Finance committee approves $550,236 OpenGov e‑procurement contract
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Summary
The Santa Fe Finance Committee approved a five‑year, $550,236.73 contract with Virtosoft LLC to purchase and implement OpenGov e‑procurement software; staff said it should reduce vendor support burdens and shorten procurement timelines, and implementation is expected in three to six months.
The Santa Fe Finance Committee on April 7 approved a five‑year, $550,236.73 contract with Virtosoft LLC to purchase and implement OpenGov’s e‑procurement solution and implementation services, Finance staff said.
Committee members and purchasing staff said the software is expected to speed procurement and shift some vendor support work from city staff to the vendor’s customer‑service team. “OpenGov is, I’d say, best in class,” said Travis Dutton Laden, purchasing officer, describing vendor features that he said would reduce back‑and‑forth on solicitations and let vendors get direct help from OpenGov when uploading proposals.
Committee chair Romero Wirth and Councilor Cassett led the consent‑agenda approval that included the contract. Staff said the city has experienced recurring problems with the bid module currently in Tyler Munis, including an outage the day of an RFP deadline. With OpenGov, Dutton Laden said, vendors will be able to contact the provider directly for first‑line help and the system includes templates and an AI‑assisted scope‑writing feature to speed requests.
Director of Finance (acting) Director Osterholm and procurement staff told the committee that OpenGov would not replace Munis as the city’s system of record. The city would continue to put finalized procurement transactions into Munis; an API or additional Munis module would be needed for direct integration. Absent that integration, staff said, some information transfer would be manual at least initially.
Committee members pressed on training and continuity with Tyler/Munis. Dutton Laden and Director Osterholm said training materials, videos and Zoom/in‑person sessions will be provided and OpenGov will assist in training. Staff estimated implementation would begin after governing‑body approval and take about three to six months to roll out.
The motion to approve the contract carried on roll call by members present. The motion and approval were recorded during the committee meeting.
