DLA boosts business registration

The Defense Logistics Agency has tweaked its online contractor database

to allow military procurement officials to find information about their

potential business partners.

The Central Contractor Registration (CCR) system is a Web-based repository

in which vendors wishing to do business with the government provide information

about themselves. The database so far includes about 160,000 registrants

and also provides vendor financial information to the Defense Finance

and Accounting Service to expedite payments.

CCR, www.ccr2000.com, now includes new data elements — what DLA calls

"points of contact" — that vendors can use to create new fields or to support

new functions. For example, vendors can now provide small-business identification

or create a credit card acceptance field.

CCR also includes a field for marketing-partner identification, where vendors

can set passwords for accessing other "partner" applications. Current partner

applications are the online bidding systems associated with Department of

Defense Business Opportunities and the Past Performance Automated Information

System.

In addition to allowing companies to add more data, DLA has made it easier

for users to find that information. Procurement officials now should be

able to simultaneously search the database by geographic location, industry

and socioeconomic factors.

"These new points of contact bring a level of personalization to CCR

that move the system from a data repository to an integrated system with

other DOD e-business applications," said Scottie Knott, Joint Electronic

Commerce Program Office director.