DUNS change raises issues

Many IT systems to be affected by transition

      The government’s transition from the proprietary “DUNS” number to a new alpha-numeric identifier for contractors and other entities is raising a number of questions about how the change will be implemented in the multiple systems in which the “DUNS’ number currently is used.

      While the General Services Administration has extensive plans for the switch within the Integrated Award Environment system, which includes the SAM (System for Award Management), there are questions about how the transition will be handled by other agencies currently using “DUNS,” as well as by contractors, local or state governments and foreign governments.

      Federal grant management systems and payment systems also are likely to be affected, GSA said.

      Plans for all those potential transitions are less clear, based on comments at a recent forum on the new identifier sponsored by the GSA.

      The GSA says the switch from “DUNS” to a 12-digit government-owned Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) will take place in December 2020.

      The DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) is owned by Dun & Bradstreet and has been used by the government for decades. Contractors who are registered in SAM will automatically receive a new identifier before the transition, GSA says.

      Meanwhile, many questions were raised at the recent GSA forum. For example, there were several inquiries about how other federal agencies using DUNS in their own systems will handle the transition.

      “Interfacing systems that use SAM and Integrated Award Environment data related to the DUNS/Unique Entity Identifier should plan on making system updates. For any individual system questions, GSA recommends reaching out to the respective system owner,” GSA wrote back.

      Federal contractors also are likely to need to make changes within their systems or on their invoices and other documents, GSA added.

      “Individual changes may be necessary to forms and documentation. The process or document owner will make that determination,” GSA officials wrote.

      Another question was whether state and local governments will transition away from utilizing DUNS. “State and local agencies will need to decide how they want to leverage the UEI once the DUNS is no longer used in SAM,” GSA officials wrote in response.

      Asked whether DUNS will continue being used for US contractors working in Japan. “If other countries use the DUNS number for other purposes, that is outside the scope of the Unique Entity Identifier implementation,” was GSA’s response.

      One step that GSA expects to take to make things easier for contractors is to create a process by which subcontractors can receive a unique identifier by signing up in SAM.gov but without going through the full registration process in SAM.gov.

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