Presented by
Nancy Goode, Director of Outreach and Stakeholder Engagement
Integrated Award Environment (IAE) at the General Services Administration

The United States government has used services from Dun and Bradstreet to both identify (using the DUNS® number) and validate/verify federal contractors since 1978.  In 1998, entities were required to get a DUNS number by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).  In 2008, this requirement expanded to federal financial assistance, affecting over 630,000 public and private entities seeking federal contracts and/or grants.

Starting in December 2020, the DUNS number will no longer be the official identifier for doing business with the U.S. Government.  What is changing?

• The unique entity identifier (UEI) used to do business with the government is changing.
• The process to get a UEI to do business with the government is changing.

 The definition of entity uniqueness is not changing.

Change can be confusing and frustrating. We want to make the change easier by sharing information about the coming changes and transition plan with the NGMA.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the transition to the Unique Entity Identifier
• Distinguish the Unique Entity Identifier data element characteristics 
• Identify the Unique Entity Identifier assignment process