7-21-22 Contracting Working Group Meeting with GSA

U.S. General Services Administration

SAM.gov Entity Validation Katherine Rollins Lead Program Manager SAM.gov Integrated Award Environment (IAE) Office Technology Transformation Service (TTS)

Professional Services Council Meeting July 21, 2022

System for Award Management | For People Who Make, Receive, and Manage Federal Awards

Agenda ●

What Changed with the Unique Entity ID and Entity Validation

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today

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About Entity Documentation

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New Validation Pages

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Where to Get Help

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What Changed with the Unique Entity ID and Entity Validation

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What Changed with the Unique Entity ID and Entity Validation (1 of 3) As of April 4, 2022, the federal government stopped using the DUNS Number to identify entities. ●

The Unique Entity ID is now the authoritative identifier

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DUNS Number is not available in IAE systems

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Because you get a Unique Entity ID in SAM.gov, the DUNS Number is no longer required for federal award purposes

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If you need to update your legal business name, address, etc. you now make the changes in SAM.gov

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What Changed with the Unique Entity ID and Entity Validation (2 of 3) At that same time, SAM.gov changed providers for entity validation services (EVS). ●

Validating an entityʼs unique legal business name and physical address has always been a part of registration in SAM.gov and is required to get a Unique Entity ID.

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EVS independently verifies the uniqueness of an entity. Before April 2022, it was done outside of the system. Now it is done within SAM.gov.

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Updates to an entityʼs legal business name and physical address are now done in SAM.gov.

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Some entities that were validated prior to this change do not have their information in the new database.

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What Changed with the Unique Entity ID and Entity Validation (3 of 3) The reasons for validation have not changed.

Validation is required when you: ● ● ● ●

register an entity renew your entity registration each year get a Unique Entity ID, and update or change your entityʼs name or address

Entities whose information is not showing up or not showing up correctly in SAM.gov need to provide documentation to verify their correct entity information.

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today (1 of 6) The validation process is a critical piece of the federal awards ecosystem. It prevents improper payments, procurement fraud, and helps ensure the integrity of government contracts and grants processes, representing trillions of dollars in taxpayer funds each year.

Federal, state, and local governments are taking more proactive steps to prevent fraud and abuse by using the Unique Entity ID process, which has driven demand. In response, we are working to scale and streamline the process to improve wait times.

Every entity must validate with the new providerʼs databases and data sources.

This has been the largest federal IT transition in decades. Part of this change allows the government to own the validation data going forward.

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today (2 of 6) The EVS provider is responsible for resolving validation tickets. These agents are separate from the Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) agents by design. EVS agents require different security protocols than agents at the Federal Service Desk because of the sensitive information they are responsible for.

If you need an update or have a question, use your validation ticket to communicate with the EVS team.

The EVS provider received an extremely high volume of requests when the transition first happened in April. We have been working closely with the provider since the very first day, and both the provider and GSA have added resources to reduce the backlog and wait times.

We have made progress and GSA will soon announce expected wait times for validation resolution moving forward.

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today (3 of 6) Response to Validation Tickets By the Numbers

Entities that validated since April

78% Updated or renewed with no validation support needed.

91% Support tickets submitted in April, May, and June are resolved

We received three times as many requests for support in the first three months as we expected to receive in the first year. Prior to April 2022, entity validation requests were already trending upward, driven by new state policies and new federal programs, in parallel with routine government business.

Requests for Validation Support Since April

80% Support tickets generated from new entities

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today (4 of 6) Entity validation is a necessary part of the federal awards process. It helps ensure federal tax dollars are awarded to legitimate organizations.

While the vast majority of entities seeking to register, renew, or get a Unique Entity ID have been able to proceed without incident, others have not been able to find their information at first attempt.

Once their information is in the new database, they do not need to submit documents to validate again, unless their information changes.

The most important action an entity can take if their current, correct information is not found during validation is to submit acceptable documentation to avoid further delay.

We have increased staffing and there are more agents available to assist.

Each inquiry is different is being addressed on a case-by-case basis.

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today (5 of 6) GSA is well aware of the impact this has had on entities and takes full accountability for the hardships it has caused. We have made overcoming these challenges our top priority.

We are: ● Scaling up resources handling validation support ● Conducting usability testing (3 rounds since May) to correct pain points ● Deploying validation workflow improvements, both user facing and on the back end, such as ○ more on-screen help ○ automated tools to prevent errors, like preventing a ticket submission without documents ● Improving language in system communications

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Whys & Hows of Validation Today (6 of 6)

While we are making progress, we know there are entities who are waiting for their tickets to be resolved. Resolving their specific, individual cases is paramount for us.

