The General Services Administration (GSA) plans to decommission the FedBizOpps.gov (fbo.gov) website in the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year and transition its critical functionality to the site beta.SAM.gov. Once the transition is complete, beta.SAM.gov should have the same federal business opportunity capabilities found today in the fbo.gov site.

Government agencies must publicize a notice of their proposed contract actions for supplies and services valued over $25,000 on fbo.gov. The primary purposes of the notice are to improve small business access to acquisition information and to enhance competition by identifying contracting and subcontracting opportunities. See 15 U.S.C. 637(e) and 41 U.S.C. 1708.

The GSA has published a fact sheet that explains the changes in features and functionality, and how to create a new account in beta.SAM.gov. You can access the fact sheet here.

Some of the improvements noted by the GSA include:

• The ability to search for opportunities by number, keyword or location for more precise results (including easy-to-use search filters).
• The option to access previous versions of opportunity notices with one click.
• The ability to set up and receive, with a single click, notifications when frequently used contract opportunities are updated.
• Shared login, search, workspace, data services, reports and a design that will allow users to leverage other Integrated Award Environment (IAE) system data easily.

The current Interested Vendor Lists (IVL) will transfer to beta.SAM.gov and non-federal users will need an account tied to an entity to use the new IVL. Each IVL will be tied to a specific notice and will be sortable and searchable.

To transition from fbo.gov to beta.SAM.gov, you will need to create a new account in beta.SAM.gov. The GSA is also implementing login.gov in beta.SAM.gov to enhance security and move to a single sign-on for all IAE applications. As a result, the GSA recommends users create a new login.gov account a few weeks prior to the transition.

You can go to beta.SAM.gov now to browse the site and try out the search capabilities. You can also provide your comments and suggestions by using the site’s “Provide Feedback” button.

Taft will provide updates as the transition moves forward, but you can also subscribe to the GSA’s IAE Interact Community on beta.SAM.gov for the latest news and information.