When the City of San Antonio adopted significant revisions to its Small Business Economic Development Advocacy (SBEDA) Ordinance in late 2024, the Economic Development Department (EDD) faced an ambitious challenge: modernize critical business processes before the new requirements took effect on July 1, 2025.
At the time, the SBEDA program relied on multiple spreadsheets, duplicate data entry, and labor-intensive review processes. Staff often moved between systems to validate submissions and complete compliance analyses, with routine reviews taking up to two hours per request. With major ordinance changes on the horizon, the city needed more than a just technology upgrade, it needed a new way of working.
Catalyst partnered with the City of San Antonio to rethink and modernize the program from the ground up. Through collaborative process-mapping and discovery sessions, the project team identified opportunities to eliminate manual work, streamline operations, and create a more efficient experience for both city staff and participating departments.
Working within an aggressive timeline, Catalyst, the Economic Development Department, and the Information Technology Services Department designed and deployed a modern Salesforce solution that replaced years of spreadsheet-driven processes with a centralized platform for intake, review, communication, and reporting.
The solution included a new SBEDA Client Department Portal, automated workflows, integrations with critical city systems, secure single sign-on through Microsoft Entra ID, and real-time project visibility. Built-in guidance questions and validation rules also improved submission quality while reducing errors and duplicate applications.
The impact was immediate. Processing time for reviews and analyses dropped by 75%, reducing what once took approximately two hours to about 30 minutes per request. Automated analysis capabilities and system integrations significantly reduced administrative effort, allowing staff to focus on higher-value activities such as compliance monitoring and supplier engagement.
The new platform also improved transparency across departments. Instead of relying on email exchanges for status updates, users can now track requests directly within the system itself and access historical project information through a centralized portal.
As one member of the city team shared:
“Throughout the build, Catalyst met with the team multiple times a week to ensure the build met our requirements while also meeting our tight deadline. The integrations with critical City systems have transformed the time it takes for our team to complete program functions, which has allowed staff to redirect their time to expanding the Supplier Engagement Program.”
Beyond the measurable improvements, the project demonstrated the value of combining process improvement with technology modernization. Rather than simply digitizing existing workflows, the City of San Antonio and Catalyst used the opportunity to redesign how work was performed, creating a scalable foundation for the future of the SBEDA program.
The success of the initiative ultimately contributed to the city earning a City Manager’s Excellence Award, recognizing the innovation, collaboration, and public service impact of the project. Together, the teams transformed a complex, spreadsheet-driven process into a streamlined digital experience that delivers lasting value for city staff and stakeholders alike.