The long-planned combination of multiple federal government contracting websites into one is in progress with the announcement of the agile launch of SAM.beta.gov to totally replace the FedBizOpp.gov (FBO.gov) website in early 2020. The General Services Administration (GSA) is responsible for the development and function of the new free federal contracting opportunities website.
The planned functions of SAM.beta.gov include all aspects of the existing FBO.gov contracting capabilities and include improvements for a more detailed contract opportunities search capability, emailed notices, updated navigation for request for proposals, sources sought notices, contract ward announcements and government contracting events.
The new SAM.beta.gov is designed for federal, state and local government entities, non-profits, and business people who make, receive and manage federal contracts and grants. It will entirely replace FBO.gov during the first quarter of 2020. The five sections of the new website are: Data Bank, Workspace, Search, Learning Center and Data Services.
The intent of the new SAM.beta.gov for most business people who are or those intending to be federal contractors is to provide a full range of data-related services to analyze, find, respond to, manage and report on federal contracting opportunities.
Contracting organizations across the federal government will use SAM.beta.gov to post notices on proposed contract actions valued at more than $25,000. These notices, or procurement opportunities, include solicitations, pre-solicitations, sole source justifications, and other notices. Anyone interested in doing business with the government can use the new SAM.beta.gov to learn about available opportunities.
Interested parties can search for opportunities in SAM.beta.gov by entering a keyword, solicitation ID, or an agency name into the search field, and use filters to narrow results.
At this point, it is not necessary to have a user account to view contract opportunities in SAM.beta.gov, and in future releases it will be possible to access additional capabilities—such as saving searches, adding oneself to an opportunity’s Interested Vendors List, and signing up to receive regular updates on opportunities—when logged in. The capability to create user accounts will become available in SAM.beta.gov in the upcoming months.
The federal government also provides assistance to the American public in the form of projects, services, and activities. It supports a broad range of programs—such as education, health care, research, infrastructure, economic development and other programs—through grants, loans, scholarships, insurance, and other types of financial assistance.
SAM.beta.gov in addition to the contracts data, provides detailed, public descriptions of federal assistance listings available to State and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally recognized Indian tribal governments, Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi- public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups, and individuals.
Each assistance listing is associated with a unique five-digit CFDA (Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance) number. After identifying a federal assistance listing that of interest, one can link directly to grant opportunities on Grants.gov or follow up with that specific agency using the contact information provided.
As an agile-developed project, the GSA encourages collaboration among all users and stakeholders. Comments, insight and feedback of the SAM.beta.gov website is encouraged by visiting the Integrated Award Environment (IAE) Industry Community website at https://interact.gsa.gov/group/integrated-award-environment-iae-industry-community.