Overview
DeKalb County is the fourth-most-populous county in Georgia, with roughly 760,000-770,000 residents across the eastern half of metropolitan Atlanta (county seat Decatur). It is one of Georgia's few counties governed by a strong, separately elected Chief Executive Officer rather than a county-manager model: Lorraine Cochran-Johnson took office in January 2025 as the county's first Black woman CEO, working alongside a seven-member Board of Commissioners.
Central technology is consolidated in the Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT), which supports 40-plus county departments with enterprise applications, infrastructure and cloud (Microsoft 365), strategic planning/procurement, and cybersecurity, with a workforce of roughly 110 IT professionals.
For a Dell SLG seller, DeKalb is a large, urban county account in active modernization mode — recent ERP/HR/payroll platform work and a publicly stated cloud-migration push — but the dominant near-term theme is security: the county was hit by Lynx ransomware in October 2025 (with a resident data-breach notice in March 2026) and its Sheriff's Office/jail systems were struck by a separate ransomware attack in March 2026, putting cyber resilience, recovery, and infrastructure refresh at the center of the buying conversation.
- DoIT (CIO Scott Shelton) is the technology buying center — 40+ departments run through a consolidated central IT organization rather than departmental fiefdoms
- CEO Cochran-Johnson's office shapes the modernization agenda and sponsors major initiatives; the Board of Commissioners approves the budget and large capital contracts
- The DoIT Cybersecurity Division is the near-term approval gate given the 2025-2026 ransomware incidents — resilience and recovery credentials matter for any deal
- Fastest compliant vehicles: Georgia statewide (DOAS/SWC) contracts and national cooperatives (e.g., Sourcewell) alongside DeKalb's own OpenGov-run competitive solicitations
Where Dell Can Play
- Lead with the cybersecurity recovery story: after two ransomware incidents (Oct 2025 and March 2026), bring resilient infrastructure, secure-by-design compute/storage, recovery/immutable backup, and incident-hardening to the DoIT Cybersecurity Division.
- Engage CIO Scott Shelton on infrastructure and cloud modernization — server/data-center refresh and the county's stated cloud-migration push (Microsoft 365 environment) are open lanes for ISG.
- Confirm Dell's access paths: Georgia statewide (DOAS/SWC) contracts plus national co-ops (e.g. Sourcewell) alongside the county's own OpenGov solicitations — avoid forcing a fresh RFP where a co-op already covers the buy.
- Tie compute/storage to the enterprise-platform modernization (HR/payroll/pension/ERP) already underway — sell the infrastructure layer beneath those applications.
- Map the strong-CEO structure: align executive sponsorship with CEO Cochran-Johnson's modernization agenda while working DoIT and Purchasing, and watch the Board of Commissioners on large capital approvals.
Budget & Fiscal
DeKalb adopted its FY2026 budget on February 26, 2026. The county runs on a calendar fiscal year and a multi-fund structure; technology spending sits within DoIT and is spread across departmental capital and operating lines rather than a single published IT appropriation, so confirm the IT/cyber line items against the adopted budget document before forecasting.
- FY2026 budget adopted Feb 26, 2026; DeKalb uses a calendar-year fiscal year.
- There is no single published 'IT budget' line — technology spend is distributed across DoIT operating funds and departmental/capital projects; confirm against the adopted budget PDF.
- Cyber-incident recovery costs (2025-2026 ransomware events) are a likely driver of near-term security and infrastructure spend.
Initiatives & Priorities
After the October 2025 Lynx ransomware attack (resident breach notice issued March 2026) and a separate March 2026 ransomware hit on the Sheriff's Office/jail systems, DeKalb is rebuilding around threat monitoring, identity protection, incident response, and resilient system design. The clearest near-term buying center.
Cybersecurity ResilienceDoIT's Infrastructure & Support division runs server/cloud (Microsoft 365), networks, and data centers; the county has publicly highlighted cloud migration and was recognized for digital-innovation efforts. Hybrid infrastructure refresh and data-center modernization are open lanes.
Cloud InfrastructureRecent transformative projects modernized HR, payroll, benefits, and pension administration on enterprise platforms supporting the county workforce — a sign of sustained appetite for backend systems refresh and the compute/storage underneath it.
Modernization Enterprise AppsDoIT cites growing demand for resident-facing digital services and online accessibility across 40+ departments, supported by 24/7 monitoring — an ongoing track that pulls infrastructure and security spend with it.
