Overview
The Indiana Office of Technology (IOT) is the state's central IT agency, delivering shared infrastructure, networking, cloud, cybersecurity, and data services to dozens of executive-branch agencies from Indianapolis. IOT is best understood as a service organization rather than a large discretionary spender: it is a roughly 450-person agency with an operating budget reported around $250M, funded almost entirely through chargebacks — it bills the agencies it serves for the services they consume rather than drawing a large general-revenue appropriation.
That model shapes the buying motion: most large agencies (Health, Transportation, Revenue, FSSA) keep their own IT teams and budgets, while IOT owns enterprise platforms, the state network, the security perimeter, and data services. Statewide commodity and IT purchasing is competed and held by the Indiana Department of Administration (IDOA) through Quantity Purchase Agreements (QPAs) that agencies — and many local governments — can buy from directly.
Separately, Indiana has become a national data-center magnet, anchored by the LEAP Innovation and Research District in Lebanon, where Meta broke ground on a $10B+ AI data-center campus in February 2026 — context that frames Indiana's broader AI and infrastructure ambitions even though those private hyperscale builds sit outside IOT's own footprint.
- IOT is the technology buying center for shared infrastructure, network, cloud, and security, led by State CIO Warren Lenard
- IDOA's Quantity Purchase Agreements (QPAs) are the primary access path — competed and pre-qualified by commodity
- Individual served agencies (Health, FSSA, Transportation, Revenue) hold their own IT budgets and are a parallel approval gate for agency-specific systems
- Fastest compliant path: an active IDOA QPA covering the relevant IT commodity, since IOT itself buys mostly via chargeback rather than open solicitation
Where Dell Can Play
- Confirm Dell's position on the relevant IDOA IT QPAs — it's the direct-buy access path for agencies (and many locals), not just IOT itself.
- Build the top relationship with CIO Warren Lenard and frame infrastructure/AI value in cost-recovery terms that fit IOT's chargeback model and the 2025 budget squeeze.
- Lead with AI-ready infrastructure and security through CTO Dave Fox and CISO Hemant Jain — the durable enterprise and security buying centers.
- Tie the pitch to the 'IN AI' agenda and the LEAP data-center narrative, positioning Dell as the on-prem/hybrid AI-infrastructure partner for state workloads (distinct from the hyperscale private builds).
- Engage the new CRDO (Chris Henderson) and CDEO (Graig Lubsen) early to surface modernization and digital-service demand across served agencies.
Budget & Fiscal
IOT does not run on a large appropriation — it recovers its costs by billing the agencies it serves. The state's 2025–2027 biennial budget is roughly $46B (about $23.0B FY2026 / $23.2B FY2027), but IOT's own operating budget is reported around $250M, almost all of it chargeback-funded. A statewide fiscal squeeze is relevant: in 2025 the State Budget Agency ordered agencies to absorb a combined ~10% reduction (a 5% cut plus an additional 5% withholding) after a weak May 2025 revenue forecast.
- Chargeback funding means IOT has limited discretionary room — its CIO has publicly argued for a hybrid model (appropriation + service billing) to fund R&D and experimentation.
- The largest agency IT budgets sit with the agencies themselves (Health, FSSA, Transportation, Revenue); IOT owns the shared platforms, network, and security layer.
- The 2025 statewide reductions pressure discretionary IT spend — expect scrutiny on new commitments and a bias toward consolidation and cost recovery.
Initiatives & Priorities
Gov. Braun announced 'IN AI' on April 28, 2026 — a statewide push to make Indiana an AI-ready state, executed largely through the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) for business adoption. Inside government, IOT ran an eight-week Microsoft Copilot pilot in fall 2025 and has since moved past piloting: it now offers Copilot Chat to all state staff who complete required training, with full M365 Copilot licenses expanding as the new fiscal year begins (July 2026). CIO Lenard has stressed training — including for cabinet secretaries — and cautioned that AI output 'can't be taken verbatim.' Governance is coordinated with the Chief Data Officer, but tooling and policy are still maturing.
AI ProductivityIOT owns the state's enterprise security perimeter under a long-tenured CISO and coordinates broadly through the Indiana Executive Council on Cybersecurity (IECC). Security remains a steady, board-level priority across endpoint, network, identity, and data-protection — a durable buying center.
Cybersecurity DataA new Chief Digital Experience Officer (2026) is leading state digital-service strategy, including the in.gov homepage chatbot as an early citizen-engagement tool. Modernizing front-door digital services is an emerging track.
