Narrator: Welcome to the IT
Matters podcast, where we
explore why IT matters and
matters pertaining to IT.
Keith Hawkey: Welcome, everyone
to the IT Matters podcast where
we talk to IT leaders that are
making an impact. I'm your host,
Keith Hawkey. Aaron is out sick
today, so I think I'll be able
to handle the conversation with
a very special guest we have. We
have the pleasure of speaking to
a digital transformation savant
of the logistics industry.
Chintan Patel is the current CIO
of National DCP. Chintan,
welcome to the IT Matters
podcast. How are you doing?
Chintan Patel: Doing well, thank
you, thank you for inviting me
over, I'm excited to be here.
Keith Hawkey: It has been a busy
week in the tech industry. I
know you've had a lot of stuff
going on. What have you been up
to lately.
Chintan Patel: From our
perspective, it's always you
keeping your eyes and ears open
for you know, what's what's new,
what's next. But also from a
security perspective, you're
always keeping your eyes and
ears open, because that can come
and you know, really upset
things in a matter of seconds.
So always keep my eyes and ears
open for those kinds of things,
things and events.
Keith Hawkey: Cybercriminals
never sleep, that's for sure. We
are all very grateful for the
job that you do. And, you know,
we'll get into a little bit a
little bit of that today, the
logistics industry has a number
of challenges besetting it here
in 2024. A lot of the a lot of
these actually are, you know, I
know that National DCP deals
mostly with the truck loads that
are on the road. But we have
international news of whether
it's a war or a conflict of
trade routes being cut out
because of international
struggle. So it's certainly top
of mind for most people that are
not even associated with the
logistics industry. One of your
largest customers today, that
you service is Dunkin Donuts.
That's where you've been able to
deliver a tremendous value. What
are some of the like the high
level challenges that are
presenting the logistics
industry today, particularly
when it comes to truckload and
what you're doing?
Chintan Patel: The margin of
error for us is very low, right?
To get your hot cup of coffee at
Dunkin at 6am. You know, we have
to make sure that we get that
truckload of you know, of fresh
produce and everything along
with it at a certain hour and
that margin of error is very
low. External factors are always
you know, something that we are
battling with in terms of
whether it's a weather event, or
it is you know, international
events that could impact our
supply, there's always these
external factors that you know
are going to come in the way and
we plan ahead for that right and
knowing that these kinds of
things can come we are you know,
hedging against these kinds of
things, external events, we're
trying to, you know, get our
supply locked down for a you
know, period at a time so that
we know that we can survive
these kinds of ups and downs
that might be coming along the
way. The biggest thing for us is
making sure we know there's a
very slim margin for error and
making sure we're over prepared
to compensate for an event like
this, which we know would would
come along the way.
Keith Hawkey: Piggy-backing off
what you said, it certainly
takes a dedicated team from a
business leadership standpoint
and also from a technology
standpoint, I mean, your your
team and the back end technology
that delivers that cup of coffee
that Dunkin Donuts wants to
create. It's no small task and
one thing I'd like to highlight
is National DCP won Dunkin
brand's partner of the year,
three times over the last
decade. There are more than
13,200 Dunkin stores in over
4440 markets. You know you
leading the technological
innovation at National DCP, what
technologies have made the most
impact for your organization to
have the accolade of winning
Partner of the Year at one of
the world's most trusted brands.
Chintan Patel: That's a great
question because Dunkin indeed
is America's you know, beloved
brand. And while we all know
that America runs on Dunkin, not
many people know that Dunkin
runs on National DCP. So, to
serve a brand like Dunkin at
scale, innovation is built into
our culture right? Every day
we're looking at ways to serve
our franchisees more
efficiently, providing world
class service at a sustainable
cost. And the way we do that at
scale is to lean on to
technology systems at every step
of the process, right, whether
it's from cleaning, procuring,
payments and receipts, selling
and delivery. Technology is
built into every single aspect
of that process and you know,
all the way through our back
offices as well as our nine
distribution centers, we're
constantly exploring and
piloting new technology that can
really help us with operational
efficiencies in the warehouses.
