The 2026 CIO 100 case studies show how IT projects can support business value when they solve specific operating problems, fit into real workflows and gain adoption. The examples range from automated shipment requests to connected manufacturing and carbon-data products. They illustrate how technology can contribute to business outcomes; an award and company-reported results do not, by themselves, prove that technology caused those outcomes.
What the CIO 100 recognizes—and what it does not prove
Foundry describes the CIO 100 as recognizing 100 organizations and their teams for using IT innovatively to deliver business value through competitive advantage, process optimization, growth or better customer relationships. Foundry’s 2026 CIO 100 awards page frames the honor around those aims. The recognition is a useful lens for examining enterprise projects, not an independent causal test of their financial impact.
CIO’s 2026 feature presents ten selected examples from the broader group of honorees. The results below are attributed to the companies or to CIO’s account of their initiatives. They are not a like-for-like performance study: projects address different problems and report different kinds of outcomes.
How the 2026 examples connect IT to business needs
| Organization and project | Business need and approach | Reported outcome and evidence |
|---|---|---|
| ABB — ABBY workforce agents | Let employees create and deploy specialized AI agents for business tasks. | CIO reported ABB leaders’ figures: rollout to 100 users in 2025, later use by 63,000 people—more than 75% of the workforce—and over 10,000 average daily users. Adoption figures indicate reach, not a quantified financial return. CIO’s feature |
| Belcorp — QPlant Smart Factory | Connect manufacturing execution, shop-floor equipment, SCADA, electronic batch records and enterprise platforms to improve real-time visibility and traceability. | The CIO feature says Belcorp reported more than $1 million in financial benefits in the first year. CIO’s feature |
| Cohesity — acquisition integration | Replatform lead-to-cash systems after acquiring Veritas, integrating CRM, CPQ, PRM, ERP and subscription platforms while maintaining sales, billing and partner operations. | CIO said the effort enabled continuity for more than 13,000 customers. The feature describes continuity, not a quantified savings figure. CIO’s feature |
| Dairyland Power — ODIN field-safety guidance | Make internal safety knowledge available to field crews during work planning. | CIO reported reduced OSHA-recordable injuries and improved pre-job safety briefings, without giving a numerical reduction. CIO Nate Melby described the aim as finding insights to work more safely and preventing incidents. CIO’s feature |
| Dow — Carbon Footprint Ledger | Connect operational and product-carbon data to support low-carbon product offers and certificates. Dow says the platform uses standards including ISO 14067 and the GHG Protocol Product Standard. | CIO reported Dow’s claim that the platform drove hundreds of millions of dollars in low-carbon product sales in 2025 and 2026. This is a company-reported sales result, not an independently established attribution. CIO’s feature and Dow’s March 30, 2026 release |
| Johnson & Johnson — QuIn and Cora | Automate regulated quality and document work with the QuIn assistant and Cora regulatory-intelligence platform. | CIO reported J&J projections of more than $62 million in documented true cost savings from QuIn by 2028 and $25 million in documented cost savings from Cora by 2028. Separately, Cora was reported to have delivered $2 million in cost efficiency in 2025. The first two are projections, not realized historical savings. CIO’s feature |
| JLL — digitized business services | Combine process redesign, robotic process automation, AI, process monitoring and task-specific assistants across business services. | CIO described benefits to efficiency, accuracy and service quality but supplied no specific quantified result. CIO’s feature |
| Nationwide — Enterprise Digital Platform | Provide a governed common entry point for partner integrations, reusable digital products and onboarding. | Nationwide leaders said it supports faster launches and growth. CIO described the platform as fully deployed and planned for expansion, without a quantified result. CIO’s feature |
| PITT Ohio — N@TE shipment requests | Convert unstructured pickup-request emails into structured orders in the transportation management system. | CIO reported project-specific figures of 30–60 times faster processing, 99% extraction and population accuracy, and 70% lower handling costs per pickup order. These are company and feature-reported results, not an independent audit. CIO’s feature |
| Southern Methodist University — AI adoption | Build workforce capability through opt-in communities of practice and trained champions. | The CIO story emphasizes willingness, training and user learning but gives no quantified return. CIO’s feature |
Which projects show measurable results?
Several examples report numbers, but the figures measure different things. ABB’s user counts describe adoption; Belcorp’s first-year benefits and PITT Ohio’s speed, accuracy and handling-cost figures describe reported operating outcomes; Dow’s sales figure is a company-reported commercial result. J&J’s two 2028 savings figures are forecasts, while its Cora figure concerns 2025. The other cases offer qualitative outcomes or continuity claims rather than a comparable return measure.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11That distinction matters when assessing a transformation claim. A large user base may show that a tool reached employees, but it does not establish savings. A forecast is not a realized result. And a result reported by a company may be useful evidence about its own project without serving as an independent comparison with other organizations.
What makes these IT projects relevant beyond the technology
They target a defined workflow or customer need
N@TE addresses manual conversion of pickup emails into orders; QPlant connects shop-floor activity with enterprise systems; Dow’s ledger makes product-carbon information usable in customer offers. These projects tie technology to a task, process or customer-facing outcome rather than treating deployment itself as the goal.
Rank #2
Integration is part of the transformation
Belcorp’s manufacturing initiative connected equipment and production records with enterprise platforms. Cohesity’s work spanned sales, partner, finance and subscription systems. Nationwide’s platform focuses on governed partner integrations and reusable products. In each case, the business value depends in part on how systems and processes work together.
Adoption and governance shape whether tools are used
ABB’s reported reach and SMU’s opt-in communities and trained champions point to different adoption approaches. Nationwide’s governed entry point highlights controls around reuse and partner connections. The examples suggest that implementation includes decisions about access, training, ownership and fit with established work—not just selecting software.
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JLL’s combination of process redesign, automation and AI, and Dairyland Power’s delivery of safety guidance during work planning, show why technology should be assessed in its operational context. Automating an unclear or poorly adopted process may not produce the intended benefit; these stories emphasize changes to how work is organized and supported.
How to evaluate an IT transformation claim
- Identify the problem and affected workflow. Specify what was manual, delayed, risky or difficult for employees, partners or customers.
- Check the implementation scope. Note which systems were integrated, which teams were included and whether the tool was deployed broadly or only to an initial group.
- Separate adoption from outcomes. User counts, processing speed, error rates, cost changes, sales and customer continuity answer different questions.
- Preserve the time frame and status. Label results as achieved, forecast or qualitative, and include the period to which a number applies.
- Ask who reports the figure. Company-reported results are not automatically independently verified; award recognition does not establish causation.
- Look for the process and governance changes. Training, controls, redesign and integration can be central to outcomes, alongside the underlying technology.
What the 2026 CIO 100 examples establish
The selected stories span manufacturing, revenue operations, safety, sustainability, regulated workflows, partner services and workforce adoption. Their strongest shared lesson is practical: IT can contribute to business value when it is connected to an operating need, incorporated into work and taken up by the people who use it. The examples make that case through a mix of reported results, forecasts and qualitative accounts; they do not rank initiatives on a single return measure or prove that the award itself caused business gains.
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