12 replies to this topic

[Todzilla]

Hello to all...

I am asking everyone to suspend reality for a bit and help me brainstorm what a "one-stop" pre-award responsiblity/past performance/transparency system for federal contracting officers might include. What data would you like to see or have available to you? What would be useful to you? What features would make life easier for you? My immediate thoughts are:

Data:

• Excluded Parties
• FPDS type data (which would include termination information)
• Reps and Certs submitted on federal contracts
• Past Performance Information (PPIRS data or similar)
• CCR Information
• Federal Tax Debt information
• Public Financial Information
• Public records of Liens, pending lawsuits, pending disputes
• Fraud convictions

Features/Functionality:

• Ability to perform searches on individual companies as well as batch reports on individual data fields
• User input capability from contracting officers to report suspensions, disputes, etc.
• As user-friendly and intuitive a GUI as possible
• Open access to all federal contract specialists
• Full data integration (not just links to disparate databases)

I am a long time federal contract specialist and this is not purely a pie in the sky exercise. Please share your thoughts... what else would you like to see? what else would be useful?

[bob7947]

Members:

This post has languished for a week. I don't know why.

It would seem to me that the effort made to write this deserves a thoughtful response.

[Vern Edwards]

Most people who visit Wifcon Forum lurk; they don't post. So good luck getting a thoughtful response from any but the regulars.

[August]

Todzilla's list looks good to me. The only other possible suggestion I can think of is audits (through the Audit Clearing House.)

[policyguy]

GSA is working on merging many of the applications that you mention and they refer to it as System for Award Management (SAM). From the SAM website:

"System for Award Management (SAM) is coming your way!
GSA Integrated Acquisition Environment(IAE) awarded a contract in February 2010 to consolidate 8 of the Federal Procurement Systems and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). The resulting new system will be called the System for Award Management (SAM). Capability will be made available to users via SAM in stages, starting with Entity Management (CCR/FedReg and ORCA) and the exclusions portion of Performance Information (EPLS) in winter 2011-2012."

See the website for more information: www.acquisition.gov

[Todzilla]

I am familiar with FAPIIS as well as SAM. Through some personal contacts, the only things other expressed a desire to see was Integrated Dunn and Bradstreet credit and payments analysis reports if available, and searchable access to publicly held annual reports if possible. Thanks guys...

[kay]

I like Todzilla's list and can only think that adding information about Safety Records would be helpful, cross with OSHA citations, etc.

[FAR11]

It would be very useful to know if the contractor has an approved accounting and purchasing system. I find it very difficult to get this information in a timely manner.

[DCGOVLAW]

Off to a good start!
FYI - SAM appears to be completely down and has been since yesterday morning. And you can no longer access ccr.gov or any of the links through bpn.gov including ccr, orca.

fsd.gov reports -
"The System for Award Management (SAM) is experiencing performance issues that are in the process of being addressed. Due to the SAM issues, the Federal Service Desk (FSD) is experiencing higher than normal call volumes. If you experience issues with search feature in SAM for Exclusions, please use the following website to conduct these searches: EPLS.gov."

[hutch_05]

Why do systems like SAM always launch in the 4th Quarter of a Fiscal Year? Can someone seriously think about this. You roll out a new system, that will always have kinks, and ask people to change the routine when the workload is heaviest.

one thing SAM doesn't have that CCR did, is a list of a firms NAICS codes for which they are eligible as small or large business. Kind of hurts my market research.

Assuming SAM is secure, it would be nice to have TIN for firm too, so I can input them into my Contract Writing System without waiting on their response.

I should also say, that at this point I just clicked around the website, and I am SAM ignorant, or SAM I AM ignorant?

[C Culham]

Really out of the box.....

How about a system that links to a search engine like Google and gives you everything avialable on the internet regarding the firm?

[Voxx]

Why do systems like SAM always launch in the 4th Quarter of a Fiscal Year? Can someone seriously think about this. You roll out a new system, that will always have kinks, and ask people to change the routine when the workload is heaviest.

+1