As readers in this space know from prior posts, anyone seeking to do business with the federal government must have a unique entity identifier, currently the  D-U-N-S® Number, for use in government award systems. The government previously announced that it is migrating away from the current proprietary D-U-N-S® (DUNS) Number toward a new unique entity identifier generated directly by SAM.gov. 

The deadline for completing that transition has been extended. 

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) directed federal agencies to finalize their transition to using the SAM-generated unique entity identifier (unique entity ID or UEI) by April 2022. GSA will be contracting with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) to ensure full continuity of services—including DUNS number assignment, monitoring, and validation of entity uniqueness—during the extended transition period. 

Active SAM.gov registrants will have their UEI assigned and viewable within SAM.gov; there is no action for registered entities to take at this time.  

With the new contractor and schema comes a new name. The DUNS will be replaced by the Unique Entity ID, a 12-character mix of numbers and letters following a set pattern described in the new technical details.

The new number also comes with a new process. Rather than going through the vendor to obtain the unique ID, organizations will be able to request a Unique Entity ID at the same time they register with SAM.gov, which is also where they will be able to make changes to their profiles and request assistance.

In the future, any new entity coming to SAM.gov to register for the first time will have a streamlined experience. They will request their identifier from within SAM.gov, no longer needing to go to a third-party website or deal with separate service desks to get help.  SAM.gov will generate the UEI for each new entity as part of the standard registration process.  We are working to ensure all IAE systems are updated to support the new identifier. 

As we move through the various phases of this transition, the IAE team will continue to communicate in this forum so that system users and other interested parties can be well informed.