Procurement staff outline rollout of intake forms, ECM, AI tools and vendor support program

Juanita Ortiz, director of the City of Dallas Office of Procurement Services, and Assistant Director Kimberly Franklin briefed council June 4 on plans to modernize procurement operations, improve vendor access and reduce cycle times.

The presentation described four core phases—plan, procure, contract and manage—and summarized current challenges: scattered data across emails/spreadsheets, limited real‑time visibility into solicitation status, policy threshold limits that can create unnecessary delays, legislative changes that affect contract compliance, vendor capacity concerns (especially among small and local businesses), and staffing shortages.

Actions already underway include a standardized Salesforce intake form launched in February 2024 to capture solicitation needs, use of Bonfire for electronic solicitations since 2019 (staff said the platform has about 60,000 registered vendors), and a plan to extend enterprise contract‑management (ECM) functionality the city already owns to automate contract tracking and expiration alerts. Ortiz said ECM will be populated with contract metadata and will notify contract managers and OPS when renewals and expirations approach.

Ortiz and Franklin also described a procurement‑specific AI tool, Hazel AI, that the office tested in April 2025. They said Hazel can draft scopes of work, flag required legal and compliance language and surface potentially relevant vendors via interactive map and filtering (geography, supplier capability, MWBE tags). The office said staff and about 100 city employees who saw a Hazel demo overwhelmingly supported it as a time‑saver and standardizer.

The procurement office plans an organizational restructuring to group staff into portfolio‑based teams (to become primary points of contact for dependent departments), a strategic sourcing team to consolidate purchases and pursue cooperative agreements, and a business solutions unit to centralize small‑business support (BEH, Citi Store, Express Business Center).

Nut graf: OPS said its modernization strategy pairs technology (ECM, Salesforce intake, Hazel AI, civic marketplace) with staff reorganization and enhanced training so the office can move from a reactive, transactional role to a strategic, data‑driven procurement function. The office has engaged Civic Initiatives to review procurement policy (AD 4‑5) and develop a clearer procurement manual and procedure set.

Council response and next steps: Councilmembers asked for clarity about informal solicitations (three‑quote minimums and whether best value can be used) and whether construction contracting was covered; staff said construction departments will be included in a separate strike team and that Hazel AI will present to construction groups next week. Councilmembers also raised the absence of an explicit debarment policy; city staff said they will review best practices and bring policy recommendations back to council. Ortiz said OPS will host quarterly procurement strike‑team meetings to measure progress and will return with policy and training proposals.