| Championing process improvement through technology
Don’t try to pigeonhole Chuck Kramer into one stereotype, because he won’t fit. Kramer has been working for 20 years, but only three and a half in the title insurance business. He is currently vice president of information systems at PGP Title, a division of the PulteGroup.
Chuck has worked on various facets of technology, including application systems architecture and design, technology selection and implementation, database development, data center design and management and development of scalable, secure and reliable computing environments to support operation objectives — but please don’t call him a techie.
 “I am not handy around the house, nor do I tinker with computers,” Kramer confessed. “While I have managed operational and infrastructure departments and spent a lot of time dealing with those types of issues, my heart has always been in business analysis and process improvement. While I have a knack for finding my way out of common (computer) problems, it’s not what I love to do. I have a Mac at home and probably get on the computer for a total of 2 to 3 hours a month. I get my gadget and tech fix in the form of photography — my entire ‘gadget budget’ goes toward photography. I enjoy taking pictures of my family and friends and almost always have a camera with me when I’m out and about with family or friends ... or even at friends’ events.”
As a young man living on the West Coast in Los Angeles, Chuck studied psychology at the University of Southern California while working as director of systems and support and application development at the school. Soon after he graduated, he and his wife moved to Texas, where he said you can get a lot more house for the price in the Dallas area. He began working as chief information officer at Poly-America LP and saw it grow in business from the ground up. In this position, he worked on the architecture of applications for the whole company, while earning his masters of business administration from the University of Texas. He not only worked on line of business applications, but also everything from the general ledger to accounts payable. He also served as the administrator for the company's insurance plan.
After almost 15 years, he left the company to help out at his family’s luxury homebuilding business as general manager of Castlegate Homes. Here, he worked with leaders of Fortune 500 companies as well as successful local entrepreneurs, among others, on their own personal homes and properties, along with tradesman and workers. Although Kramer said he liked interacting with the whole spectrum, he soon found himself pining for a return to IT.
And with his experience, PGP scooped him up. Kramer admitted he didn’t really know much about title insurance or the settlement services industries.
“Everything I knew about title was centered around the settlement process,” he said. “Did I have an understanding of title production and underwriting? No, not at all. We have a really great team here at PGP, and they helped me learn the business — patiently; very patiently. They listened to my repeated questions.
“I really like to learn,” Chuck continued. “I was interested in doing something new. I think what attracted me to the position was the opportunity to learn something new. I work with other leaders on our team on business process improvement. Our developers do a fair amount of custom work, either on our own stand-alone applications, or as enhancements and add-ons to the closing software we do.”
As Chuck was learning the title insurance culture, he said he was surprised by the lack of adoption of technology in some areas and how much of the process is reliant on memory and expertise rather than data.
“We’ve made quite a few strides at PGP in the past couple of years with things like title fees and common loan charges,” he said. “Documents are another key area that surprised me. A lot of what goes on with rendering, saving and storing documents has such an important association with transaction-level data. I think there are a lot of opportunities there.”
Home, home on the range
 When he’s not working, Chuck said he loves taking pictures of and spending time with his family. The Kramers recently returned from a trip to London and Paris, but even at home, they still have adventures. He and his son love to go bike riding, while his daughter runs track. He volunteers with Boy Scouts of America, but you won’t find him making lanyards. He is on a committee helping to support the dads running the program. He also likes to volunteer at his parish.
“Since the kids have gotten older, it’s gotten tougher,” Kramer said. “I used to be the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) coordinator. I’ve had to step back. I helped with the liturgies, the rites, the Easter Vigil, as a lector, Eucharistic minister and that sort of thing. It’s an important part of my life, and I want to share it with my family.”
When asked what he and his family want to do when he retires, Chuck said, “I’ve always been blessed to really enjoy my work and the people I work with. I enjoy working. My wife and I enjoy travel. I’d like to see us be able to travel more as we get older, whether we are retired in the traditional sense or not.”
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