Passwords. The bane of our existence. At least for those of us who use smart phones, tablets and computers.
Our clients are no different. They forget their passwords with regularity. The good news is that resetting a password is usually fairly simple, and often something someone can do themselves.
Due to a security update made to the System for Award Mangement (SAM) this past week, that is not going to be the case when you forget your Marketing Partner Identification Number (MPIN). Despite its fancy name, your MPIN is essentially just another password. It’s used to gain access to other federal websites. You also need it when you create an account at https://certify.sba.gov/. Most of our clients have only ever needed their MPIN when they updated their entity registration in SAM. If they forgot it, it was simple enough to change it during an update.
Now, to be able to change your MPIN, you have to enter both your current MPIN and your new MPIN. If you forget your MPIN, you have to call the Federal Service Desk at 866-606-8220 during their hours of operation (currently weekdays, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mountain Time) and request escalation to a Tier II technician. Only a Tier II technician can remove the current MPIN from your account so that a new one can be entered. Please note that you have to be your entity’s administrator to be able to request this.
Hopefully a self-service MPIN reset will be introduced at some point, but as of this writing, this is the new process.
If you are constantly forgetting your MPIN and other passwords, and you don’t use a password manager, reach out to your government contracting advisor. The Montana PTAC has developed a “password keeper” template that makes it easy to keep track of login credentials for the systems most commonly used by our clients (SAM, eMACS, VIPR, etc.). It’s available for free. Just ask.
Posted 4/1/2020