For example, drones is, you
know, something that we're
piloting right now, it really
helps us kind of, you know, the
drone will fly through the
aisles and do a cycle hound on
the fly. Quite literally, in
this case, if we have to do that
manually, you know, it takes us
it's an arduous, time consuming
process and the accuracy might
not be to, you know, the degree
with which we can get it from a
drone. So there's lots of
different technologies that
we're piloting and trying to see
if this makes a good use case
and there's synergies with what
we're doing on a day to day
basis. Another example is, you
know, we're looking at automated
palette jack systems that allow
remote operation of a palette
jack without ever stepping foot
into the warehouse. This really
helps us mitigate some of the
labor challenges that we've seen
over the past since COVID has
hit. We're looking at technology
that truly can make a
difference, top level, bottom
level efficiencies, or new ways
of, you know, expediting things,
that's that route, but all
around you, technology is at the
core of us serving our
customers.
Keith Hawkey: You make some
great points, particularly
around the labor shortage
occurring in the logistics
industry, among others, it
doesn't take long for you to be
driving on the highway and to
look at the back of a truck.
Basically all the logistics
companies are making their pitch
to join their company, in
banners on the back of their dry
vans, like hey, looking for a
job, come join blank company.
It's definitely no secret that
there's a shortage in the
industry and innovating in a way
to reach the young, more
millennial, I use, I'm a
millennial. Millennials used to
be young at one point. I guess,
we're, we have children now and
where we have a little bit more
decision making power when it
comes to the business but the
young, younger generation, you
know, gamifying, the workplace
allowing I mean, it's, it is a
tall feat, to be able to pull
off remote working when you're
in a warehouse. And you
mentioned drones being a part of
this. Yeah, you mentioned the
ability for a remote worker to
be in their living room doing
their work, while controlling a
effectively a drone or robot,
that's there in person in a
manufacturing plant. I can
definitely see how that impacts
the labor market. You're able to
access a pool of talent that
normally wouldn't be available
to many manufacturing,
logistics, that work hand in
hand. Can you talk a little bit
more about that program? What
what what gave you the idea that
this was a labor opportunity?
Chintan Patel: We're constantly
looking and going to conferences
and you know, different areas
where we can understand what's
new in the market? Right? And
how does it impact our business
directly? There's, you know,
there's a lot of different
robotic solutions that are out
there, but not everything is a
good fit for us. So we'll we'll
pilot it and see it and say,
Hey, does it make good sense,
business sense? Sometimes yes,
sometimes no. So we're
constantly on this journey of
trying to find the right fit.
where it makes sense from a from
a numbers perspective, as well
as efficiencies perspective.
This one in particular, you
know, with COVID coming in,
everyone's kind of definition of
the work ethic, if you will, or
you know, work life balance has
has changed dramatically right,
sometimes for the better,
sometimes, you can argue against
it. Typically, if you see how a
warehouse is built, it's gonna
be in an area where there's
gonna be multiple warehouses
around it. And there's always a,
you know, pool of talent that
they're going after, where if
someone else next door is
paying, you know, $2 $3 more,
they're gonna jump ship. There's
not a whole lot of loyalty
associated with a warehouse
employee, unfortunately. So for
us, it was important to kind of
come up with a way to use
technology to differentiate
ourselves and kind of mitigate
some of those challenges. And
using a remote palette operating
system really helped us kind of
target, hey, while we're not now
limited to the pool that's
within that vicinity, we're also
can tap into, you know,
disability or veterans who might
be able to then you know, have
solid work ethic that we can tap
into them to kind of get into
our warehouses without literally
getting them into our warehouses
and still being able to get our
work done. So that's really
where this idea came from, is
hey, this can be a really great
match, given some of the
challenges we're facing and
technology is right at the
forefront in helping solve that
challenge.
Keith Hawkey: From a security
perspective, IoT is an avenue
for malicious cyber criminals to
access networks and access the
marketplace or access a
company's sensitive information.
How do you think about security
when you're, I mean, you have
your your talent, that's working
remote, they're accessing a, you
know, they have control over a
drone or a machine that they
could certainly cause havoc if
it's not properly managed and
there aren't guardrails and
thresholds and from a
cybersecurity perspective
isolated to just that employee,
what kind of security challenges
open up when, you know,
understand, understandably, a
lot of companies since COVID,
had moved to remote work. The
risk factor of a remote worker
is generally pretty low for what
you might consider a knowledge
worker that's working on the
computer, that's building Excel
files or making calls. When it
comes to managing heavy heavy
machinery, heavy equipment and
manufacturing or a warehouse
space, that opens a whole new
level of risk to the
organization. How does a company
like National DCP continue with
that level of risk? What are
your thoughts on that?
