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GSA says integrated acquisition site is fixed

The General Services Administration’s new System for Award Management website is live again.

SAM went live July 31, but was taken offline a few days later after experiencing some technical problems. GSA officials worked with IBM, the project’s contractor, to fix performance issues.

SAM is a central database for federal contracting data. GSA has completed the first phase of a long and bumpy transition away from outdated information systems, combining several governmentwide databases in a bid to become more efficient.

SAM includes the Central Contractor Registration system; the Online Representations and Certifications Application; and the Excluded Parties List System.

About the Author

Matthew Weigelt is a former FCW senior writer who covered acquisition and procurement.

Reader comments

Thu, Oct 4, 2012 Warren Stokes United States

I also experienced much frustration in registering a new entity. The records seemed to be orphaned and not associated with the user. What did seem to help though was to spend the hours on hold to reach the Federal Service Desk , and also submit tickets. In the end, the entity was registered successfully. They came up with an "Incomplete registration" concept which was ultimately implemented. I suggest sticking with it and persevering through the problems.

Fri, Sep 28, 2012 Colorado Springs, CO

SAM has been a nightmare for us. Our initial registration was saved as a "draft" instead of being submitted (August 29th). Now we can't update, delete or complete the registration process; therefore being unable to move forward at all in order to bit. Was able to get through to the Help Desk after being placed on hold for almost an hour. Was told this was a "known issue" however there was no estimation of when the "bug" would be fixed. Have sent in two written inquiries to www.fsd.gov and the response is the same...they are still trying to remedy the issue. This is so frustrating!

Mon, Sep 10, 2012 Dennis Diez Los Angeles, CA

CCR was ok, ORCA was something a little better along with a few frustrations. SAM is mainly "The connection was reset The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.". It's not clear to me what they hoping to accomplish by dismantling CCR, but this SAM system is not working at all.

Fri, Aug 24, 2012 Craig

My company has been trying to get registered and get a CAGE code for over 5 weeks now. We still dont have one, no one from Federal Service Desk is returning emails, and we've just been disqualified from a bid for not being registered with SAM. 2 words to describe IBM's handling of this rollout: grease fire.

Mon, Aug 13, 2012

Any updates on when SAM will work effectively?? HELP!

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