Overview
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) is the state agency responsible for driver licensing and identification, motor-vehicle and vessel titling and registration, and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP).
It operates statewide, high-transaction systems that touch nearly every Florida resident — the customer-facing MyDMV Portal for license and registration services, the credentialing systems behind physical and (relaunching) mobile IDs, and the public-safety IT that supports troopers in the field. The agency works through a network of county tax collectors and license-plate agents who deliver many in-person services, which makes data integration, identity verification, and secure service delivery central to its technology footprint.
For a Dell SLG seller, FLHSMV is an enterprise-modernization, digital-identity, and law-enforcement-technology account rather than a single-program buyer: its Office of Motorist Modernization (OMM) is explicitly chartered to replace antiquated systems, and its public-safety mission drives demand for compute, storage, security, and edge/field infrastructure.
- Office of Motorist Modernization (OMM) is the enterprise-modernization buying center, driving MyDMV Portal / systems-replacement work
- Agency IT leadership (CIO / Information Systems Administration) and OMM jointly shape technology funding priorities
- Florida DMS sets statewide IT standards and State Term Contracts that FLHSMV is directed to buy from first
- Fastest compliant path: DMS State Term Contracts / Alternate Contract Sources via MyFloridaMarketPlace (MFMP) vendor registration
- Larger modernization, identity/credentialing, and public-safety programs run through FLHSMV's own RFP/ITN solicitations
Where Dell Can Play
- Map the modernization buying center: connect with the Office of Motorist Modernization and FLHSMV IT leadership, and confirm the current CIO/IT executive and reporting line before forecasting.
- Confirm Dell's position on the relevant DMS state term contracts and alternate contract sources, and ensure VIP/MyFloridaMarketPlace registration is current so the agency can buy without friction.
- Lead with enterprise-modernization infrastructure (compute, storage, data platform, and secure identity/authentication) tied to MyDMV Portal and the OMM systems-replacement roadmap.
- Position for the public-safety mission with FHP: edge/field compute, ruggedized devices, storage for video/crash data, and secure connectivity, aligned to the FY2026-27 fleet, aviation, and communications priorities.
- Track the mDL relaunch and identity-verification work as digital-identity/security pull-through — note the HB 543 framework died in 2026 and will likely return next session, so the current relaunch is administrative/procurement-driven; partner with the credentialing/identity ecosystem rather than competing with the credential issuer itself.
Budget & Fiscal
FLHSMV is funded through the annual Florida state budget; the FY2026-27 'Floridians First' budget recommended by Governor DeSantis emphasized Florida Highway Patrol resources and personnel, with several technology-adjacent line items. Figures below are from the agency's December 2025 summary of the Governor's recommendations and should be confirmed against the final enacted General Appropriations Act.
- Figures reflect the Governor's FY2026-27 recommended budget (per FLHSMV's Dec 16, 2025 release), not necessarily final enacted appropriations — verify against the enacted GAA.
- FLHSMV's base budget runs in the hundreds of millions with thousands of FTE (Senate base-budget review materials list roughly 4,495 FTE); the largest dollars sit in FHP personnel and operations, with IT modernization funded across operating and capital lines.
- Additional FY2026-27 recommendations included roughly $4.9M for the Tactical Aviation Command and over $2M for license-plate consumables — adjacent to fleet, aviation, and field-technology spend.
Initiatives & Priorities
FLHSMV's Office of Motorist Modernization is chartered to replace antiquated systems with flexible architecture, improve service delivery, and strengthen data quality and security. The customer-facing MyDMV Portal digitizes driver-license, registration, title, and parking-permit transactions — a multi-year enterprise-modernization track touching identity, data, and cloud.
Modernization Digital ServicesAfter pulling the Thales-built 'Florida Smart ID' from app stores in 2024, Florida intends to relaunch its mDL. The 2026 legislative vehicle for a modern framework — HB 543, which would have required ISO/IEC 18013-5 and 18013-7 compliance, selective disclosure, no state tracking, and unlinkable transactions — passed both chambers but died in returning messages on March 13, 2026, so it did NOT become law this session. The app remains unavailable and the relaunch continues as an administrative/procurement effort; expect the framework to return in a future session. Still a high-profile digital-identity and credentialing modernization to track closely.
Digital ID SecurityFLHSMV has moved to modernize identity-proofing for online services (reporting cited an upgrade toward selfie-biometric and identity-database verification for the MyDMV Portal). Identity assurance, fraud prevention, and secure authentication are recurring needs as more transactions shift online.
Identity CybersecurityFlorida Highway Patrol drives demand for in-vehicle and field technology — law-enforcement software, crash-diagramming tools, radio/communications, and an FY2026-27 emphasis on aviation and fleet. A path for edge compute, ruggedized devices, storage, and secure connectivity.
