FedBizOpps is a well-known name to government contractors. It refers to the Federal Business Opportunities website – fedbizopps.gov – which operates as an aggregation site of government opportunities valued at greater than $25,000. Contractors can search through FedBizOpps a number of different ways: by agency, NAICS code, and solicitation numbers. FedBizOpps has been around for some time and it’s a familiar website. Change however is right around the corner as the General Services Administration (GSA) has announced that starting in November 2019, FedBizOpps will start to be “decommissioned” and its “critical functionality” will be moved to beta.SAM.gov in the first quarter of FY2020.

We’ve seen big changes like this before -- for example, when a number of different sites such as the Central Contractor Registration, Online Representations and Certifications Application, and the Excluded Parties List System were consolidated into the System for Award Management in 2012. There are often integration pains associated with such migrations and there are a few steps to take now to ease potential pains:

• Create a new account in beta.SAM.gov. You’ll need to create this account in order to be able to log-in.
• Identify major opportunities that you will be tracking for the first quarter of FY2020 and regularly check updates on those opportunities by, for example, signing up as an interested vendor, or reaching out to a let a contracting activity know that you’re interested and ask to be added to any mailing lists for that opportunity.
• Check your SAM records. Make sure point of contacts and company information is up to date.

It’s not all bad news though. According to the GSA, the beta.SAM.gov site will have a number of functional improvements such as easier search filters and updates on relevant contracting opportunities. Taking a few steps now will ensure that you can enjoy these new functions with minimal pain.