This year’s crop of CIO 100 honorees include small organizations along with giants. Here are tips for doing more with less from two of the smaller businesses.Keep the budget lid on. Chase Pitkin Home Centers lives by this rule: “If you don’t know the business benefit, you had better not do it because technology is pretty darn expensive,” says T. Christopher Dorsey, CIO and controller at the retailer. Business volume has increased every year at Chase Pitkin’s 15 stores, while IT spending continues to decline. The company uses non-IT departments’ staff for basic IT needs such as “light” development work, certification and testing. For example, members of the accounting staff do some coding, testing and validation of new financial systems. Chase Pitkin identifies the hard dollar savings of a project, evaluates the ROI and applies economic value-added analysis, which takes into account the cost of capital required to fund the project. Then, the company measures actual versus budgeted results on an ongoing basis.Cross-train staff. Most doctors’ offices have a staff-to-physician ratio of 3-to-1. Seattle Eye M.D.s has cut this ratio in half. All of Seattle Eye M.D.s’ six support employees are trained to troubleshoot the software and hardware they use every day—including workstations, point-of-sale software and a SQL Server-based Electronic Practice Management software package. Networked office man- agement technology has eliminated the need for a dedicated billing specialist and a full-time physician assistant. These moves mean the company can operate two retail stores and a Web store with existing staff, says Darwin J. Liao, an opthamologist who serves as Seattle Eye M.D.s’ CIO. Related content feature 10 most popular IT certifications for 2023 Certifications are a great way to show employers you have the right IT skills and specializations for the job. These 10 certs are the ones IT pros are most likely to pursue, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White May 26, 2023 8 mins Certifications Careers interview Stepping up to the challenge of a global conglomerate CIO role Dr. Amrut Urkude became CIO of Reliance Polyester after his company was acquired by Reliance Industries. He discusses challenges IT leaders face while transitioning from a small company to a large multinational enterprise, and how to overcome them. By Yashvendra Singh May 26, 2023 7 mins Digital Transformation Careers brandpost With the new financial year looming, now is a good time to review your Microsoft 365 licenses By Veronica Lew May 25, 2023 5 mins Lenovo news Alteryx works in generative AI for speedy analytics results OpenAI integration and AI wizardry for report generation are aimed at making Alteryx’s analytics products more accessible. By Jon Gold May 25, 2023 3 mins Analytics Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe