Maryland Department of IT Unveils Modernized Strategic IT Acquisition Strategy and the State’s First Technical Acquisition Team

Driven by Maryland’s Procurement Reform Act, Maryland DoIT is recruiting the State’s first technical acquisition team and unveiling a new strategic sourcing framework to streamline IT purchasing, save the State money and make smarter, faster technology investments.

Crownsville, MD — The Maryland Department of Information Technology (DoIT) today announced major advancements in the implementation of the Procurement Reform Act (PRA) of 2025 and the Governor's procurement reform agenda. The initiative establishes the State’s first-ever technical acquisition team and streamlines how the State of Maryland acquires commercial software and technology solutions. By streamlining legacy acquisition processes, the State of Maryland will implement sustainable improvements that make it more efficient, reduce fragmented costs, and help it deliver more responsive digital services for Marylanders.

DoIT’s technical acquisition strategy, developed in partnership with the Department of General Services (DGS) and specialist consulting firms MokSol Impact LLC and Procurely LLC, includes a centralized technology intake process (“a single front door”), a discovery team to match State agency customers’ real business needs with the best technology solutions, and streamlined solicitation templates. The technical acquisition team will pair technology acquisition expertise with the engineering, research, design, and product skills needed to understand an agency’s problem before anything is bought.

The goal is a different experience for the agencies that depend on it: describe the problem in plain language, know at every step where the request stands and who owns it, and end up with the right solution, whether that is something the State already runs, licenses, or buys. Agencies should find the process effective, transparent, and predictable, and Marylanders should feel the difference in the services their government delivers.

Discovery data gathered across State agencies in fiscal year 2026 revealed over 1,700 technology requests representing over half a billion in estimated demand. Analysis indicated that only about 3% of the combinations of IT buy type and procurement vehicle have a template designed for that purchase, with individual Request for Proposals (RFPs) stretching up to 118 pages across stitched-together legacy documents.

“To deliver a more responsive government, we have to reimagine how the State acquires technology,” said DoIT Secretary Katie Savage. “Thanks to the work of partners across the State of Maryland and the General Assembly, we will soon be ready to launch changes to our acquisition process that will help our sister agencies buy approved technology solutions at a faster pace.”

To advance implementation of the PRA and begin reforming this legacy process, DoIT, in partnership with the DGS, is pursuing a new strategic approach to technology acquisitions. This coordinated framework is designed to improve how State agencies identify, evaluate, and acquire technology solutions by establishing a centralized intake and discovery process, creating a “single front door” for State technology requests.

This new approach, developed with MokSol Impact LLC, would allow State agencies to come to DoIT with a problem they need to solve rather than a specific software product they want to purchase. This approach will help identify existing State solutions, reduce unnecessary one-off purchases, and promote more efficient and cost-effective technology acquisitions.

To reduce procurement bottlenecks, nine State review functions within DoIT—spanning cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, data governance, AI, licensing, and legal oversight—have established a common set of standing technical and compliance requirements. Once implemented, these requirements will be used to evaluate technology requests, protect State standards, and reduce the administrative burden on requesting agencies.

DoIT will lead technical discovery, solution development, and technology standards, while DGS will continue to exercise its statutory procurement responsibilities, including procurement governance, solicitation oversight, and applicable approval authority.

Developed in partnership with Procurely LLC and DGS, this new process would use fit-for-purpose technology solicitation templates to replace onerous paperwork requirements. The State’s new approach would roughly halve document length, focus directly on product capability and problem-solving, and automatically incorporate statewide compliance rules. The technology templates will be developed collaboratively to streamline documentation while maintaining applicable statutory, regulatory, and statewide procurement requirements.

"Our partnership with DoIT reflects the power of collaboration across state government," said Department of General Services Secretary Atif Chaudhry. "We share a commitment to finding innovative ways to reduce red tape, streamline processes, and improve how government operates. Together, we are working toward greater strategic alignment and more efficient, effective services for all Marylanders."

DoIT also plans to partner with Partners for Public Good to introduce the use of AI to further streamline the acquisition process. Like all systems and tools that leverage AI, anything developed by the State of Maryland for the acquisition process will adhere to the State’s Responsible AI Policy​.

The new technology procurement process is currently undergoing end-to-end user testing across seven participating state agencies. To ensure the State can manage and refine this new process, DoIT has launched recruitment for a permanent Technology Acquisitions team to oversee technical discovery, solution development, and acquisition support for State agencies in collaboration with agency procurement officers and DGS OSP. DoIT Senior Director of Technology Acquisitions–who will lead this new team–has already attracted over 100 applicants from across the nation in its initial job posting.

Recruitment for the rest of the team is ongoing, including user experience researchers and designers, product managers, and software engineers who will work alongside procurement officers so every technology purchase is shaped by people who understand how software is desi​gned, built, and used.

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