FedBizOpps Will Be Retired After Veterans Day Weekend

Editor's note: Follow our continuing coverage of the FedBizOpps migration and learn what happened when the site launched.  

As of Nov. 12, Federal Business Opportunities, the website for publishing all public government procurements, will be officially decommissioned. After Veterans Day, the authoritative source for federal solicitations will be under a page on beta.SAM.gov.

According to the current timeline from the General Services Administration, the current FBO.gov site will enter a “data freeze” beginning on Nov. 8. During that freeze, no new procurement data will be uploaded to the site as it is fully decommissioned over the holiday weekend. Beginning on Nov. 12, all federal procurements will be posted on beta.SAM.gov under the “Contract Opportunities” tab.

Users will have to use an existing account through Login.gov—or create a new one—in order to get full use of the new opportunities site. Federal employees using their FedBizOpps accounts to migrate over to Login.gov should have their information and roles transferred, as well, though the nomenclature for those roles might change.

Permissions for “engineers” and “limited buyers” under FedBizOpps will both fall under “contract specialist” in the new SAM.gov. Similarly, “buyer” will be renamed “contracting officer” and “agency admin” will change to “administrator.”

The Contract Opportunities site will have most of the same capabilities as FBO.gov, with some additional bells and whistles. For example, the new site will allow users to choose between more filter options, including by solicitation type and four-digit product services codes.

The new site will also users to download search results and individual notices directly and will have access to new APIs that will replace the ftp.FBO.gov capability.

For federal employees using the new site, GSA offered the following checklist ahead of the transition:

• Confirm FBO account details, such as username and password, roles and permissions, associated offices and any notices that are being watched and saved searches.
• Create your beta.SAM.gov account with a federal email through Login.gov.
• Request role/migrate legacy role. If an FBO.gov password was reset after Sept. 30, either request a role directly in beta.SAM or wait to migrate the legacy role after launch on Nov. 12.
• Check out the beta.SAM.gov workspace and profile. 

Non-government users—vendors—also will have to do some initial legwork to ensure their current watch lists and other settings migrate to the new site:

• Confirm FBO account details such as what notices are being watched, what’s in the Search Agent, what attachments the account can access and which vendor lists include the account.
• Create your beta.SAM.gov account through Login.gov with a business or federal email.
• No need for roles. The system will automatically give non-government users permission matching the legacy “vendor” role.
• Check out the new workspace, including the account’s profile, opportunities being followed and saved searches.

Users who forget about the transition will still be able to use the FBO.gov link, which will redirect to a landing page with additional information about the new Contract Opportunities section. GSA is also offering a host of resources to ease the transition, including an official fact sheet, transition guides for federal users and administrators, FAQs on system accounts and federal hierarchy, video tutorials and quick-start guides for users, administrators and contractors, among others.

The SAM.gov site itself is still in beta as more functionality is shifted from the old awards management site. GSA says the site is expected to come out of beta in fiscal 2020 as the final capabilities from the legacy SAM.gov site are migrated over.