FARSite | The Contracting Education Academy

November 12, 2019 By cs

FBO no mo’

Today, beta.SAM.gov became the official source for federal business opportunities, replacing FBO.gov.

**This is the message visitors now see at FBO.gov.**

FBO, which stood for Federal Business Opportunities (or the shortened term FedBizOpps), contained a list of virtually every federal contract valued at more than $25,000. These contracts can now be found in the “Contract Opportunities” section of beta.SAM.gov.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is in charge of beta.SAM.gov. GSA’s vision for the merged databases is “a ‘family tree’ that organizes federal government users and establishes relationships between each department/independent agency’s sub-tiers and its offices.”

Visitors who attempt to go to FBO.gov are automatically rerouted to fbohome.sam.gov which provides notice that FBO has moved.

In visiting the new site today, we encountered long delays in connecting to beta.SAM.gov as well as to its Contract Opportunities page at beta.sam.gov/help/contract-opportunities. Users encountered similar delays when GSA last month moved the FARSite operated since 1996 by Hill Air Force Base to GSA-managed Acquisition.gov. Because of high traffic, GSA had to delay the transition from Oct. 1 to Oct. 21.

Links on beta.SAM.gov appear to be working, but users will experience delays in moving from one page to another and in downloading documents. Notably, we had to make multiple attempts to open the “FBO Transition Guide for Federal Administrators.” The Guide provides instructions to federal officials on how to post contract opportunities and related information to beta.SAM.gov. We encountered similar delays when trying to open various “Quick Start” guides.

The shift of FBO.gov to beta.SAM.gov is part of a larger merger of many legacy systems into one database. Previously, “Wage Determinations Online” and the “Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance” were shifted into beta.SAM.gov.

October 14, 2019 By cs

DAU reports on shutdown of Hill AFB’s FARSite

The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) has issued a status report on the migration of FAR search features from Hill Air Force Base’s FARSite to GSA’s Acquisition.gov site.

According to DAU, here is the latest summary of recent and planned activities to shut down the FARSite on Oct. 28, 2019:

Oct. 1 – The General Services Administration (GSA) deployed the new Acquisition.gov site. The new site adds all agency FAR supplements. The added content and user load caused the site to become unresponsive, so the plan to redirect FARSite traffic to the GSA site was put on hold.
Oct. 2-3 – GSA’s IT organization added computing resources to the Acquisition.gov site to better handle the increased traffic. The site proved to be responsive but still would not support the FARSite’s user base.
Oct. 10-11 – GSA made plans to put the Acquisition.gov site under the management of Akamai Technologies, an Internet content publishing service, to better handle the increased traffic. (The Defense Information Systems Agency contracts with Akamai to host public DoD web sites. FARSite currently uses Akamai, and 83% of FARSite’s current traffic is handled by Akamai.)
Oct. 17 – A go/no go decision will likely be made at the weekly FARSite transition meeting. (Representatives from GSA, DAU, and the Air Force’s offices of Acquisition, Materiel Command, and Life Cycle Management/Business Systems Sustainment attend these meetings.)
Oct. 18 – With a go decision, Akamai will receive a request to redirect FARSite traffic to Acquisition.gov. Redirect rules will send users to the specific FAR part on the Acquisition.gov site which they were trying to access on FARSite.
Oct. 21 – The redirect will prevent access to FARSite so that it may be turned off and decommissioned.
Oct. 28 – Hill AFB is expected to turn off FARSite in support of an upcoming Command Cyber Readiness Inspection.

The Defense Pricing and Contracting office has advised against inserting DoD Class Deviation links within the relevant FAR sections at the Acquisition.gov site. An alternate plan to link to Class Deviations from the GSA site is being considered.

March 2, 2019 By AMK

There’s hope that FARSite’s useful features will be incorporated into Acquisition.gov

We expressed concerns last week that the features and functionality of Hill Air Force Base’s search engine for the Federal Acquisition Regulation and agency FAR supplements — the FARSite — might not be transferred to Acquisition.gov.

Now, there is at least one indication that the FARSite’s capabilities will be incorporated into Acquisition.gov.

**These two FAR search engines are scheduled for merger on October 1, 2019.**

As announced last week, the popular and functional FARSite search engine is going to be “transitioned” on Oct. 1, 2019 into the FAR search site maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA) at Acquisition.gov.

However, in the initial announcement of this change, there was no word about whether the FARSite’s capability to simultaneously search both the FAR and individual agency FAR supplements would be part of the transition. This feature is especially useful when researching the application of a specific FAR provision or clause in a particular agency’s solicitation or contract. Also unclear was whether Class Deviations to the FAR, currently shown in context with FAR provisions and clauses on the FARSite, would be integrated into Acquisition.gov.

Now, it appears that both of these helpful features will be part of the “new” Acquisition.gov when it debuts on Oct. 1st.

Last last week, the FARSite posted this message on its home page:

“We will continue making updates to FARSite until the new capability is ready for full deployment at which time you’ll be able to access the new system by going to Acquisition.gov. More exact dates and information will be provided once the prototype is nearing completion. During prototype testing the AF will have full transparency into ensuring the new site provides the existing capabilities as the current FARSite.”