Chintan Patel: With COVID, the
mobile workforce, you know, it's
all remote, right? Your your
workforce is really it's mobile,
in our case, it is mobile,
because, you know, along with
our workers in the warehouse, we
also have drivers on the trucks
that are on the road at all
times. And we have, you know,
software on the trucks, IoT
devices on the trucks. So we
have to, you know, have a
comprehensive strategy on how
we're securing all of this when
our assets are all over the
place, right, they're not within
a warehouse, necessarily, or
within a office, they truly are
all over and sometimes just on
the go. So we build our
fortification around it, right,
every single asset is monitored
and we have a view of it at all
times. We have also, what we
also try to do is for you know,
every remote worker, obviously,
we are having VPN tunnels so
that they are coming in securely
into our systems. Outside of
security, the other thing also
that I think is good to touch
upon is with these kinds of
remote operations, safety is
another critical aspect that we
look at, because these big
devices are being manned, you
know, off the off site, and you
want to be really vigilant
around safety as well. So AI
comes, you know, quite handy in
that where these remote systems,
the more they use the certain
routes that are charted out for
them, they are learning those
paths and are learning you know,
when there's things coming in
front of them, or how to stop
and things like that. So there's
a lot of you know, work that's
going behind making sure we're
comfortable before we launched
this wide across the network.
But but that's the beauty of,
you know, technologies that you
can test and pilot and you know,
use AI to learn until you feel
comfortable that it's ready for
primetime.
Keith Hawkey: That's an
excellent segue into how
generative AI and artificial
intelligence in in general, has
impacted every industry and
every category in every business
from the smallest all the way up
to your largest enterprises. We
talked a little bit about how AI
is making an impact when it
comes to the drones you're
deploying. How else are you
seeing artificial intelligence
impact your business, the way
your team operates, and how does
National DCP take the most
advantage of some of these more
recent innovations in the space?
Chintan Patel: AI has certainly
been a top of mind for us, has
gained, you know, momentum at a
global level over the past year.
And as with any new technology,
we're always looking at ways and
use cases that make sense for us
and find those synergies. For
us, you know, Transportation
Management has been a big area
that we're looking at and
piloting where we can optimize
our routes. So, you know, it
helps us say there's an external
event, a weather event, then it
can quickly help us optimize our
routes and say, Hey, what how
can we reroute our routes so
that we're still staying within
our SLAs etc. It also helps us,
you know, look at our master
routes on a more frequent basis.
Typically, that's again, a
manual process happening every
month. With AI, we're able to
revisit that much more
frequently to say, Hey, how can
we reuse this capacity that we
have within our routes? Or if
there's empty routes coming
back, how can we reroute them to
be able to take full advantage
of the capacity at you know,
going in inbound, outbound, etc.
So it really is there are some
synergies that we're finding
there that impact the bottom
line for sure. From in terms of
how our teams are working, you
know, we're we are being a bit
you know, I think the right word
is optimistically cautious,
because you know, there is the
concern of, you know, security
and privacy, that are coming up
with these new AI tools that are
in the market. So, you know, we
do put in policies, AI policies,
around the tools that you can
use and educating our teams
around the, you know, the some
of the privacy concerns or the
security concerns that come
along with the technology that's
kind of in its infancy in
reality, right. Despite its
meteoric rise, it still is in
its infancy. There are you know,
it is in it's hype cycle, it's
going to come down and it's
gonna, you know, have to learn
from the mistakes it's making,
and then it's going to get ready
for primetime. So we're kind of
in that same phases, where we're
seeing a direct impact, we are,
you know, going after those use
cases, and then in certain
areas, you know, we're educating
our teams, our employees and
kind of waiting in, in some
cases to let the dust settle,
and then take take advantage of
it. So that's, that's kind of
our position optimistically
cautious from an AI perspective.
Keith Hawkey: I think you're
prudent to take that
perspective. I work with a, I
work with countless IT leaders
and they're split, you know,
half of them are driving full
throttle into building some kind
of chatbot, or some large
language model trained on their
data. Others are hosting, others
will use Chat GBT, they'll
they'll put an Excel document up
into a, you know, in Chat GPT
and ask it to draw analytics.
And then others are much more
cautious, like, like you are,
that would like to watch the
others potentially fail and then
learn from their mistakes, and
then come out with a more mature
framework to deploy it. You
mentioned route optimization,
where else do you see AI landing
in the most immediate future in
the logistics industry?
