Many people have spent many years government contracting and there has always been some sort of government tracking system for federal contractors. A long time ago it was ORCA and then CCR and finally they combined the two to form the System for Award Management. If you are interested in working any federal U.S. Government contracts then you must be registered in SAM. IN order to register in SAM you must first obtain and DUNS Number:
https://iupdate.dnb.com/iUpdate/companylookup.htm
A DUNS registration and SAM registration is free you should never pay anyone to perform this service for you. There are many companies out there that charge as much as $1,500.00 to complete a SAM registration for your company and it’s not worth it. If you are knowledgeable about your company or have your business registrations, these two processes take a total of 40 minutes to complete. The only time you should ever considering outsourcing this service is if you have attempted the registration yourself and the government is telling you there are errors that need to be fixed.
What does SAM do for my company besides allowing all these unscrupulous government contracting business access to my information. You need to be really careful about what you put in SAM as this Information needs to be correct! SAM will store your bank account information and this will allow government agencies to pay you by direct deposit if you win an opportunity. SAM will also verify the information you are giving them to ensure that you are who you say you are. SAM even has a spot where you can enter Past Performance Information to show your experience contracting on a federal level.
Make sure as you are filling out this registration, that you write down all usernames, passwords and especially your MPIN. All of this information is very important to have on hand if you need to make changes to your registration.
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