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What to Know:
- DIR has awarded 154 contracts under its current deliverables-based IT services solicitation, while the previous solicitation resulted in 99 awards.
- DIR’s February notice revealed that it was seeking vendors to provide deliverables-based IT services for agencies, local governments and other eligible customers through the Cooperative Contracts program.
- Industry Insider — Texas has compiled the contracts into a searchable table, including the service categories each vendor was approved for.
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What to Know:
- Austin launched a redesigned austintexas.gov site on March 19 as part of a broader digital experience modernization effort.
- The project is tied to a multiyear Material Holdings contract approved in 2024 for up to $5.5 million.
- The redesign follows years of city concerns about an aging web presence with thousands of pages and heavy resident traffic.
What to Know:
- Council approved about $945,000 in technology purchases for Houston Information Technology Services.
- The largest purchase was $545,000 to Motorola Solutions Inc. for public safety radios and accessories.
- City leaders pointed to a broader efficiency effort, citing recommendations on consolidation, strategic purchasing and centralization.
What to Know:
- Capital Metro is Austin’s regional transit agency and is operating with a 2026 budget of $625.2 million.
- The agency’s capital plan this year includes $15.7 million for IT projects.
- Capital Metro’s Strategic Plan 2030 includes goals tied to digital transformation, process automation, fare technology and security technology.
What to Know:
- The city of Northlake deployed an Envisio dashboard to create a single digital source for tracking capital projects.
- Town leaders said the tool replaces spreadsheets and manual reports, helping staff answer council questions faster and giving the public direct visibility into project status without filing information requests.
- The dashboard currently tracks about 18 projects including road work, meter upgrades and a hotel conference center.
What to Know:
- Collin County approved a $191,000 Palo Alto firewall support renewal through Dell Marketing LP for county data center network access.
- Commissioners also approved an agreement with Hopdox LLC to support eRecording alongside the county’s paper-based filing process.
What to Know:
- Public pressure over El Paso’s proposed Meta data center dominated discussion, with speakers tying the project to water use, electricity demand, tax incentives and the city’s Climate Action Plan.
- City materials indicate the project’s potential impact may be greater than some public comments suggested.
- Council acknowledged the backlash but stopped short of taking direct action on the Meta agreement during the meeting.
Williams said his focus at Cloverleaf AI is helping vendors engage government opportunities earlier, before procurements become late-stage, reactive pursuits.
Next week’s members-only event in Austin will feature the chief information officers of the Texas Department of Transportation and the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
What to Know:
- Rice has secured $22.3 million in combined new funding for two space research centers.
- The newest piece is an $8.1 million U.S. Space Force award for a center focused on sensing and data analysis.
- An earlier $14.2 million Texas Space Commission award supports a second center focused on research, partnerships and workforce training.
What to Know:
- The North Central Texas Council of Governments is hiring an IT program manager to lead enterprise infrastructure strategy and operations.
- The role oversees infrastructure programs spanning cloud, networks, storage, backup, disaster recovery and vendor coordination.
What to Know:
- ERCOT is planning to shift very large power users from a single-study interconnection model to a batch-study process.
- The change applies to large-load interconnections of 75 megawatts or more and is tied to Senate Bill 6 and PUCT review.
- ERCOT’s timeline calls for Batch Study Zero revision requests in June and ongoing batch-study revision requests in September.
What to Know:
- Texas was chosen for a federal pilot program to test electric air taxis and other next-generation aircraft.
- The program is meant to give federal regulators real-world data as they develop safety rules for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft used for passenger trips, cargo delivery, emergency response and other missions.
- Wisk Aero said its Texas testing could help shape federal policy for integrating autonomous aircraft into U.S. airspace, with first pilot operations expected as early as summer 2026.
What to Know:
- Mike Robbins has joined Ivanti as regional vice president for U.S. SLED, where he will lead the company’s state, local and education market efforts.
- Robbins previously spent close to four years at NetApp, most recently serving as district sales manager for SLED Midwest Atlantic.
- Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles in supply chain and procurement.
What to Know:
- Sauerhoff had been serving as interim executive director and interim state CIO since January.
- He stepped into the role after Amanda Crawford left DIR to become commissioner of insurance at the Texas Department of Insurance.
- Board members described Sauerhoff as the standout candidate and approved his appointment Friday.
What to Know:
- Midland County approved purchases for a drug analyzer, courthouse X-ray system and jail radio infrastructure.
- A TruNarc device for the Texas Anti-Gang unit will be funded through the TAG grant.
- Commissioners amended an agreement with TxDOT allowing the Midland County Sheriff’s Office to install Flock license plate reader cameras on TxDOT rights of way.
Industry Insider’s latest conversation with TxDOT CIO Anh Selissen precedes the March 26 member briefing with CapMetro CIO Tanya Acevedo.
What to Know:
- Gov. Greg Abbott directed Texas health agencies and state-owned medical facilities to review cybersecurity and procurement policies tied to medical equipment made in China.
- The order follows federal alerts about vulnerabilities in Chinese-made patient monitoring devices that could expose protected health information.
- The move builds on Texas’ broader crackdown on foreign-linked technologies and suggests closer scrutiny of connected medical equipment in public-sector health-care settings.
What to Know:
- Austin is moving forward with a plan to centralize departmental IT staff under Austin Technology Services, with team alignment recommendations expected in April.
- City officials say Gartner benchmarking found Austin’s IT spending and staffing levels well above peer cities, helping drive the consolidation effort.
- The plan is drawing pushback from AFSCME Local 1624 and employees, who have raised concerns about service impacts, institutional knowledge and the transition process.
What to Know:
- San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has launched an 11-member Economic Security Advisory Group to help the city compete in emerging technologies.
- The panel is expected to meet quarterly and advise on bond projects, infrastructure priorities and economic agreements tied to industry growth.
- Jones linked the effort to San Antonio’s military, cybersecurity and advanced manufacturing strengths and will travel to Taiwan on March 14 with council and advisory group members to meet with officials and industry leaders.
What to Know:
- DIR plans to issue a solicitation for wireless, pager and satellite communications services through the Texas Agency Network program.
- The procurement will cover cellular voice and data plans, wireless infrastructure services and related equipment for eligible government customers.
- Multiple vendors may be selected to provide services under indefinite quantity contracts.
What to Know:
- The lawsuit challenges the comptroller’s 2025 emergency rule that converted the Historically Underutilized Business program into Veteran Heroes United in Business.
- Plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the emergency rule null and void, block enforcement through temporary and permanent injunctions and reinstate HUB certifications.
- The Global Black Economic Forum says the stakes include more than $4 billion in Fiscal Year 2024 state contracting that went to HUB businesses and more than $1.6 billion in HUB spending by three named agencies.
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Modern identity solutions are key to service access and program integrity.
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