The General Services Administration (GSA) manages the federal acquisition and award processes using 10 websites. In August 2017, beta.SAM.gov went live and will eventually serve as a replacement for the 10 legacy acquisition websites that GSA maintains.
Christy Hermansen, the Integrated Award Environment (IAE) Design Lead, says “We will be continually adding functionality to the site over time, making improvements based on feedback we receive from users. We are not shutting down any of our 10 legacy applications yet. These will be turned off one at a time, once all of the features have been transitioned and we’ve validated that that functionality is ready to be the authoritative system.”
To date, GSA has decommissioned two legacy systems: The Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) was migrated to beta.SAM.gov in May 2018, and the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) was consolidated into the Contract Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) in January 2019.
On June 14, 2019, Wage Determinations OnLine (wdol.gov) will migrate to beta.SAM.gov. If you were receiving alerts from wdol.gov, you will need register on beta.SAM.gov and set up a subscription for your wage determinations because your previous subscriptions will not migrate. GSA has provided a tutorial on their YouTube channel that provides training for the wage determinations on beta.SAM.gov: https://youtu.be/Nu-FmQgwsck
The next three systems that will be transitioning to beta.SAM.gov are FedBizOpps (FBO), the System for Award Management (SAM), and the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). Currently, you can find functionality for legacy FBO under “Contract Opportunities,” legacy SAM under “Entity Information,” and legacy FPDS under “Contract Data” sections of beta.SAM.gov. Once SAM.gov data has completely migrated into the new website, the “beta” moniker will be removed, and there will be just one SAM.gov.
Over the next couple of years, as legacy websites are retired, the new SAM.gov will also incorporate the following websites:
- The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act Subaward Reporting System (FSRS)
- Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (ESRS)
- Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS)
- Contract Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS)
Once all legacy websites have transitioned to the new SAM.gov by the end of Q4 in FY 2020, the new categories will be:
- Assistance Listings → CFDA
- Contract Opportunities → FOB
- Contract Data → FPDS
- Entity Information → SAM
- Wage Determinations → WDOL
- Past Performance → PPIRS, CPARS, FAPIIS
- Sub Award Data → FSRS, ESRS
Timeline for transitions/enhancements:
The enhancements being introduced to the new SAM.gov are very exciting. Not only will there be a single sign-on for all these systems, but you will now be able to save searches and receive FBO and WDOL alerts in one place. You can also find additional functionality in beta.SAM.gov today with the ability to download Contract Opportunities results into excel or PDF!
We all have a great deal to look forward to when the new SAM.gov is finished. I encourage you to create a log in and familiarize yourself with the new format and features. When you create a log in, there is a two-factor authentication required each time you log in, just as you see currently in SAM.gov. You will also find a “Provide Feedback” button on the left at the bottom of each category’s page, so if there is a feature you would like to see incorporated, then GSA welcomes your input!
