Big fish, little pond: Some IT execs go small, and love it

As a CIO with an IT staff of exactly four, Steven Porter understands full well what it takes to do more with less.

His team at Touchstone Behavioral Health is tasked with stretching a shoestring IT budget to cover big enterprise initiatives like virtualization and VLANs while providing hands-on support to more than 200 users scattered across the state of Arizona.

"Some days I wonder what the hell I am doing here," jokes Porter, 60, who's been on board with Touchstone Behavioral, the provider of behavioral services to at-risk children in the state's Medicare program, for more than five years.

Following a successful run as a television producer of live auto racing events and motorsports news programming, Porter leveraged his burgeoning interest in the Internet to land a job with an e-commerce developer in 1995. After he served a couple of subsequent dot-com stints, Touchstone Behavioral sought him out for the IT director's spot.

Porter sees the role as a challenge. "I'm being asked to do the same things as my enterprise counterparts ... but the headcount of our entire IT organization is smaller than one of their development teams," he says.

I'm IT director, chief technology officer, truck driver, window washer and, at the end of the day, hands-on technologist.

Steven Porter, Touchstone Behavioral Health

Even with budget shortfalls and resource constraints, Porter says he wouldn't have it any other way. "I'm IT director, chief technology officer, truck driver, window washer and, at the end of the day, hands-on technologist," he says. "I have the opportunity to make a difference and the flexibility to be hands-on when I want to be. That's a pro for me."

It's an upside for plenty of IT professionals, who like Porter, see value in being a big technology fish in a small pond. They view the requirement of rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty with technology as a bonus, not a burden. For them, a tight budget means getting more creative with project choices. And here's their take on a small shop's flatter organizational structure: It's not a door closing on opportunity, but rather an opening to exert more control over initiatives that can have meaningful impact on the business.

On the other hand, working within the constraints of a smaller IT organization isn't always a bed of roses. Beyond budget and resource restrictions, some small companies aren't ready culturally to take on state-of-the-art technology. And oftentimes IT can be pulled in conflicting directions, say experts and small-shop CIOs, with politics and personality trumping business value as the gauge for getting buy-in on certain tech initiatives.

Wise career choice? Mmmaybe...

Those downsides don't deter Porter, who says his propensity to buck bureaucracy and his desire to make a difference make him a good fit for a smaller organization. That was certainly what prompted him to take the IT director spot at Touchstone Behavioral -- and stick around long enough to grow it into a full CIO role.

"The company's mission appealed to the old hippie in me," Porter explains. "With technology, we deliver tools that help with some of the business processes and documentation. If that gives [therapists] another 15 minutes a day to work with the kids, then we've achieved something."