Chintan Patel: From a logistics
perspective, and from running
the entire business, there's use
cases across the board, right,
there's use cases from an HR
perspective onboarding, you
know, new employees, offboarding
employees, there's ways to make
things more efficient. There's
use of AI, you know, from
financials and ERP side of
things, how can we close our,
you know, monthly financials
faster? If we're taking three
days how can we cut it down to
two days, there's use cases from
a security perspective, how can
we use AI for, you know, five,
fraud prevention, so there's a,
you know, multiple areas within
the business where we can take
advantage of, of AI. From a
logistics perspective, you know,
specifically, like I said, we're
we're looking at from Route
Optimization. But there's also,
like I had mentioned earlier,
there's ways where we can use
robotics, she started learning
more than, you know, be more
intelligent than what it truly
does today is, you know, felt
you're you programmed it to do
certain things, now you're
adding that layer of
intelligence on top of it, which
really gives you that power that
we didn't have before. So that's
an area where we're seeing that
could potentially you know, as
as things iron out a bit, we're
gonna see a lot of efficiencies
and where we're, we're thinking
the future is, in our industry,
for sure. Is that intelligence
being baked into some of the
automation or robotics that that
is already out there.
Keith Hawkey: That brings me to
another question that I have
Chintan. Switching gears
entirely. Let's say you're a
newly hired CIO, by a global
logistics company with hundreds
of warehouses across the globe,
you have international clients,
you have IoT to worry about you
have security you're worried
about, your personality, and you
know, you're trying to embed
your team and various
departments to learn how to best
serve the needs of the business
leaders across the board. What
advice would you give a newly
hired CIO of a logistics company
that had no experience in the
logistics industry? What would
you tell them in order to wrap
their mind around the task they
just signed up for?
Chintan Patel: I think the
beauty of technology is that you
can apply your learnings to
almost any problem regardless of
the industrial verticals. That's
also what keeps it interesting
because it keeps you on your
toes and you're constantly
learning you know, industries
and verticals. I believe
Logistics is no different from
you know, freight sale or
software or banking, your
business processes you know, no
matter what vertical you are in,
they start at A and they end at
Z and along the way you're using
technology to automate that
process or gain efficiencies or
get data insights that can help
you grow your business or use
that technology to better your
customer experience. And at the
end of the day, you know,
technology is, in my mind, it's
a data journey from A to B, and
how efficiently you get there.
And, you know, does that data
help you build a forward looking
strategy because you're able to,
you know, mine that data or use
AI to, you know, build models
around at the end of the day,
you're using technology to kind
of look into the future while
optimizing, you know, what
you're doing today. And that's
how you how you grow your
business. So I mean, the one
thing if I had to say, to
someone coming new into this
industry is the knowledge from a
technology perspective is very
transferable. But don't forget
the human element. You know,
when you walk into the
warehouse, that energy and the
human element is completely
different. It's a 24 by seven
massive operations. And if you
if you don't understand the ins
and outs, stuff, you know, how
you know how the clock works,
how things are ticking, when
you're in that, you know, all
this, you know, 1000s of SKUs
coming in, and you're slotting
them, and they're going, you
know, there's 50, 60, different
systems from a technology
perspective, that have to work
in tandem, for all of that
product to come from, you know,
point it to be sourced, and come
and deliver into inbound into
your warehouses, to be slotted,
and then picked, bagged, and
ready, and optimized to be sent
on to that truck that's going to
that Dunkin that's taking in
that product and making your
coffee the next morning. So
there's tons of technologies
that work in tandem to make that
happen. And there's a lot of
human element to that where
things can fall through the
cracks, if you don't understand
what goes behind making that
technology work, when there's so
many hands being exchanged to
get from point A to point B. So
that can be a blind spot that I
would say, you know, for anyone
coming new, visit the
warehouses, do a day in life of
a warehouse worker, whether it
is inbound, you know, receiving
or outbound pick back and
getting those products on a
truck, get on a truck and work
with your driver to see how they
make stops and how they're
unloading there. You know, it's
just understanding that that
human element sign of it, I
think, is the biggest thing I
would say coming in for someone
new, make sure you understand
that so you understand your, you
know, you understand the pain
points at every level, because
that's the way you understand
how you can use technology to
truly make a difference is if
you understand the pain points
on the day to day processes of
what of the humans that are
using your technology.