Digital ModernizationIndiana's LEAP Innovation and Research District (Lebanon) anchors a wave of hyperscale AI data-center investment — Meta broke ground on a $10B+ campus in Feb 2026. These are private builds, not IOT projects, but they signal the state's AI-infrastructure direction and power/utility planning.
Data Center AIProcurement
Selling into Indiana state government runs largely on IDOA's competed Quantity Purchase Agreements (QPAs), not one-off agency RFPs. Two things to confirm first: that Dell holds (or is on) the relevant IT QPAs so agencies can buy directly, and which buying center owns a given workload — IOT for shared enterprise/network/security, the agency itself for its own systems.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| IDOA Quantity Purchase Agreements (QPAs) | The primary vehicle — competitively established statewide contracts that pre-qualify vendors by commodity. Agencies (and many cities, towns, and political subdivisions where the QPA allows) can buy directly without a separate solicitation. |
| IOT Services Catalog / chargeback | IOT delivers shared infrastructure, network, cloud, and security as billed services to agencies. Influencing IOT's platform standards shapes what flows downstream to served agencies. |
| Cooperative / national vehicles | Indiana public entities can also leverage national cooperative purchasing vehicles for IT where applicable — confirm allowability per buyer alongside the in-state QPA path. |
Spend Signals
GovSpend · as of Aug 5, 2026Dell vs. competitors (spend, payee)
- Indiana's fiscal year runs July–June; this window is 2022-07-01 to 2025-06-30 (FY2023–FY2025).
- Dell's $13.97M payee figure (Dell Marketing) is dominated by "SpOp-Software licenses" and "Prog Op-Software Maint" line items — enterprise software licensing/maintenance rather than itemized hardware, the same Dell-as-software-reseller pattern seen at other central-IT agencies in this batch.
- dellFootprint, brandFootprint, and categories are all omitted: IOT's own PO records (agencyId 39898) return zero product-name matches for Dell or any tracked competitor brand (dell, poweredge, optiplex, latitude, precision, powerstore, wyse, isilon all verified at 0 via direct sampling, not assumed), and LineItem.Category returns only generic fiscal object categories (Contractual Services, Capital Costs, Supplies/Parts/Materials, Utilities) rather than IT commodities. A second GovSpend agency record for this office (agencyId 17482, "Indiana State Office Of Technology") returned zero PO records entirely.
- expiringContracts is omitted: IOT is a central, chargeback-funded IT agency whose enterprise platforms and IDOA's statewide QPAs serve dozens of other agencies — agency-as-buyer and vehicle-owner can't be reliably separated in the contracts data, consistent with how this was handled for other central-IT accounts (Texas DIR, California DGS, Arizona ADOA, Maryland DoIT, Illinois DoIT).
- openBids is omitted: zero open bids were returned for either Indiana IOT GovSpend agency record (39898, 17482) at check time.
- Figures are estimates: text-matching can include minor false positives, and source contract $ are often unpublished.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Warren Lenard State CIO & IOT Director | Appointed by Gov. Braun in March 2025. The top relationship for the IOT motion; publicly advocating a hybrid funding model to fund innovation. Background in private-sector IT (most recently automotive financial services). |
| Hemant Jain Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | At IOT since May 2018; long-tenured, nationally recognized security leader. Owns the state security perimeter and standards — the security buying center. |
| Dave Fox Chief Technology Officer (CTO) | At IOT since Nov 2020. Owns enterprise technology architecture and platform direction — a key technical relationship for infrastructure and cloud. |
| Chris Henderson Chief Relationship & Delivery Officer | Joined IOT in 2026 with two-plus decades of state government and consulting experience; owns agency relationships and service delivery — a route into demand across served agencies. |
| Graig Lubsen Chief Digital Experience Officer | Named in 2026; leads digital-service strategy and delivery for the state — the owner for citizen-facing modernization and chatbot/AI front-door work. |
News & Signals
Sources
- Indiana Office of Technology — Meet Our Leadership Team
- CIO.com — 3 perspectives on the state CIO role (Warren Lenard / IOT budget & funding)
- IDOA — Quantity Purchase Agreements (QPAs)
- IEDC — Gov. Braun Announces IN AI (Apr 28, 2026)
- GovTech — Indiana Rolls Out GenAI for All State Staff and Leadership (Apr 2026)
- IEDC — Gov. Braun Breaks Ground on $10B Meta Data Center Campus at LEAP District (Feb 2026)
- Indiana Capital Chronicle — Indiana agencies cut staff, contracts (Sep 2025)
- Indiana SBA — 2025–2027 As-Passed Budget