Overview
The City of Charlotte is North Carolina's largest municipality, with roughly 900,000 residents and a metro economy anchored in banking and finance. The city operates under a council-manager form of government: an elected Mayor and City Council set policy, and a professional City Manager (Marcus D. Jones) runs day-to-day operations across departments.
Central technology sits with the Innovation & Technology (I&T) department, led by CIO and Director Markell Storay, which owns enterprise infrastructure, applications, data and analytics, cybersecurity, and the city's smart-city and innovation programs. Charlotte is a mature, ambitious technology buyer for a municipality — it has published a Technology Strategic Plan and a 2025–2028 AI Strategic Roadmap, runs the long-standing Smart Charlotte initiative, and operates its own cooperative purchasing program (the Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance) that other public entities can buy through.
For a Dell SLG seller, Charlotte is best understood as a large, self-directed local buyer with its own procurement vehicles, layered on top of North Carolina's statewide and cooperative contracts — the city's own I&T leadership, not a state agency, owns most technology decisions.
- I&T (CIO Markell Storay) is the technology buying center, owning infrastructure, applications, data/analytics, cybersecurity, and smart-city programs
- City Manager Marcus D. Jones shapes what gets funded and presents the annual budget that sets the I&T envelope
- City Council approval of the budget and the Capital Investment Plan is the gate for significant technology spend
- Fastest compliant path: the city's own Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance or NC statewide/national cooperative contracts, avoiding a one-off RFP
Where Dell Can Play
- Confirm how Dell reaches Charlotte for each buy — direct via City Procurement Services, through the Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance, or via NC statewide/national cooperative contracts — and validate Dell's coverage on each.
- Lead AI-infrastructure and data-platform positioning tied to the I&T AI Strategic Roadmap (2025–2028) and the city's Data & Analytics priorities.
- Build the executive map: City Manager Marcus D. Jones for enterprise direction and CIO Markell Storay (I&T) as the primary technology relationship.
- Attach networking, edge, and resilient-infrastructure plays to Smart Charlotte and the I&T technology-resiliency priority — confirm current active projects first.
- Time proposals to Charlotte's budget cycle (City Manager's spring proposal, June adoption) and align to the FY26–30 Capital Investment Plan rather than mid-year asks.
Budget & Fiscal
Charlotte adopted a $3.6B balanced FY2026 budget (effective July 1, 2025) with no property-tax increase, alongside a FY2026–2030 Capital Investment Plan. The city does not publish a single headline IT figure the way the topline budget reads, so technology spend is best tracked through the I&T department budget and capital/technology line items rather than one number — confirm current figures in the adopted budget before forecasting.
- FY2027 update: on June 8, 2026, Council adopted a ~$4.5B FY2027 budget (9-2) with the city's first property-tax increase in years — 1.89 cents (to 29.3 cents per $100) dedicated to public safety, funding 10% raises for police and firefighters — plus a FY2027–2031 Capital Investment Plan. Refresh the topline and CIP references against the FY2027 adopted budget.
- Charlotte funds operations across a general fund plus enterprise funds (water, aviation/airport, etc.); some technology spend rides those enterprise budgets, not just the general fund.
- Treat any specific I&T or technology line figure as provisional until confirmed against the adopted budget document.
Initiatives & Priorities
I&T has published a multi-year AI Strategic Roadmap covering governance, use cases, and responsible adoption across city services. This is the live window for AI-infrastructure, data-platform, and governance positioning — map Dell's AI compute and partner stack to the roadmap's priorities.
AI StrategyThe city has invested in data and analytics leadership (including a Chief Data/Analytics role) and lists Data & Analytics among its technology strategic priorities. A route for data-platform, storage, and analytics infrastructure tied to citywide decision-making.
Data AnalyticsSmart Charlotte is the city's long-running smart-city initiative focused on connectivity, digital inclusion, and using operational data to improve services. Edge, networking, and IoT-adjacent infrastructure plays attach here — confirm current active projects before pitching.
Smart City ModernizationI&T lists technology resiliency among its strategic priorities, covering security posture and continuity for a large municipal enterprise. Security, backup/recovery, and resilient-infrastructure messaging fit here — confirm the current security leadership and standards before engaging.
Cybersecurity ResiliencyProcurement
Selling to Charlotte runs on the city's own procurement plus the state and cooperative vehicles layered around it. Confirm first how Dell is reached for a given buy: directly via City of Charlotte procurement, through the city-run Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance, or via NC statewide/cooperative contracts.
