complex businesses.
Independent senior technology consulting combining clear judgement, collaborative leadership and practical delivery across complex technology change.
Nakatomi helps organisations bring clarity to complicated technology environments, make well-informed technical and commercial decisions, and turn those decisions into practical, reliable outcomes.
Where Nakatomi helps
When technology is important, complicated, changing, expensive, fragile or poorly understood.
Nakatomi works alongside leadership teams when a technology challenge spans strategy, architecture, operations, suppliers and commercial decisions, bringing an experienced independent view of the whole picture and helping people move forward with clarity and confidence.
Stabilise
Something is unreliable, fragile, poorly understood or operationally risky, and people need a calm, structured view of both the immediate issue and its underlying causes.
Simplify
Years of technology, supplier and process decisions have accumulated until cost, ownership, dependencies and direction are difficult to see clearly, making confident decisions harder than they should be.
Assure
A significant technology decision, proposal, supplier or investment would benefit from independent senior review, constructive challenge and a clear view of the technical and commercial implications.
Operate better
The technology broadly works, but resilience, service ownership, processes, supplier management or ways of working need to become more predictable, collaborative and supportable.
Selected work & experience
Independent consultancy today, backed by substantial technology transformation experience.
Current consultancy work is shown separately from major programmes Robert delivered during previous employment or direct contract engagements, keeping the distinction clear while demonstrating the depth of judgement and delivery experience behind Nakatomi.
Haulage Logistics — Long-term independent technology adviser
Ongoing independent work across infrastructure, networking, security, supplier issues, inherited environments, technology refresh and migration planning. The relationship combines practical intervention when needed with a longer-term view of how the technology environment should develop.
Vehicle Leasing Industry — Cloud & Datacentre Transformation
Turned an organisation's intention to become cloud-first into a financially modelled, architected, governed and executable transformation programme.
Outcome
The financial work identified approximately £2.7m of five-year savings and avoided an approximately £1.6m hardware refresh. The engagement continued for around 19 months, moving from discovery and strategy into execution and operational handover.
Web Platforms for Asset & Wealth Managers — Global Hybrid Infrastructure Transformation
Reduced cost and complexity across a substantial global hybrid estate while progressively moving away from legacy managed datacentres toward cloud and modernised services.
Outcome
Contemporary reporting shows recurring infrastructure run-rate reducing from approximately $172k per month to approximately $100k per month, a reduction of around 42%, while the estate was simplified and modernised.
Working with Nakatomi
Senior perspective. Technical depth. Practical leadership through change.
Nakatomi brings calm, experienced technology leadership to complex situations: listening first, establishing the current position, making the choices clear and helping teams turn agreed direction into practical delivery.
Clients work directly with Robert Cockerill, who works alongside leadership, internal teams and suppliers rather than around them. The role is to connect board and leadership direction to technical and operational reality, create shared understanding and help the right people move together with cost, risk, resilience and service considered from the outset.
Approach
A practical technology lifecycle — from business direction to live service and back again.
Nakatomi’s approach is to build a joined-up understanding of the organisation and carry it through the full technology lifecycle. The current-state map stays live through design, governance, delivery and operation, so service experience and changing business direction feed the next decision rather than disappearing into a handover.
Build the map across
- People & ownership
- Operations
- Architecture
- Service
- Change & delivery
- Business direction
- 01
Discover & map.
Identify owners, consumers and stakeholders. Speak to the people who run, use, change and govern the environment; trace systems, dependencies, documentation and the history behind them. Sometimes this is technology archaeology.
- 02
Assess & simplify.
Test the map across operations, architecture, service and change. Find bottlenecks, duplication, over-complication, weak signal, poor observability and hidden risk.
- 03
Design & align.
Treat compliance, legacy, finance, suppliers, organisation and history as design inputs. Connect board and leadership direction to architecture so today’s decisions support what the business needs next.
- 04
Plan & govern.
Turn the target state into sequenced work, ownership, controls, decisions and measures. Use Agile, programme, project, BAU or a pragmatic blend to fit the environment.
- 05
Deliver & change.
Stay close to implementation, technical decisions, change control, suppliers and service transition. Keep the map current, surface blockers early and make trade-offs visible.
- 06
Operate, measure & improve.
Use incidents, service data, monitoring, capacity, user experience, cost and risk to test the outcome. Simplify where complexity destroys useful signal and feed learning into the next cycle.
The lifecycle stays live. Operational evidence, service experience and new business direction update the map and become input to the next round of decisions.
Throughout the lifecycle
Start by understanding. Make the choices clear. Stay connected to delivery. Nakatomi communicates openly, speaks to owners and consumers and works alongside the people doing the work. Leadership, technical teams, service teams and suppliers stay connected; context, cost, risk, resilience and trade-offs are made visible; documentation evolves with the map; and knowledge remains useful to the client after the engagement.
- Owners + consumers heard
- Board to service desk
- Direct & plain-speaking
- Suppliers included
- Decisions traceable
- Knowledge documented
Capabilities
Senior technology capability shaped around the challenge, the organisation and the outcome.
01
Architecture
Understand the wider environment, bring the right people into the conversation, make the important trade-offs visible and create practical target states and transition paths teams can deliver and operate with confidence.
02
Delivery
Turn strategy into well-governed execution by aligning internal teams, suppliers, dependencies and decisions around a clear outcome.
03
Advisory
Provide independent senior advice on technology strategy, investment, suppliers and risk, helping leadership teams make informed decisions with confidence.
04
Operational improvement
Improve reliability, resilience, ownership, service models and cost while helping teams build a more predictable and supportable operating environment.
Across industries
Experience across different sectors and operating environments.
Different organisations bring different customers, regulation, risk and operational constraints. The common requirement is technology that supports the business around it, with decisions made in the context of people, operations and commercial priorities as well as architecture.
- Asset Management
- Manufacturing
- Wireless Operators
- Education
- Insurance
- Publishing
- Construction
- Travel
- Financial Services
- Retail
- Transport & Haulage
- Life Sciences & Research
- Advertising & Marketing
- Local Authority
- Vehicle Fleet Management & Leasing
- Agency
About Robert Cockerill
Experienced technology leadership with a collaborative, practical style.
More than two decades across strategy, architecture, infrastructure, cloud, security, suppliers, delivery leadership and operational improvement. Robert combines technical depth with a straightforward, people-focused approach, helping leadership teams understand the choices in front of them and helping delivery teams turn those choices into workable outcomes.
View Robert on LinkedInTerms & resources
Clear terms. Visible versions.
Approved public terms, agreements and practical resources are published with explicit versions and effective dates for straightforward client and supplier reference.
View terms & resourcesStart with a conversation
Working through a difficult technology decision or change?
A first conversation can help bring the challenge into focus, explore where Nakatomi could add value and identify a sensible next step, without turning the discussion into a sales process.