SYSTEM FOR AWARD MANAGEMENT (SAM)

The time necessary to learn and complete the proper registration and certification process often exceeds 30+ hours over a 2-3 week period, even for advanced users. This was identified as the number one obstacle for new vendors. So the Small Business Administration established the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) which started offering free classes to interested private sector vendors who wish to learn the processes and procedures involved in getting registered, certified, locating and bidding on available Federal Government opportunities. With the tremendous amount of time, effort, work and information needed to learn the process; many businesses end up exiting the process before even attempting the primary steps involved in this process. Interested parties may also download the 2000+ page Federal Acquisition Regulation Manual (also known as the FAR Manual) which will detail the proper steps and procedures involved in completing a proper registration. However, it does not go over any of the other Federal resources or tools available that businesses need to utilize to help them actually locate and bid on the available contracts successfully.

There are many resources available for PSEs (Private Sector Entities) to utilize when trying to conduct business with the Federal Government. The issue that arises is that there are too many resources available that are spread out in many places. Then that brings up the issue of trying to figure out what resources are best utilized and how much time to spend on those that are available. United States Business Registration was created as a resource to assist businesses of all sizes in making sure they are properly registered and certified; as well as knowing which other Federal resources they should be utilizing to obtain their goal. To be successful, there is much more involved than just filling in mandatory fields on specific forms. They must have all the proper profiles in the right places and in the right formats.

Once everything is properly in place, Federal Procurement Officers can more easily locate businesses and their services/products that they offer so that Federal ACOs can award contracts to them directly. These are the companies who actually receive the contracts. There are so many resources available that we cannot list them all here. Each company and their situation is unique, the more that is known about a company and their position, the better they can be helped in properly placing their products and services in the right areas.