In these cases, the EVS provider reaches out to the entity and requests clarification through documentation. In most cases, we expect the need for documentation to be a one-time occurrence for each entity.

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About Entity Documentation

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About Entity Documentation It is our duty to prevent procurement fraud and ensure the integrity of government contracts and grants processes. This is why we can only accept entity documentation that is certified by authorized sources.

We understand that there are unique situations businesses face and that many of the accepted documents are not easily secured.

We have taken steps to clarify the requirements and update pages within SAM.gov to help you. It is important to submit acceptable documents so we can process your request quickly.

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List of acceptable validation documents available at FSD.gov https://go.usa.gov/xuSVt

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New Validation Pages

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New Validation Pages (1 of 8) Since May 2022, we have conducted three rounds of usability testing of the validation process with users from small and large businesses, small and large non-profit organizations, state governments, and the federal government.

Focused on the first steps of entity validation, we developed an interactive prototype where testers were asked to begin a registration for an entity that had not previously been registered in SAM.gov. We observed their journey, collected their feedback on the proposed changes, and made further enhancements to the pages.

We will deliver improvements and enhancements to the user-facing validation workflow in the coming weeks based directly on the user feedback we received from the dozens of testers we worked with.

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New Validation Pages (2 of 8) Before entering any information, we say upfront that documentation may be required and link to resources about it.

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New Validation Pages (3 of 8) Once you enter your information, you will see entities from the database. This updated design simplifies the steps and clarifies your choices.

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New Validation Pages (4 of 8) Allows you to correct information if needed, and indicates exactly where those corrections should be.

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New Validation Pages (5 of 8) Incorporation information is collected up front, so validation for all fields can happen at once.

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New Validation Pages (6 of 8) This page shows clearly what is being updated and what will need to be documented in the next step.

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New Validation Pages (7 of 8) Clear picture of what you want to update with the documents you need to submit.

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New Validation Pages (8 of 8) Clear confirmation of ticket submission and more information about what happens next.

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Validation Submission What happens next, after I submit my validation incident? ●

If your information in SAM.gov needs to be corrected, you will be redirected to your Entities Workspace.

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As an active entity, if you affirm your previously validated information is still correct, you will be able to continue with registration or an update after submitting your documentation with your incident.

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In your Entities Workspace, there will be an “FSD Incident” link under the entity you are trying to validate. Use the “View” button to view your issue.

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How do I check the status of my entity validation incident? ●

Check your email. An email with your FSD incident number was sent to your inbox when you submitted your documentation. Keep this email to reference your incident, and respond promptly to any requests from the entity validation team handling your incident. If you do not reply to a request for more information within five days, your incident will be closed.

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Look at your Entities Workspace in SAM.gov. You can attach any further required documentation in your Workspace or view your original request.

If you receive a request for additional documentation, you must add it through the SAM.gov Workspace, not FSD.gov.

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What Can I Do Now?

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Only the EVS provider receiving incident tickets from the SAM.gov can validate your entity. They will communicate with you via your incident ticket only. FSD agents cannot address validation issues over the phone or chat.

Do not submit multiple validation tickets for the same issue. Creating multiple incidents does not expedite our handling of your incident and actually slows down the overall process.

Incidents are processed in the order received.

Duplicate tickets will be closed.

If you have an open ticket: ● Check your documentation ● Monitor your email ● Respond to messages about your ticket promptly If your registration renewal is upcoming: ● Start early ● Prepare entity documents, if needed

We are closely monitoring the situation and are working to address each ticket as quickly and efficiently as possible.

This is our top priority and will continue to be so until ticket resolution times are stabilized.

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Where to Get Help

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Where to Get Help (1 of 2) The Help page on SAM.gov now includes a list of help topic trends and a menu to navigate through help topics.

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We will also continue to update our FSD help pages for all the latest information around validation and other changes impacting any IAE system.

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Feature and Enhancement Requests You provided us with some site enhancement and feature requests, such as improvements to tracking tickets between SAM.gov and FSD.gov and an easier path to updating parts of your registration, like your NAICS codes. Thank you!

We want this feedback so we can continually plan and deliver future enhancements to SAM.gov. The best way to provide these feature requests is to use the feedback form on SAM.gov. This feedback is reviewed daily and delivered to decision makers. IAE directly consults our user feedback when deciding what improvements to work on next.

Please do not report technical problems here.

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U.S. General Services Administration

The Integrated Award Environment Subscribe to our blog for the latest updates: https://buy.gsa.gov/interact/community/47/activity-feed

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Questions?

Thank you!

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