Hello SAM UEI Part II

Back in February 2022, I wrote an article about government contracting and it involved the transition from DUNS to the new System for Award Management Unique Entity Identification (UEI).  In that article I stated “….As with any transition, this will most likely not be smooth right away but having been in this market segment for over 25 years, I have been a part of many changes and at some point – the issues go way and we are solid in the new approach.”  What do I say now?  I was right that it would not be smooth but I totally misread how BAD it was going to be. Using an analogy:  I thought this transition would be like going from a paved road to a gravel road and what we got in actuality is a gravel road with huge potholes every foot!!

While testing occurred regularly to ensure that every part of the new system was working (now owned by the federal government and previously using DUNS data), they did not fully understand that the information DUNS had collected about each company (name, address) over a 50 year period – was proprietary to DUNS and that information was not being shared by DUNS to the federal government any longer.  The new contractor that created this new system was doing the work to find company information but ended up pulling very old and out dated information for many of the companies. 

To say the beginning of this change was immensely stressful for many is truly an understatement.  A huge pivot was needed!  But, as with any change we are now working our way into a new process and better understanding of what is needed.  Unfortunately, there is still significant delays but even these seem to get a little better with each day.

I have broken up the steps needed into two different processes.  New company registrations at SAM and renewal of company registrations at SAM. 

New Registrations

URL:  sam.gov

  1. Must have an individual registration (each person) – click on Sign In and then Create Account.
  2. Sign into your new account and now choose Get Started
    1. Must enter the company information & address; this is how a new Unique Entity ID will be produced
    2. Your company name and address will be searched in the national database
      1. If you do appear (name and address matching) select and move forward
      2. If you do NOT appear; Create an Incident and provide 2 forms of documentation to prove your business name and location. Acceptable forms of documentation can be found here.
    3. Be patient – all steps (a then b) could take as long as 8 weeks to finalize.

Renewal Registrations

URL:  sam.gov

  1. Log in the individual account associated to the company (entity) registration
  2. In the bubbles click where there is a number 1.
  3. You should now see the name of the company on the right side-click on the company name
  4. The system will ask what you want to do –identify renewal/update
  5. You will see you company name/address at top of next page but this page will still require you to enter the company/name address again.
  6. It is at this point the system MAY NOT find your company. (This is because of the loss of the DUNS information)
    1. If you do appear (name and address matching) select and move forward
    2. If you do appear but information is incorrect; Create an Incident and provide 2 forms of documentation to prove your name and location (or what is changed formally). Acceptable forms of documentation can be found here.
  • If you do NOT appear; Create an Incident and provide 2 forms of documentation to prove your business name and location. Acceptable forms of documentation can be found here.
  1. Be patient – it could take weeks to receive the email saying the change was made
  2. After receiving the email you will log back into SAM and repeat steps 2,3,4,5. The system should now produce your company name/address.
  3. Choose on the left that the information is correct and choose on the right the company/address.
  4. Now you will move forward into the standard renewal you have previously done.
  5. Must click on the Submit button for the update to work through validation and become active.

Need help with government contracting?  Contact us because that is our specialty!

Contact Information

Business Development Center
Illinois APEX Accelerator
535 Duane Street, Office 233
Glen Ellyn IL 60137

Ileen Kelly, Business Development Center Director and APEX Accelerator Program Manager
Email: kellyi421@cod.edu
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