DOD UID Data Submission – Best Practices
If you have a UID requirement on your contract, you have to get that UID data to the government.
Which is the best road to take?
You have different options to get UID data to the UID Registry -
- The government's stated preferred method to get end-item UIDs into the UID Registry, for new acquisitions, is for you to put the UIDs on your WAWF Receiving Report. WAWF will send the UID data on over to the UID Registry.
- WAWF will presently accept end-item UIDs and first-level embedded UIDs. WAWF will accept up to 100 first-level embedded UIDs per end-item UIDs.
- Everything not account for in the above two descriptions can be submitted directly to the UID Registry.
Whether you submit UIDs through WAWF, direct to the UID Registry, or a combination, you have a choice of methods to submit the data -
- Type it into a web browser. Open Internet Explorer or your favorite web browser, log in, and start typing. And typing. And typing. Seriously, if you have small amounts of data and submit infrequently, this is a pretty simple and free way to go.
- The DOD knew from the start that typing data into a web browser would only
be a viable option for a small number of suppliers. So they provided an
alternative method of submitting data both to WAWF and the UID Registry-a
transactional interface. That's just a computer term for putting the entire
shipment together and then submitting the shipment as a single file, rather
than filling in all the fields in a collection of web screens. Here's how it
works:
- Use a piece of DOD-savvy software to build a transaction file with all your shipment data.
- Send the transaction file to WAWF or the UID Registry through an approved communication method. (Your software should know how to do this with just a press of a button on your part.)
- WAWF or the UID Registry posts the transaction in exactly the same manner and to the same fields as if you had typed in the data (except that you saved all that time that it would have taken you).
This
article is an excerpt from the DOD Suppliers Guide - "Ten Key Questions
about your UID Plan."