Keith Hawkey: Yeah. Because how
else are you going to make their
lives easier unless you
understand their day to day. And
then and the struggles they deal
with and the fore sight into if
we do engage in a project, let's
say I'm just spitballing here,
but building an application that
might serve some of your some of
your clients that they're very
used to a certain way of doing
things and very used to a
certain manner of doing
business. It reminds me of a
story that you told me before
about, yeah, an adventure into
developing a new application. I
think this is a part from where
you are today as as far as far
as your employment. But what are
some of the lessons that you've
learned in digital
transformation? I think this
particular project had to do
with developing an application
that your clients would use, or
your stores would use to procure
orders and to to engage with
their customer base and some of
the expectations in the near
term, we're not net as as
tightly as as expected. Can you
share that story that he shared
with me before
Chintan Patel: Any leader right
in your professional journey,
you're gonna have some of those
data misfires, and you fully go
back and think, you know, my
career would have been in a
completely different trajectory,
if I never kind of saw those
kinds of failures. And I truly
believe this is one of those
right? Where I, I completely had
a different approach to
technology going forward.
Because of, you know, kind of
the, I wouldn't call it a
misfire in my mind, I think I
like to call it a pivot
opportunity.
Keith Hawkey: That's right.
Chintan Patel: In my previous
life, and I was brought in to
launch an e-commerce business,
we went through the rounds of
you know, talking to customers
understanding what we wanted to
build for them. We were very
clear, we thought we need an
e-commerce business. It's a
great opportunity and new sales
channel. This is this is going
to be great. So we start by, you
know, going through the rounds
of defining requirements,
selecting a technology partner
implementation partner, and then
we go through the actual
implementation wanting a new
e-commerce business. On time, in
budget, we start throwing a
great, you know, successful
Launch Party and and we're
waiting for the money to start
rolling in. And we wait a month,
and we wait two months and three
months, and there's no change. I
mean, we're barely getting any
traffic to our website, hardly
any orders coming in, like in
our mind, this was such a great
tool we're giving our customers.
They don't have to walk into the
store and wait in line for 20
minutes to place their order.
Like who wouldn't use this time
saving tool? In my mind? It's
like it's a slam dunk, this is a
greatest thing that we've you
know, given to you guys, and
you're not using it. And then,
we took a step back and and
started thinking, well, we can
see all these, you know, great
benefits, but we haven't really
kind of sat down with them and
understand like, what's in it
for them? Or we haven't really
kind of could put ourselves in
their position and thinking,
yes, there's this new tool, but
there's a million different apps
that they have on their phone,
why? Why should they truly get
another app from our side and
use it. And that's when we said
okay, let's watch our customers.
So rather than you know going
and talking to them, where they
may not be that open with us on
why they're not using it, we
just decided to kind of get our
teams into our stores and watch
these, watch our customers. And
what we found was our customers
are coming in and you know,
getting a cup of coffee and
peacefully waiting in line till
they're able to talk to their
sales agent. So truly, they're
what we were thinking was it's a
waste of billable hours for them
waiting in line for 20, 25
minutes, in their mind that was
the highlight of their day.
They're coming into our store,
getting a coffee, waiting in
line, chit chatting, and then
going to, you know, their sales
associate, and asking them all
sorts of questions about how to
run their business. So it was a
landscaping business that that I
was at and our customers were
waiting for you to getting tip
the tips on how should I run,
how should I clear up a soccer
field with chemicals if it's
going to rain the next day? Or
what should I use to treat you
know, this kind of grass or that
kind of weed? There's all these
different questions. What they
were truly coming in for was
this intel that our website was
not providing at all. Our
website was simply giving them
the ability to order products.
