beta.SAM.gov Update

The beta.SAM.gov Update delivers the latest information about consolidation efforts and other updates to IAE systems.

Latest update: October 2020

Government to Transition from DUNS Number to Unique Entity Identifier in 2022

A new unique entity identifier generated by the System for Award Management (SAM) will replace the proprietary D-U-N-S® (DUNS) number as the official identifier for entities doing business with the federal government. The deadline for this change has been extended. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed agencies to complete their transition to using the SAM-generated unique entity identifier (unique entity ID or UEI) by April 2022. GSA will be contracting with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) to ensure full continuity of services—including DUNS number assignment, monitoring, and validation of entity uniqueness—during the extended transition period.

Current active registrants will have their UEI generated within SAM.gov before the transition; there is no action entities need to take to get a new UEI. In addition, any entity coming to SAM.gov to register for the first time will have their UEI generated for them as part of the registration process.

The benefits from this change include reducing the burden on registrants, who will no longer be required to acquire an identifier from a third party. In addition, by separating the government requirement for a UEI from the government requirement to validate that the entity is unique, the government introduced competitiveness into entity validation services. And, if an entity encounters an issue with their registration or their UEI, they will only need to engage with a single helpdesk, the Federal Service Desk (FSD).

The transition will be completed in phases with interim milestones, and, as we move through this transition, the IAE team will continue to communicate about the status of the change in this forum to help inform system users and other interested parties.

FPDS contract data reports are now available only at beta.SAM.gov

The IAE is pleased to announce that the reports function of FPDS completed the transition into the beta.SAM.gov Data Bank on October 17, 2020—the reports module in FPDS.gov has retired. Now, beta.SAM.gov is the only place to create and run contract data reports. Only the reports function transitioned—the rest of FPDS (search, data entry) remains in place. This transition concludes a successful soft launch and agile iterative improvement process that began in March, 2020.

To help ease the change, we have worked with federal government and industry users to develop and hone training videos, reference guides, and FAQs that can help both new and experienced reports users. This series of tutorial videos to help new and experienced users alike learn to use ad hoc reports in beta.SAM.gov:

• Introduction to Ad Hoc Reports
• Blank Ad Hoc Reports
• The Report Builder
• Building a Complex Filter
• Filtering, Drilling, and Sorting
• Filtering, Sharing, and Scheduling

Static reports like National Interest Action reports (including the bi-weekly COVID-19 report), the annual Small Business Goaling Reports, the annual Top 100 Contractor Reports, and other periodic reports of government-wide data, remain publicly available on the beta.SAM.gov Static Reports page.

We appreciate your feedback and support in the process of building beta.SAM.gov. It’s been a truly collaborative effort among the IAE team, our users, and our stakeholders, and this collaboration continues as we integrate reports capabilities from FPDS. The cutover was initially planned for mid-March, but we got the feedback that you needed more time. In response, we operated the two systems in parallel for seven months, giving you time to learn the new tool and giving us time to make improvements. We hope you’ll continue telling us what you think and what you need every step of the way.

A PDF of this page is available at this link [PDF - 214 KB].

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