Public Safety EdgeProcurement
FLHSMV buys IT through Florida's centralized procurement framework plus its own agency solicitations. Confirm Dell's position on the relevant Department of Management Services (DMS) state term contracts and alternate contract sources, then track agency-specific RFPs for modernization and public-safety programs.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| DMS state term contracts | Florida's Department of Management Services (DMS) maintains statewide State Term Contracts and Alternate Contract Sources for IT commodities and services; agencies are generally directed to buy from these where they exist. The primary path for catalog hardware and services. |
| MyFloridaMarketPlace (MFMP) / Vendor Information Portal | DMS's eProcurement system and vendor registry — vendors must register in the Vendor Information Portal (VIP) to do business with the state, and solicitations post to the Vendor Bid System. |
| Agency RFPs / ITNs | FLHSMV issues its own solicitations (RFP / Invitation to Negotiate) for larger modernization, identity/credentialing, and public-safety programs — watch the Vendor Bid System and agency postings for OMM and mDL-related work. |
| Cooperative / piggyback contracts | Cooperative and piggyback vehicles can supplement state term contracts for specific categories — confirm eligibility and current scope before relying on them. |
Spend Signals
GovSpend · as of Aug 5, 2026Dell vs. competitors (spend, payee)
Brand footprint — all channels (est.)
Higher of two conservative lenses: product-name match · manufacturer tag. Both undercount — treat as floors.
Open bids / RFPs
| Solicitation | Due |
|---|---|
| Fairfax Software System Solution Upgrades and Maintenance (Sole Source) Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles | Aug 11, 2026 |
| AAMVA State-to-State Verification Services (Sole Source) Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles | Aug 19, 2026 |
- Window uses Florida's Jul–Jun fiscal year (PO.IssuedDate 2022-07-01 to 2025-06-30, labeled FY2023–2025).
- Cisco required exact-match text search to exclude heavy false positives from fuzzy matching — IT-staffing firms whose contract text coincidentally matched "catalyst"/"cisco" (not hardware), plus vendor-name collisions (Rosetta Stone's "Catalyst" language product; Catalyst Communications Technologies' own "Catalyst" software) inflated the fuzzy total by roughly 4x.
- PO.Category and LineItem.Category are blank for this agency in GovSpend, so no category breakdown could be produced.
- Only 4 contracts in GovSpend expire in this window for FLHSMV and none are IT-relevant, so expiringContracts is omitted; HPE, Lenovo, and Apple brand matches all fell below the $100K reporting floor (Apple's only material hit, Shield Group Technologies, was a false positive — a mobile app description merely mentioning "Apple iOS" compatibility).
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Dave Kerner Executive Director, FLHSMV | Florida's 11th FLHSMV Executive Director (approved by Governor and Cabinet, January 2023). Top executive sponsor for agency-wide modernization and public-safety priorities. |
| Col. Gary L. Howze II Director, Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) | 15th Colonel of FHP (appointed April 2023). Owns the public-safety mission and field-technology, fleet, aviation, and communications priorities. |
| Office of Motorist Modernization (OMM) Enterprise modernization program | Agency program office chartered to replace antiquated systems and deliver MyDMV Portal and related modernization — the buying center for the modernization motion. |
| FLHSMV IT leadership Information Systems Administration / agency CIO function | Owns the agency's IT and data systems (reporting has named a Director of Information Systems Administration). Confirm the current CIO/IT executive and reporting line before forecasting. |
| Florida DMS — State Purchasing Statewide procurement authority | Owns the state term contracts, MFMP, and vendor registration that govern how FLHSMV buys IT — the gate for contract access. |
News & Signals
Sources
- FLHSMV — Executive Director Dave Kerner approved by Governor and Cabinet (Jan 2023)
- FLHSMV — Governor's FY2026-27 'Floridians First' Budget Supports Law Enforcement (Dec 2025)
- Executive Office of the Governor — DeSantis Signs FY2026-27 Budget (June 29, 2026)
- Florida Senate — HB 543 (2026) bill history (died in returning messages, 3/13/2026)
- FLHSMV — MyDMV Portal / Motorist Modernization
- Biometric Update — Florida House passes bill to relaunch mDL program (HB 543)
- Biometric Update — Florida tosses mDL program (Smart ID pulled, 2024)
- Florida Senate — DHSMV Base Budget review (FTE/appropriations)
- Florida DMS — State Purchasing (state term contracts, MFMP)
- FAST — Gary Howze II named FHP Director (Colonel)
- WUSF — Tampa Bay area tax collectors scramble to serve customers as DMV network fails (June 2, 2026)
- Bay News 9 — Tax collectors call on state to address ORION system outages (May 28, 2026)