The last sentence of the statement implies that the popular features and functions of the FARSite will be integrated into Acquisition.gov. At present, Acquisition.gov offers neither the ability to search the FAR and FAR supplements simultaneously nor the ability to identify Class Deviations as a part of FAR searches.

Incidentally, while Acquisition.gov was initially silent about the merger with the FARSite, GSA posted this announcement on Friday:

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Air Force (USAF), and Defense Acquisition University (DAU) are partnering to reduce duplication and make it easier to electronically access acquisition regulations. The USAF website for supplemental regulations, FARSite.hill.af.mil, will be transitioned to GSA’s acquisition.gov by September 30, 2019. Acquisition professionals and vendors will then have a single website to access and search the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and supplemental regulations. For additional questions, please contact the website administrator.

While GSA’s announcement offers no specific assurances that FARSite’s unique functionality will be a part of the transition, we’re counting on the FARSite’s assurances that “… the new site [will provide] the existing capabilities as the current FARSite.” After all, the latest usage statistics available show that while all military branches make up the majority of the users of the FARSite, visitors from GSA itself and Lockheed Martin are among the top 25 user groups. There’s no questioning the FARSite’s popularity; since its inception in mid-1996, it has been accessed 2.3 billion times.

Bottom line: There are a lot of people depending on the Air Force and the GSA to get this merger right.

See our initial story on this subject here.

February 26, 2019 By AMK

Hill AFB’s FARSite to go away on Oct. 1st

It’s been accessed on-line more than 2.3 billion times since its launch in mid-1996. But on Sept. 30th of this year, it will be retired.

The “it” is the popular and functional FARSite search engine, maintained by Hill Air Force Base near Ogden, Utah, and it is going to be “transitioned” into the FAR search site at Acquisition.gov effective Oct. 1, 2019.

This news was recently released on the FARSite in a tersely-written two sentence announcement: “FARSite.hill.af.mil is being actively transitioned to Acquistion.gov. FARSite will be available in the current location through 30 Sep 2019.”

Unofficial But Useful

While the FARSite is widely used by acquisition officials in both government and industry sectors, it never was regarded as the “official” site for the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and agency FAR supplements. Instead, it was regarded as the authoritative source for the Air Force FAR Supplement (AFFARS) only. The FAR search engine at Acquisition.gov, maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA), holds the title of the “official” FAR website.

Despite its unofficial status, FARSite has been popular because of its functionality. For instance, FARSite provides the ability to search both the FAR and any agency’s FAR supplement simultaneously. This contemporaneous searching functionality enables users to see search results from two or more sources displayed side-by-side, a feature especially useful when researching the application of a specific FAR provision or clause in a particular agency’s solicitation or contract.

The Unknowns

It is not known at this time whether the simultaneous search capability will be integrated into Acquisition.gov. There is no information about the transition on the Acquisition.gov website. Currently, Acquisition.gov only allows for searching of the FAR and the GSAM — the General Services Acquisition Regulation. The site provides a list of each of the other FAR supplements, hyperlinked to individual agency websites. Some of these links lead to general agency websites where further searching is necessary, and where the links lead directly to an agency’s FAR supplement, the information is presented in non-uniform formats (e.g., HTML and PDF).

For many years, the FARSite published monthly usage reports. In the last month these data were published — July 2017 — over 12 million hits were recorded, comprised of over 3 million individual page views by 53,000 unique visitors. Military branches made up the bulk of the users in that month but, notably, visitors from GSA and Lockheed Martin appear on the Top 25 users list.

The status of another useful feature of the FARSite is unknown in the transition to Acquisition.gov, namely the integration of Class Deviations to the FAR. Currently, the text on the FARSite includes a display of DoD Class Deviations where they are applicable to a particular provision or clause. No such cross-reference appears at Acquisition.gov.

The fate of the FARSite has been in question for more than a year. On Jan. 3, 2018, the webmaster for FARSite retired. At that time, the following message was posted: “For now FARSite will continue as you see it. However due to new AF policies, FARSite’s location will eventually change which introduces unknows that could impact the site in the future. If you have any issues, concerns or opinions as to the sites direction contact USAF SAF/AQC.” Faced with many questions following that announcement, a new message was posted on Mar. 1, 2018: “The FARSite team remains committed to updating the site and providing accurate, current, and complete postings of the FAR and its many supplements. If you have any questions feel free to contact the FARSite Webmaster at Hill.Farsite@us.af.mil.”

Despite that statement last year, it appears that the plug will be pulled on the FARSite this year at midnight, Sept. 30th.

See an important update to this article here.

January 13, 2017 By AMK

Alternate FAR search engine is available

Students of coursework offered by The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech know that the preferred means for searching the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) — and agency supplements to the FAR — is the on-line search engine operated by Hill Air Force Base.

Unfortunately, that site — known as the FARSite — has been down for the last couple weeks due to an unintended consequence of security enhancements made to Air Force websites. Only military officials can access the site at the moment. Officials at Hill AFB are aware of the problem and are working to restore public access to the FARSite.

Until public access is restored, users can utilize an alternate FAR search engine available at acquisition.gov/far. Below is a screenshot of the alternate site with an explanation of some of its features.

We will alert you once access to the FARSite is restored. [Note: Public access to the Hill Air Force Base FARSite was restored on Feb. 3, 2017.]