FPDS Reports Will Officially Move to beta.SAM by Mid-October

As of October 17, federal vendors, contracting researchers and watchers and any other interested party, will no longer be able to run or access contract award data reports through the Federal Procurement Data System at FPDS.gov.

On that date, the General Services Administration expects to have completed the full migration of FDPS’s reporting functions—administrative, static, standard and ad hoc reports—to the beta.SAM.gov website under the Data Bank page.

“At that time, beta.SAM.gov will be the only place to create and run contract data reports and the reports module in FPDS.gov will be retired,” according to an update in GSA’s new beta.SAM.gov newsletter.

Originally, all of the reports functions were slated to transfer to beta.SAM.gov in March. However, GSA opted for a “soft launch” this spring, with an “agile iterative improvement process” set to conclude in October.

During that time, users were able to run reports through both websites, though some said the same queries would produce different results in each system.

The update notes the reporting function will be the only capability making the move to beta.SAM.

“All other functions—search, agency contract award data entry, data extracts—will remain at fpds.gov as the site is not retiring at this time,” a GSA spokesperson told Nextgov in February.

GSA officials urged users to test out the new Data Bank system prior to the October 17 deadline and offer feedback on how the agency can improve the site and user interface. Users are also advised to go to the reports history section on beta.SAM to check on ad hoc reports that were transferred over from FPDS.

The update also includes a number of resources to help both new and experienced FPDS users get up to speed on the new tool.

The FPDS migration is just one step in a larger effort to centralize all procurement data—from pre-solicitation to post-award—on one website. Last year, GSA retired the Federal Business Opportunities website, also known as FedBizOpps or FBO, and moved all new contract opportunities to the Contract Opportunities page on beta.SAM—a transition that was not without its pain points.

Since that time, GSA has pledged to work with the community to improve the contracting site. In that vein, the newsletter update includes some details on improved search capabilities for the Contract Opportunities page.

“We have expanded the search capability in beta.SAM.gov to help you find more relevant search results,” officials wrote. “When you enter two or more words as a phrase, the search tool will look for that phrase and prioritize results by relevance.”

The transition team has also completed migrations of Wage Determination Online, or WDOL, and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, or CFDA.