But what we were missing is that
they needed to know what kind of
products, so there was a whole
learning element that was
happening in our stores, which
we were not providing online. So
that was the aha moment for us
was, it's not about what you
think is the benefit to the
customer. It's about what truly
the customer might not even know
that this is why they're coming
to you. Until you know you you
kind of observe them and then
you think, Okay, this is what's
missing for us,it's not a way to
transact. So that relationship
that they have with their sales
associate is truly what's
bringing them and that's that's
our secret sauce. And we're not
translating that on that app. So
that was the aha moment for me
and and our team to go back and
saying, Hey, let's Is there a
way to build this out where we
can you know, provide that
experience right? The knowledge
base that tells them exactly
what to do, how to treat their
lawn, how to care for fields,
how to do if it's rainy. So we
started it before going with the
customer directly we started
going to the to the sales rep
and saying hey, what exactly
what data are you, knowledge are
imparting them that we can help
build on our application. And
then when we do this, this is
going to help free up your time
so you can actually use your
time to upsell to the customers
increasing your book of business
and you're the ones who are
going to sort of start marketing
this tool. When it comes from
you, there's that trust that the
customer already has with you
and then they see the value of
using this app. So it's a win
win it, you know, reduces time
spent on your end so you can
increase the book of business
while it reduces the time for
the customer as well. They can
do all of this work, you know at
at night after the kids are in
bed. So they're it was a win win
at that point. So I think that
mentality when you go out and
you're gung ho about solving a
problem, you know, technology
can do this, but not quite
understanding that human
element. What are you targeting,
right? How do you understand
what truly the customer wants
and not what you think they
want, to hone in on that is very
important. And how do you attack
change management, right,
adoption. It's not about you
know, just marketing and
throwing marketing dollars but
it's kind of understanding that
there's a trust factor of who it
comes from, how it comes from,
how you tell them what the
benefits are. And that's when
the adoption truly starts. So
after that, I think before I
start any project, for me, the
biggest lesson is, you know, who
is our target audience? What are
they going to get out of this?
Is that truly a pain point? And
how, who are they going to trust
if we try to solve it for them
to get it in front of them? And
the change management adoption
is is critical before you know
in building that into your
project plan, your ROI is is
critical before you start any
project. So lesson learned,
pivot opportunity, and able to,
you know, move past it. But
definitely an important lesson.
Keith Hawkey: I really
appreciate you sharing that
story Chintan, it, it reminds me
of the generational gaps in
terms of the willingness to
adopt new technologies. I'm not
sure how old you are. But I
remember the days where I used
to chat on AOL Instant
Messenger. And you know, that
was brand new at the time we we
could actually communicate with
our friends via a computer and
talk about our anxieties in high
school and everything we were
we're dealing with at the time
and, you know, planning planning
a trip, I was actually I was
talking, I was speaking to a
friend the other day about, you
know, we used to communicate
through like AOL, we didn't have
phones at the time. And we'd
say, Okay, do you what we're
gonna meet here, we're gonna
meet at this time, we're going
to the movie theater. And then
if you didn't comprehend, or
really understand what the
directions were, you would
arrive somewhere, no one would
be there and you couldn't
communicate with anyone.
Chintan Patel: I remember those
days.
Keith Hawkey: And now and now it
seems like we have so many fail
safes of having this device in
our pocket to resource
information. And before my time,
you know, my parents would be
would have to use a corded phone
to communicate with their
counterparts. And then before
that, there's nothing. So
considering your client base,
your client base and the their,
what are they comfortable with?
Where they grew? What kind of
technologies did they grow up
with? I imagine a lot of your
customers dealt with business
transaction transactions, from a
face to face perspective.
There's an underlying level of
trust that they had with their
sales representative, or the
store manager, that was
underpinning the decisions they
were making, as they were
acquiring various fertilizer or
other chemicals they would use
out when they're, when they're
building or on the on the farm.
But if your client base grew up
with AOL, or today, TikTok or
whatever it might be that and
they don't want to talk to
anyone, you know, they're
actually they prefer not to
engage face to face and there's
more, they're less socially
tuned, there's more social
anxiety because they, they
they're able to occupy
themselves alone, much more
effectively, today. They may
prefer an application. They
might say thank goodness, I
don't have to go to the store. I
don't I don't have to go to go
to the bank and make small talk
that I don't want to make, I can
just do my transaction to this
banking app.
Chintan Patel: That's true in
any sector as well. Right, you
have that the target audience,
you know, definitely is
changing. The older generation,
I think there might be a bit
longer to adopt to this
technologies. But I think thanks
to you know, Amazon, and
everyone just being comfortable,
sometimes it goes the, you know,
in the opposite direction, where
everyone expects a Amazon like
experience on your apps, and
you're thinking, Oh my God, it's
the complete opposite. Because,
you know, you don't have the
budgets of the Amazons of the
world where you're going to be
able to have a seamless
experience like Amazon, but that
has become the de facto
expectation, because that's what
they're, you know, what everyone
is seeing outside. So there's
two extremes, right? There's
some where, you know, like you
said, the younger generation
who's it's it, unless you do
business that way, I don't even
want to bother working and doing
business with you, because I'm
so used to running my entire
business on my phone and on the
go, so you have to cater to that
audience. And then there's the
others who are getting used to
it but, you know, in their
personal lives, they're getting
used to it just fine. They don't
quite trust getting used to it
with their professional lives.
