By Global Services on Friday, November 1, 2019

Since its creation in 2002, FedBizOpps (FBO) has been the go-to site for locating federal contracting opportunities. Now, after 17 years, FBO is slated for decommissioning beginning November 8, 2019. FBO’s functions will be migrated to beta.SAM.gov (and eventually “beta” will be dropped from the URL, leaving simply SAM.gov).

Though FBO had its limitations—and was even called the “WORST WEBSITE IN GOVERNMENT” by Federal News Network—it’s hard not to feel some nostalgia for the contracting opportunity database we’ve all relied on for so long.

But FBO’s shutdown is meant to pave the way for improvement: the goal is for SAM.gov to become “one website for people who make, receive, and manage federal awards,” featuring entity registration, data access, learning resources, workspace, and search functionality in one convenient location. GSA says the transition from FBO to SAM will also bring user experience improvements such as:

• Improved search functionality with more precise results
• Better readability and more logical, user-friendly design
• Easier access to previous versions of opportunity notices
• One-click setup of notifications when frequently used contract opportunities are updated
• New user workspace with easy alert management.

Users’ current FedBizOpps accounts can be migrated to the new SAM system, but there are some limitations. Watchlists and search agents will NOT be carried over, so it is important to manually track anything you do not want to lose in the migration.

In order to migrate your existing FBO account to SAM, your FBO password MUST be current. FBO requires password resets every 90 days, so it’s important to verify that your password is still valid. More information on migrating your account can be found at this link.

It should be noted that at least one agency (FAA) has said that it will NOT be posting contracting updates to beta.SAM.gov yet. For this reason, contractors should carefully monitor their outstanding opportunities to make sure no updates are overlooked.

We’re excited for this new chapter, and the improved efficiency and ease-of-use it will bring for Government and Industry users alike!

If your business is ready to bid on new contracts, but needs proposal development support, please reach out to our experts.