The new System for Award Management, accessible at SAM.gov, will be publicly accessible for the first time on July 30, 2012.  SAM will be the single website where users (contracting officials, contractors, and the public) will go to access what are currently 9 separate websites/databases that aid in the management of Federal procurements from start to finish.  The goal of SAM is to eliminate redundancies and streamline these processes.  There will also be a single help desk to resolve issues with any of the databases.

Those systems that will be combined into SAM, grouped by functional area, are:

Entity Management

• CCR/FedReg  –  Central Contractor Registration/Federal Agency Registration
• ORCA – Online Representations and Certifications Application

Award Management

• FBO – Federal Business Opportunities
• FPDS-NG – Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation
• eSRS/FSRS – Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System/FFATA Subaward Reporting    System

Wage Data

• WDOL – Wage Determinations Online

Performance Information

• PPIRS/CPARS/FAPIIS – Past Performance Information Retrieval System
• EPLS – Excluded Parties List System
• PPIRS/CPARS/FAPIIS – Past Performance Information Retrieval System, Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System, and Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System

Assistance Program Catalog

• CFDA – Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance

The first systems to go online will be CCR/FedReg, ORCA, and EPLS.  No date has been given for when the remaining systems will be migrated into SAM.   For the first three systems, no new information can be entered into them after July 24, 2012 to allow sufficient time for their data to be migrated to SAM.  After July 30, 2012, users who go to the CCR, ORCA, or EPLS websites will be automatically redirected to SAM.gov. 

According to SAM.gov, users do not need to do anything until their ORCA or CCR registrations come due, at which time they will need to visit SAM.gov and register for an account.  Users whose registrations were to expire in the near future have been given automatic extensions, and should have been notified by email.  Users will need their entity’s DUNS and TIN numbers to register their SAM account.  All information currently in the databases is to be transferred to the new system automatically.  No doubt, there will be bugs to work out, but, on the upside, at least there will be only one password to lose.