So that's where the adoption is
something that you really, truly
have to find a way to gain their
trust to be able to start using
your technology. So it's a
balance that you know, we see
and in our mind, in the Dunkin
side of things, it's a you know,
it's a natural churn, I think
that happens when our
franchisees aging out, and they
might be, you know, handing off
their small business or their
franchises to their to the next
generation. So that generation
is truly coming in and adopting
it much faster. So that natural
churn happens but we know that
we have to stay ahead of the
curve. Because unless we do
that, as we're sitting on, you
know, this this churn happening,
we'll be we'll be left behind.
So in our mind, we all
constantly got to cater to two
types of audiences that we
cannot lose sight of, hey, over
time this churn happens and we
have to cater to them while
trying to find a way to gain the
trust and make sure it's been
adopted up the other side of the
spectrum as well.
Keith Hawkey: One question I
like to ask all the IT leaders
that come on to the the IT
Matters podcast show is if if
you could display a message on
every billboard in the world,
and only IT leaders could see
it, what message would you send
an IT leader that was looking to
stay ahead of the curve? What do
you think is missing? What what
what is being overlooked today?
What do you feel passionate
about? What what would you you
know, in a small message format
that would fit on a on a on a
billboard?
Chintan Patel: Don't forget to
sell for yourself, you've got to
be your own marketing champion.
Sometimes people think of IT as
a back office, and it's just
running things. I think there's
truly transformational abilities
to grow your business, if you're
able to get that alignment with
your leadership, and that comes
from relentlessly, you know,
marketing the work IT does. It's
not a natural tendency for IT
leaders to be able to think in
those terms because we are, you
know, we're at the at the heart
of it, you know, we're
technology people who likes to
get things done. And you know, I
grew up from a programming
background. So I was a developer
and you know, hands to keyboard,
want to get things done. And
then that's your mindset. But I
think it's really important if
you're able to market the work
that you're doing, because
that's how you get alignment.
That's how, you know, the other
leaders in your organization see
the benefit that comes out of
technology to propel their
areas, right. And when you start
gaining that alignment, and
trust from the other leaders at
the board level, that's when you
can truly use technology to
propel you know, the business,
from from where it is today to
being able to, you know, whether
it is from data and analytics
from AI or other areas, you
truly can be a differentiator in
your industry, when you rely on
on technology.
Keith Hawkey: I think you're
exactly right, you know,
marketing the vision, not only
yourself, but but the vision of
of the future is, is it's
certainly a muscle that most IT
professionals in the early in
their career have to develop,
for the most part not not as
natural to a traditional
programmer, or someone who was
technical and, and, but but but
you have to in order to, you
know, be a leader in the
business to move the business
forward in a transformational
fashion, and get visibly get the
board excited about your plans.
And to get their buy in, you're
going to have to learn how to
how to how to market this in a
way that's effective. Chintan I
think this has been an
incredible conversation and I
know our listeners will will
agree. Where can our listeners
find you if they have a question
about one of the topics that you
listed today? Where or how can
you be reached?
Chintan Patel: I am definitely
on LinkedIn. So that's a great
way to reach out. I'm in Atlanta
so feel free to you know, give a
shout out anywhere if you're
nearby, we'd love to at the
national DCP offices, would love
to meet with new people and
learn about their journeys. But
LinkedIn is a great way
otherwise to to get in touch for
sure.
Keith Hawkey: Well I'll make
sure to include your LinkedIn in
the show notes and as always,
thank you for tuning into the IT
Matters podcast and again
Chintan thank you for offering
your insights and taking some
time out of your your day.
Chintan Patel: Really glad to be
here and thanks for the
opportunity and inviting me,
really had a good time. And you
know looking forward to being
able to you know follow through
the podcast and listen to other
leaders.
Keith Hawkey: Well take care
everyone, have a wonderful rest
of your week.
Narrator: Thanks for listening.
The IT Matters podcast is
produced by Opkalla, an IT
advisory firm that helps
businesses navigate the vast and
complex IT marketplace. Learn
more about Opkalla at
opkalla.com.