Nov 2024 -System For Award Management
There is a general lack of understanding about what the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) is and does.
SAM.gov is the centralized repository for federal acquisition information. The platform consolidates several previously standalone systems, making it a comprehensive resource for conducting analysis and solutioning.
Business Developers often don’t interact with SAM.gov because of time constraints and workload. They favor commercially available tools that collect and collate the information from SAM.gov for them, presenting it in high-level tables and infographics. Since the automated system does the “research”, the Business Developer has no direct interaction with the SAM.gov platform. The lack of interaction with the platform leads to a lack of understanding of it.
However, Business Developers need to interact with the SAM.gov platform for information context and access to associated tools for refining it. “Context” meaning information source origin, its currency, and so forth. Associated tools include new functionality mentioned in the “release notes” section and links to unique partner organization websites like disasterassistance.gov.
Under the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Integrated Award Environment (IAE) construct, the consolidation of standalone systems to SAM.gov will happen in phases. This current phase includes:
Central Contractor Registration (formerly ccr.gov): the central repository for contractors doing business with the government.
Federal Business Opportunities (formerly FBO.gov): A database of government contract opportunities
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (formerly CFDA.gov): Details on federal assistance programs
Wage Determinations (formerly WDOL.gov): Information on wages and work rules for specific locales
Federal Procurement Data Systems (formerly FPDS.gov): Open source information on government procurement activities
Ultimately the IAE construct will have approximately 10 integrated platforms including the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), and Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS).