Digital ServicesProcurement
DeKalb buys through its own Purchasing & Contracting department (competitive ITBs/RFPs posted via OpenGov, the county website, The Champion, and the Georgia Procurement Registry) and also leverages cooperative and statewide vehicles to avoid running fresh solicitations. Confirm Dell's coverage across the relevant co-ops before pursuing a deal.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| DeKalb Purchasing & Contracting (direct) | County's own competitive process — ITBs/RFPs posted via the OpenGov procurement portal, county site, The Champion, and the Georgia Procurement Registry. Led by the Chief Procurement Officer. |
| Georgia statewide contracts (SWC / DOAS) | DeKalb uses Georgia statewide contracts administered through the state's procurement system for commodities and IT — a pre-competed path for eligible buys. |
| National cooperative purchasing (e.g. Sourcewell) | The county references cooperative agreements such as Sourcewell for equipment and services — a route to leverage national co-op pricing without a local RFP. |
Spend Signals
GovSpend · as of Aug 10, 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.
Expiring contracts (re-compete)
| Contract | Vendor | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Statewide Contract Cloud Solutions and Services: OpenGov for Purchasing & Contracting | Carahsoft Technology Corporation | Sep 15, 2026 |
| Human Resource Systems and Related Products and Services (KRONOS) — OMNIA Partners/Cobb County Contract No.24-6833 | Kronos Inc | Sep 30, 2026 |
| Cooperative Agreement for Networking Equipment / Cloud-Based Security Camera System (Library) | Disys Solutions Inc | Nov 15, 2026 |
| Cooperative Agreement for CodeRED Emergency Notification Solution (IT Software, GSA) | Onsolve LLC | Nov 18, 2026 |
| Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) System (Multiyear Contract) | Tritech Software Systems | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Sole Source Tyler Cloud Hosting Services Migration for ias World Software | Tyler Technologies Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
| Cooperative Agreement for Microsoft Software and Ancillary Services (SWC) | SHI International Corp | Dec 31, 2026 |
- Fiscal basis is DeKalb's calendar year (confirmed via the agency's Organization.FiscalYear field = January); window is 2023-01-01 to 2025-12-31.
- Dell Marketing LP's $16.4M payee mixes genuine hardware (Latitude/Precision laptops and workstations, Dell Pro machines) with large Microsoft Azure monetary-commitment licensing pass-through (Dell as LSP). dellFootprint above excludes those licensing lines plus false-positive "Precision"/"Mobile Communications" vendor-name collisions (~$723K removed, e.g. a sidewalk contractor named "Precision" and a police-vehicle radio installer) to isolate genuine Dell product spend (~$6.88M).
- J2 Connect ($4.23M, a plumbing/facilities contractor) was excluded from vendorSpend as a false-positive "Connection" keyword match, not the IT reseller Connection; several smaller Insight/Apple/Connection-named vendors below $100K were excluded for the same reason.
- LineItem.Category is empty in DeKalb's GovSpend feed (verified by sampling) — categories panel omitted. None of the 21 open bids in the window (as of 2026-08-10) matched the IT keyword set (all facilities/utilities/fleet), so openBids is omitted.
- 2026-08-10 refresh: dropped the expired Avolve Software ProjectDox contract (endDate 2026-08-08, outside the 2026-08-24–2027-02-28 window) and added the Kronos HR systems contract (software/hardware/support, OMNIA/Cobb County vehicle, endDate 2026-09-30) to keep the panel at 7 entries.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Lorraine Cochran-Johnson Chief Executive Officer | Strong elected CEO since Jan 2025 (first Black woman to hold the role); owns county operations and budget direction. The top executive relationship for major initiatives. |
| Scott Shelton CIO & Director, Innovation & Technology (DoIT) | Permanently appointed CIO in May 2026 after serving as interim from Aug 2025; 24+ years in IT, 16 at DeKalb. Owns enterprise tech, cloud, and cyber direction — the primary IT relationship. |
| DoIT Cybersecurity Division Threat monitoring, IR & risk | Dedicated security division (one of DoIT's four) handling monitoring, identity protection, and incident response — the buying center for the post-ransomware security rebuild. |
| Chief Procurement Officer Purchasing & Contracting | Owns the county's solicitations, contract awards, and co-op/statewide vehicle use — the path onto a DeKalb deal. |
| Board of Commissioners (7 districts) Legislative / budget approval | Approves the budget and major contracts; works with (and at times checks) the CEO. Relevant for large capital tech spend. |
News & Signals
Sources
- DeKalb County — Department of Innovation & Technology
- DeKalb County — Office of the CEO (Lorraine Cochran-Johnson)
- DeKalb County — FY2026 Annual Budget (adopted Feb 26, 2026)
- DeKalb County — Purchasing & Contracting
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts — DeKalb County, Georgia
- Lynx ransomware strikes DeKalb County government (Oct 2025)
- DeKalb County rejects data center regulations (Atlanta News First, June 2026)
- CEO Cochran-Johnson delivers 2026 State of the County address (On Common Ground News, May 2026)