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| City of Charlotte Procurement Services | The city's central contracting and procurement function runs solicitations (RFPs/IFBs) and manages city contracts — the direct path for Charlotte-specific technology buys. |
| Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (CCPA) | A cooperative purchasing program established and administered by the City of Charlotte; contracts are competitively solicited and awarded by the city and open to other public entities. A potential lead-state-style co-op route — confirm which categories apply. |
| NC statewide & IT term contracts | As an NC public entity, Charlotte can leverage North Carolina statewide term contracts (DOA/P&C for non-IT, NCDIT for IT). Confirm Dell coverage and whether a state vehicle is the cleaner path for a given offering. |
| National cooperatives (e.g., NASPO ValuePoint, NCPA/Sourcewell-type) | Large municipalities often buy off national cooperative contracts to avoid one-off RFPs. Verify which national co-ops Charlotte uses and where Dell is positioned before recommending a path. |
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.
Expiring contracts (re-compete)
| Contract | Vendor | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Agreement No. 0701063 — Hastus Software Upgrade | Giro Inc | Dec 11, 2026 |
| Change Order No. 6 — Data Radio Network Upgrades | Trapeze Software Group Inc | Dec 31, 2026 |
- GovSpend confirms a July–June fiscal year for the City of Charlotte record (Organization.FiscalYear = "July"), consistent with the assumed 3-yr FY2023–2025 window.
- City of Charlotte-Charlotte Water (agencyId 164317) and Charlotte Douglas International Airport (agencyId 166016) are separate GovSpend agency records with substantial PO volume of their own and are excluded here rather than blended in.
- Reseller Dell attribution (SHI, Insight Public Sector, Carahsoft, CDW) is negligible in Charlotte's own PO text — almost all identifiable Dell footprint flows through the direct Dell Marketing LP relationship; resellers may still carry Dell business the text-match method can't isolate.
- Excluded as name collisions: Insight Global (IT staffing, ~$312K), Apple Tree Village Association, Teen Health Connection; also excluded ~$620K of dellFootprint text-match noise (Infax/"Dell Boomi" — a legacy-branded product divested from Dell in 2021 — plus lab/electrical/publishing vendors matching "precision"/"latitude").
- No expiring IT-tagged contracts beyond the two CATS transit-system items above were found in the window, and no genuinely IT-relevant open bids were found among Charlotte's future-dated solicitations (dominated by water/sewer and transit construction work).
- LineItem.Category is empty for this account in GovSpend, so a categories panel is omitted.
- Figures are floor estimates from product-name text matching; both undercount true brand spend.
- Competitor brand figures on this page were recomputed on 2026-08-05 after the same measurement error found in the Dell totals: the earlier method summed per-keyword buckets, so a line item naming two matched terms (e.g. “HPE ProLiant” or “Apple iPad”) was counted twice. Values here come from a single de-duplicated match over the same keyword set and supersede the earlier, overstated totals.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Marcus D. Jones City Manager, City of Charlotte | Chief executive of city operations under the council-manager form; owns department direction including I&T. Presents the annual budget to Council (proposed the ~$4.5B FY2027 budget in May 2026). Senior relationship for the enterprise motion. Confirmed in role as of June 2026. |
| Rebecca Hefner Deputy City Manager, City of Charlotte | Named Deputy City Manager in May 2026 (13-year city veteran); succeeds retiring Deputy City Manager Liz Babson (retirement effective Sept 2026). A senior operations relationship layered under the City Manager — confirm her portfolio/departments before engaging. |
| Markell Storay CIO & Director, Innovation & Technology (I&T) | Leads central IT — infrastructure, applications, data, security, and innovation. Longtime city technologist (former CTO) who succeeded Reenie Askew. The top technology relationship for Charlotte. |
| I&T — Data & Analytics leadership Chief Data / Analytics officer (city) | Charlotte stood up dedicated data/analytics leadership under I&T; owns the data-platform and analytics agenda tied to the AI roadmap. Confirm the current officeholder before engaging. |
| I&T — Cybersecurity / security leadership City security lead (CISO-equivalent) | Owns municipal security posture and standards within I&T — the gate for security on cloud and infrastructure deals. Public naming is limited; confirm the current security leader before engaging. |
| City of Charlotte — Procurement Services Central procurement / contracting | Owns city solicitations, contract vehicles, and the Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance — the access path onto Charlotte's own contracts. |
News & Signals
Sources
- City of Charlotte — Adopts Fiscal Year 2026 Budget
- City of Charlotte — FY2026 Adopted Budget (PDF)
- City of Charlotte — Innovation and Technology department
- GovTech — Charlotte, N.C., Appoints Markell Storay as City CIO
- City of Charlotte — AI Strategic Roadmap 2025–2028 (PDF)
- Charlotte Cooperative Purchasing Alliance (CCPA)
- City of Charlotte — Contracting and Procurement (Procurement Services)
- WCNC — Charlotte City Council passes budget with tax increase, 10% raises for police, firefighters
- WSOC — Charlotte City Council passes 2027 operating budget
- Mecklenburg Times — Charlotte introduces new Deputy City Manager and Director of Housing & Neighborhood Services
- GovTech — Charlotte, N.C., Requires AI, Cloud Certifications for IT Staff