Executive Summary
As the second largest county in North Carolina, with more than one million residents, Mecklenburg County serves a growing population across public health, social services, infrastructure, and community services. At a time when 56% of U.S. taxpayers demand greater accountability from government (source: Pew Research), Mecklenburg County, with an annual budget of $2.54 billion (FY2026), has embraced a strategic vision of procurement that aligns its thousands of vendors, employees and programs into the same transparent workflow. The arrival of new leadership several years ago was the catalyst. Mecklenburg County chose JAGGAER and implementation partner Groves & Company to launch a centralized system of record for contracts and agreements. The solution has strengthened governance, improved visibility, and elevated procurement into a trusted strategic partner across departments. Today, Mecklenburg County is a model of how local government can unlock opportunities both in the immediate and longer term.
The transformation is cultural as much as technological. Thanks to JAGGAER, procurement is no longer measured by how quickly it processes requests, but how effectively it helps departments achieve outcomes within budget and policy frameworks.
Teresa Rausch, Procurement Director, Mecklenburg County
The Challenge: Escaping the Reactive
Until not long ago, the procurement team’s work was largely transactional. They responded to requests as they came in, but had limited visibility into planning, budgeting, and strategy. As the County’s needs grew in complexity and scale, leadership recognized that the reactive model was not sustainable. Procurement needed to engage in the budget cycle, increase transparency and auditability, as well as improve agility within the team. Most importantly, they required a procurement model that replaced siloed workflows with a converged, intelligent approach. As an organization that oversaw everything from day-to-pay purchases to services supporting public parks and programs for families in need, Mecklenburg knew it had to step up its procurement game.
“It was time for a change,” said Teresa Rausch, Procurement Director, Mecklenburg County. “Leadership realized we needed to move forward with a more efficient and accountable model for how we manage our relationships. The taxpayers deserved it, so did the broader community that depended on our services.”
The Solution: A Converged, Intelligent Solution for Contracts
Rausch led the transformation initiative. JAGGAER was selected based on its track record for cost-effective solutions for Public Sector customers, as well as the robust features of Contracts+.
Leaving behind siloed processes, Rausch partnered with implementation expert Groves & Company helped bring everything into a converged, easy-to-use workflow. Facing an aggressive, four-month timeline, Groves provided on-site training and established a train-the-trainer model, with ongoing support post-launch to help the County unlock analytics and reporting capabilities. “If you’re going to go with a new solution and then walk away feeling like once implementation is done, it’s all going to be rainbows and unicorns—you’re not thinking through it correctly,” said Rausch. “You need somebody able to step alongside you afterwards and support you. Together, JAGGAER and Groves certainly did.”
Not only did the Contracts+ accelerate the creation of over 600 contracts and amendments annually with customizable templates, it also sped up contract cycles with real-time alerts, reminders and smart routing across distributed teams to keep negotiations moving and on-track. The solution has given Mecklenburg County a centralized system of record for vendor agreements. They have also standardized processes with embedded approvals and compliance. With JAGGAER, teams work more collaboratively between departments and become less reactive and more strategic, thanks to the data-driven insights offered by the platform.
Teams get ahead of issues before they become a problem. At the same time, the platform reduces complexity by maintaining a clear, traceable history of changes, responsibilities, and milestones that support audit readiness and monitor risk.
Results: More Effective Outcomes within Frameworks
The transformation delivered results that extended beyond simple ROI. With Contracts+, Mecklenburg County became:
- More Strategic: The procurement team participates in pre-budget discussions and long-term planning rather than reacting to finalized requests.
- More Agile: Within the first few months of implementation, the team saw a sharp improvement in workload management. The on-time completion rate jumped from 78% in FY2024 to 89% in FY2025 — an 11 point increase achieved in less than a year.
- More Cost-Effective: Converged data and embedded intelligence alert departments to saving opportunities and other efficiencies.
- More Transparent and Controlled: Through centralized documentation and digitized workflows, procurement supports governance, audit readiness, and accountability.
Looking ahead, Mecklenburg County is committed to involving procurement earlier in the planning process with deeper engagement from stakeholders, more data-informed decision-making, and the transformation of other procurement functions beyond contracts.
