Fractional CIO & Technology Advisory
I'm Ron Margalit, a healthcare CIO with more than two decades in technology leadership — including multiple CIO and CTO roles. Through Cracking Eggs, I help organizations set IT strategy, de-risk major projects, and build the teams to deliver them, on a fractional, advisory, or board basis.
Every engagement starts with your operations, your stakeholders, and the outcome you actually need. Technology is the smallest part of most IT problems — alignment is the hard part, and where I spend my time.
I translate fluently between executives, clinicians or operators, and engineering teams. That means faster decisions, fewer misunderstandings, and strategy that survives contact with reality.
You get a senior operator who has carried the accountability, not just advised on it. Clear scope, predictable cadence, and work product you can act on immediately.
AI has changed the underlying economics of technology decisions. The cost of building custom software has fallen dramatically — which means the old reflex to buy a SaaS product for every need is no longer a safe default. The hard question is no longer can we build it, but should we, where it creates real advantage, and how to do it safely with sensitive data.
That's a strategy and governance problem before it's a technology one, and it's where I help most. I work with leaders to separate genuine opportunity from hype, decide where to build versus buy versus wait, put the right guardrails around data and compliance, and equip their teams to use AI well rather than fearfully.
Where AI actually moves the needle for your organization — and, just as importantly, where it doesn't. A prioritized, realistic plan tied to business outcomes.
A clear-eyed look at what's now worth building in-house given AI-assisted development, what to license, and how to avoid both over-building and overpaying.
Practical guardrails for AI in regulated environments — data protection, security, compliance, and the policies that let teams move quickly without creating exposure.
I build with current AI tooling myself. My own products — Divynation, a dividend analytics platform, and EasySSI (easyssi.com), a free benefits tracker — were built and shipped using modern AI-assisted development, so my advice comes from doing the work, not just reading about it.
Senior IT leadership for organizations that need the judgment of a CIO without the cost of a full-time hire. I own IT strategy, prioritization, and roadmap, and make sure your technology direction fits your operational and financial reality.
A clear-eyed read before you commit capital — or a course correction when a project isn't tracking. I assess scope, vendor selection, risk, and execution so you can commit, pivot, or stop with confidence.
Structuring an IT organization and hiring into it. I help define the roles you actually need and select people for both technical depth and fit within how your organization works.
A technology voice for your board or leadership team — whether as an ongoing advisor or to provide independent assurance on a specific high-stakes initiative.
Selected results from across my career. Current-employer work is described without naming the organization.
120 → 3,000 employees
One Call Care Management · CTO
Built and scaled the enterprise infrastructure that supported the company's growth from 120 to 3,000 people and from $70M to $1.5B in revenue — including IT due diligence and integration across eight acquisitions.
Cloud & EMR transformation
Arizona medical practice · CIO
Led a full cloud transformation to Azure and Microsoft 365 and a near-100% EMR data migration, while cutting annual IT spend by nearly a quarter-million dollars and improving service.
$70K / month data-center savings
Earlier CIO role
Cut data-center operating costs in half — about $70K per month — by re-architecting strategy and processes, while leading the board-mandated operational-efficiency review of the entire IT estate.
Enterprise Data Warehouse
Value-based care · CIO
Replaced fragile, manual data ingestion with a governed, automated pipeline — giving leaders a defensible single source of truth in place of conflicting spreadsheets. In parallel, ran a six-vendor contact-center platform RFP and selection.
~$1M / year in IT savings
Current CIO engagement · under NDA
Approximately $1M in annual IT savings identified and underway in the current engagement, through a structured efficiency review of the IT estate — vendor consolidation, cloud-cost discipline, and contract renegotiation.
I've spent more than two decades in technology leadership, almost all of it in healthcare — rising from systems and database work to architect, director, CTO, and multiple CIO roles. That path means I've carried the accountability at every level, not just advised on it.
I add the most value in long-term visioning and planning: setting strategy in collaboration with senior leaders, grounded in real business acumen and a deep, hands-on understanding of the technology. The result, again and again, has been proprietary solutions built to scale, modern cloud platforms that improve reliability and security, and compliance with the standards healthcare demands.
Building people is part of the work, not a side effect of it — I invest in developing the teams I lead and the ones I help others assemble. Cracking Eggs is my advisory practice, where I take on a focused number of engagements that benefit from a working CIO's perspective rather than a career consultant's.
Tell me a little about your organization and what you're trying to accomplish. I'll respond personally.
Also available for engagements through Catalant.