Angela L. Martin · SLED Playbook

Territory Strategy: Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Higher Ed

Territory plan

Three states, planned by segment. Each row names the modernization theme, an example platform angle for engineering to test, the vehicle a customer can buy on, and the partner motion.

Maryland Whole-of-state cyber on CATS+ and COTS Delaware One DTI standard pulls agencies behind it West Virginia Partner-led, architecture conversations first on a vehicle by spring state FY close 30 June Cisco FY close, late July MAPs built backward AugSepOct NovDecJan FebMarApr MayJunJul
Three states run on one fiscal clock that closes on 30 June, and the engineer's validation work has to be finished early enough in that year for procurement to follow it.

One calendar sets the rhythm. Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia all close their fiscal year on 30 June. Every Mutual Action Plan in the region is planned backwards from that date, which means the first quarter of the calendar year is where funded deals are either de-risked or lost. Federal grant and E-Rate filing windows sit on their own calendar and are mapped separately.

The worked example is Cisco's networking, security and Splunk portfolio.

Platform angles below are examples. The covering engineer validates each one against the account's real architecture before a rep says it to a customer. Vehicles are named where a public statewide or cooperative contract carries the category; elsewhere the path is confirmed per engagement. Partner motion is the aggregator plus regional resellers, set against the region's real partner concentration.

Maryland

Segment Modernization theme Example platform angle Vehicle Partner motion
State CIO office and executive agencies Statewide consolidation and whole-of-state cyber posture Splunk as the statewide SIEM and telemetry layer, with network detection and response from edge to cloud Maryland CATS+, Maryland COTS Carahsoft plus regional resellers
Citizen-facing agencies (transportation, health, public safety) Citizen service reliability and legacy tool retirement ThousandEyes plus full-stack observability for citizen-facing service uptime Maryland COTS; CATS+ where services apply Carahsoft plus regional resellers
K-12 districts Campus safety and secure wireless refresh Meraki smart campus with automated threat defense; Splunk for a district security operations view E-Rate (Category 1 and Category 2) Regional resellers

Delaware

Segment Modernization theme Example platform angle Vehicle Partner motion
State CIO office Centralized governance, statewide Zero Trust, cloud migration Cisco Secure plus Splunk replacing fragmented point monitoring; lower total cost through an Enterprise Agreement Statewide contract, confirmed per engagement Carahsoft plus regional resellers
Executive agencies and community colleges Riding the state architectural standard for faster deployment Catalyst and Meraki refresh attached to the statewide architectural standard Statewide contract, confirmed per engagement Regional resellers

Delaware's centralization is an advantage. One architectural standard set by the central state IT organization pulls agency demand behind it, which makes that office the single highest-leverage relationship in the state.

West Virginia

Segment Modernization theme Example platform angle Vehicle Partner motion
State CIO office and executive agencies Whole-of-state resilience, rural cyber defense, public safety continuity Splunk for statewide data aggregation; routing and edge security for rural sites Statewide or cooperative contract, confirmed per engagement Carahsoft plus regional resellers
Local and county government Connectivity and public safety continuity for lean IT teams Meraki for small teams, with managed threat defense delivered through a partner Cooperative vehicles, confirmed per entity Regional resellers

West Virginia is where I would have the least verified ground truth on day one, so I treat it as demand generation rather than fulfillment until proven otherwise: architecture conversations now, led by the engineer, and deep technical validation only after the dual-key gate is met.

Higher education

Segment Modernization theme Example platform angle Vehicle Partner motion
Public university systems Multi-campus observability and licensing consolidation Full-stack observability across campuses; an Enterprise Agreement to retire overlapping point tools E&I, The Quilt, confirmed per institution Carahsoft plus regional resellers
Private research universities Research computing telemetry and multi-campus data visibility Full-stack observability across research environments; Secure Access for identity-aware access Institution-specific procurement path Regional resellers

One coordinated plan across a university system, with each campus's own procurement respected. A system is not a single deal, and treating it as one is how vendors lose the campuses.

Three growth levers

Lever What it is What I measure
Enterprise Agreement consolidation Move point licenses and fragmented tools into one agreement: one contract, one renewal, lower total licensing cost Accounts with an agreement motion in flight; point tools retired per agreement; renewal rate and expansion at renewal
Modernization mandates Attach to published state mandates (Zero Trust, whole-of-state cyber, campus refresh) instead of creating demand from zero Pipeline sourced from a named mandate or funding stream; win rate on mandate-attached deals against unattached ones
Partner-led velocity Aggregators and regional resellers carry local procurement and long-tail coverage so direct teams focus on architecture Partner-sourced share of new pipeline; partner-sourced win rate; cycle time on partner-sourced against direct deals