Houston Launches New Procurement Platform Linking Beacon Bid And Pavilion To Modernize Citywide Purchasing

The City of Houston Strategic Procurement Division has launched a new suite of procurement technology developed with Beacon Bid and Pavilion. The tools give Houston a modern, integrated platform that improves procurement operations and provides a more user-friendly experience for departments and vendors. The tools include products to support how the city manages solicitations, manages internal procurement requests, makes purchasing decisions, connects with suppliers, and publishes contract data.

Houston partnered with Beacon Bid to employ current and design new eprocurement capabilities that automate and streamline the city’s solicitation and bidding workflows. The system supports the full sourcing lifecycle, simplifies supplier communication, and raises transparency across the process. The city now uses Beacon Bid to run competitive solicitations, manage documentation, enhance supplier engagement, and publish and manage new and updated solicitation and contracting data with greater speed and accuracy.

Houston also collaborated with Pavilion on a new internal purchasing tool that is a single front door for purchasing for department staff. The tool guides city departments through complex procurement requirements, so staff without procurement expertise can easily stay compliant. The system streamlines the purchasing process by helping staff automatically identify suppliers that meet the agency’s compliance requirements across many purchasing paths, including when a competitive process must be run on Beacon Bid.

Pavilion and Beacon Bid are linked so that contracts created by Houston on Beacon Bid are automatically posted to Pavilion, giving departments and the public access to consistent, current contracting information. By publishing its contract awards, the City supports utilization of its awarded contracts by other public agencies in the Houston metro and beyond, reducing procurement redundancies in the region and increasing the value of its awarded contracts for suppliers, who can use the City’s awarded contract to do business with other public agencies without having to go through a new RFP or bid process.

Beacon Bid and Pavilion now automatically receive and publish Houston’s contracts as they are added to the Beacon Bid platform. Newly created and updated contracts are also available through an API built jointly by engineering teams from Beacon Bid and Pavilion. The project reflects coordinated work across all three organizations and sets a model for rapid, unified innovation in public procurement technology.

This collaboration further demonstrates how Beacon continues to be committed to going beyond the bidding process. Beacon also provides a solution for contract management and record upkeep, giving agencies a clear way to manage renewals, extensions, important vendor information and milestones.

Pavilion, known as the leading cooperative contract search engine, recently expanded its scope. Now, Pavilion’s free suite of tools help procurement teams and their end user departments find and get quotes from suppliers across compliant, fast-track purchasing paths like the agency’s awarded contracts, informal quoting, and Pavilion’s comprehensive dataset of cooperative contracts.

Quotes
Jed Greenfield, Chief Procurement Officer, City of Houston
“The partnership with Beacon Bid and Pavilion lets us modernize core procurement functions while reducing barriers for our departments and increasing transparency for our stakeholders. This launch positions Houston at the forefront of public procurement innovation.”

Stephen Hetzel, CEO & co-Founder, Beacon
“Houston’s Strategic Procurement team is proving how quickly a city can modernize when the right partners come together. In collaboration with Pavilion, we delivered a connected platform that streamlines competitive processes, elevates supplier engagement, and brings more transparency to the contracting lifecycle. Houston is setting a new standard for public procurement technology.”

Mariel Reed, CEO and founder, Pavilion
“Public servants are often forced to conduct crucial functions like procurement in disjointed systems with incomplete data. The City of Houston, Pavilion, and Beacon Bid, share a vision for empowering public servants with tools that expedite purchasing timelines while also delivering on compliance and transparency. And now, thanks to the City’s innovation and leadership, other public agencies can benefit, too.”