Primacy SVP of Technology Charlie DeLong On The Two Keys To Scalable And Flexible Growth

👋 Welcome to another interview by Website Planet. Bringing you insights on how the best companies are solving the current challenges in their industry, and how they are planning ahead for the future.

Our guest today is Primacy SVP of Technology, Charlie DeLong, a leading agency specialized in maximizing customer lifetime value through effective digital experiences, and winner of over 200 industry awards. He has over 20 years of experience in consulting and has held various leadership roles, including Vice President at Intellinet, and Partner & Solutions Architect at 3D CIOs.

He discussed the two key factors that help Primacy drive growth and lower costs by building truly exceptional brand experiences in 4 core industries: education, financial services, health, and manufacturing.

These are the same principles he used with past clients to reduce software expenditures by 300% and save thousands of enterprise companies worldwide from a software bug impacting their bottom line.

What unique challenges are people in your industry facing right now?

In many industries, we’re facing the challenge of achieving more with fewer resources, whether its budget, staff, or other resources. There is an undeniable need to innovate and evolve at a rapid rate and identify ways for technology to push that innovation. As such, we must take a relentless approach to drive efficiency in any way possible.

For instance, we can utilize custom GPTs to help curate content, employ data-driven models, and harness AI for rapid code development and proof of concepts. Today, technology is viewed less as a cost center and more as a facilitator of superior customer experiences across various sectors like healthcare, higher education, or financial services, which are our focal industries.

As a technologist, aligning available technologies and market capabilities with business objectives opens up nearly limitless opportunities. While the current landscape presents challenges, our focus should remain on solutions rather than obstacles.

How do these problems impact them, if they don’t find a solution?

Our industries are ultra-competitive, all vying for the same pool of talent and customers. They only get one chance to make a first impression, and the successful alignment of that intersection of technology and the human experience is critical. Organizations who aren’t making bets in order to evolve are increasingly left behind.

Solutions to these industry-specific issues necessitates focusing the best talent on the biggest opportunity. Success hinges on securing top-tier talent and employing technology in innovative ways to enhance operational efficiencies.

How effective are the current methods for solving these issues? What challenges remain in this area?

We have the tools and the baseline technology to address 95% of the obstacles that exist today. However, our focus must lie in the relentless application of these tools within the confines of budget and timelines.

It often isn’t the most elegant solution that provides the highest ROI, but the ability to respond quickly, learn, and iterate. Spend the time to properly plan and understand the challenge, then quickly implement, learn, and iterate.

What’s a better way in your opinion to fix these issues, and how do you help implement it?

When solving problems, I always prioritize two key elements: scalability and flexibility.

Scalability

Will this solution still work if we double in size, or double the amount of transactions? If not, what is required?

Revisiting the same business challenge every three months is a sure way to hinder innovation. That is why I like to use the simple metric of doubling growth to help validate the scalability. Assuming such growth, it is a reasonable expectation that you will need additional resources to help you solve new problems and that you will have had the time to invest internally and drive the next wave of innovation.

Flexibility

We are working in a rapidly evolving time and change is inevitable. Having a flexible, service-based architecture is only going to be an asset to your organization. CRM systems will be changed, digital experiences will evolve, a new form solution will be implemented.

Making sure you have a flexible and robust integration strategy will allow you to quickly adapt to system changes. Having a unified enterprise platform will ensure the correct data is captured and allow us to make informed business decisions using custom models and analytics. A service-based architecture is the foundation for this approach.

Looking ahead 5 to 10 years, what new technologies and trends will have the most significant impact on the issues we talked about?

Quickly learning and evolving is critical to long term success

Thinking out 5 to 10 years in this environment can make your head spin! While you should definitely take time to think about the future so you are prepared, I believe you should focus on priorities that you have control over in the next 3-5 years.

We can all agree that change is inevitable and happening at an increased velocity. To be successful, you must be able to adapt to the change and the impact it has on your organization, role, and team. Being laser focused on business outcomes and the intersection of technology is key to success. Specific approaches require a service-based architecture where you can introduce modules of capabilities to ensure you are supporting your organization.

We are constantly building better and “smarter” models that will extract insights and patterns from our data and customer interactions. You will see the introduction of fully immersible VR and customer experiences bringing those physical experiences into the digital world making for richer, more real-time interactions from subject matter experts all over the world.

What should people do to stay up to date and adapt to these changes? What will you do in this regard?

A colleague of mine once said, “It is okay to be selfish when it comes to learning.” This advice resonates with me deeply and I often try to set time to invest in myself. Remaining stagnant in today’s fast-paced environment is a sure path to being replaced by technology.

However, when technology is used effectively, there’s no need to fear being replaced; instead, it enhances and empowers us to drive our professional journeys. In this vein, I encourage others to seek guidance from someone in the finance department or a supportive CFO who can mentor them in understanding the fundamentals of the business.

As I reflect on the last 20 years, my day-to day-activities have evolved immensely, surpassing even my own expectations. What remains constant is an underlying passion for technology and using technology to positively impact business.

Having a solid understanding of the business key performance indicators will enable you to make more persuasive presentations on your projects and their positive business impact.