System for Award Management

The Central Contractor Registration (CCR) was the primary supplier database for the U.S. Federal government until July 30, 2012. The CCR collected data from suppliers, validated and stored this data, and disseminated it to various government acquisition agencies. On July 30, 2012, the CCR transitioned to the System for Award Management (SAM) e-procurement system.[1]

History

In October 1993, President Bill Clinton issued a memorandum that required the Government to reform its acquisition processes. Subsequently, the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 was passed, requiring the establishment of a "single face to industry". To accomplish this, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) designated a centralized, electronic registration process, known as CCR, as the single point of entry for vendors that want to do business with the DoD. To this end, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS), Subpart 204.7300, required contractors to register in the CCR to conduct business with the DoD.

A new Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) policy, published October 1, 2003 (Circular 2003-016, FAR case 2002-018), requires that all federal contractors register in the CCR database prior to the awarding of any contract or purchase agreement.

The CCR and Business Partner Network (BPN) maintained 99.98% uptime. Most user issues stem from DoD mandated security controls or the user's network and/or ISP's not following RFC standards for Internet protocols.

July 24, 2012 began Phase I of a consolidation of federal government systems used for contracting to SAM (System for Acquisition Management). On that date, users were no longer permitted to enter new information into the CCR or the other systems being migrated in Phase I to allow sufficient time for their data to be migrated to SAM. After July 30, 2012, users who visited the CCR, ORCA, or EPLS websites are automatically redirected to SAM.gov.[2]

The contractors providing services to DoD are required to file reports on the funding source, contracting vehicle, organization supported, mission and function performed, and labor hours and costs for contracted efforts through a separate ECMRA website.[3][4]

Transition to SAM

On July 30, 2012, the CCR transitioned to the System for Award Management (SAM), which combined legacy users' records in the CCR and eight other separate websites and databases that aided in the management of Federal procurement from start to finish.[2] This consolidation SAM was designed to "reduce the burden on those seeking to do business with the government."[1] In addition to eliminating redundancies and streamlining processes, SAM provides a single help desk to resolve issues with any of the databases.[2]

Systems included in SAM

The systems combined into SAM are listed below, grouped by functional area. Their migration to SAM is being conducted in phases:[2] Phase I of SAM includes the functionality from the entity management systems - Central Contractor Registry (CCR), Federal Agency Registration (Fedreg), Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) - and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS).[5]

SAM users and registrants

Users of SAM include contracting officials, grant-makers, contractors, and the public.[2] Those required to register in SAM include:

  • Vendors: Those doing business with the federal government "will be able to log in to one system to manage their entity information in one record, with one expiration date, through one streamlined business process. Federal agencies will be able to look in one place for entity pre-award information. Everyone will have fewer passwords to remember and see the benefits of data reuse as information is entered into SAM once and reused throughout the system."[1]
  • Grant-seekers and grantees: "Active SAM registration is a pre-requisite to the successful submission of grant applications!"[1]

There is no charge for registration. Renewal must be done annually.

References
  1. "CCR Moving to SAM". U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
  2. Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, Barbara A. Duncombe, and Casie E. Hollis (July 18, 2012). "Goodbye ORCA. Goodbye CCR. Hello SAM". Lexology. Association of Corporate Counsel.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "ECMRA Overview". Enterprise Contractor Manpower Reporting Application. U.S. Department of Defence. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  4. Memorandum on the Enterprise-wide Contractor Manpower Reporting Application issued by the Office of the Secretary of Defence on 28 November 2012.
  5. "About SAM: What is SAM?". SAM (System for Acquisition Management). Retrieved 27 June 2013.

Further reading
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