Hanscom Electronic Bulletin Board to be phased out Published Feb. 8, 2012 HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. -- The Electronic Systems Center's Hanscom AFB Electronic Request for Proposals Bulletin Board, or HERBB, information will transition to Federal Business Opportunities over the next few months. "Although HERBB has been a very useful tool for us and industry, due to fiscal pressures and projected manning reductions, coupled with the increased functionality of FedBizOpps, the time has come for us at ESC to phase out HERBB and transition to FedBizOpps," said Chris Gerfen, Source Selection chief. HERBB was originally set up to provide an avenue to promote continuous, open dialogue with industry and academia on ESC acquisitions, both current and future. At the time HERBB was created, only physical copies of this type of information were being made. Computers were just being introduced at Hanscom and the idea came about to create an "electronic bulletin board." It became a repository and allowed for electronic distribution of items such as program information, requests for information and requests for proposals. Starting Feb. 1, no new program pages will be created on HERBB, according to Gerfen. Current relevant program postings and data will be transferred to each program's existing FedBizOpps page by April 1 and will be available at http://www.fbo.gov. HERBB users who have been following a specific program should begin looking for updates on the FedBizOpps site. The entire HERBB system will be decommissioned on May 1. At that time, the HERBB webpage, as well as any data associated with it, will no longer be accessible. "We are doing this in a phased approach to ensure that industry will still be able to access the information they need," said Gerfen. "We want to have a redundant measure in place until all the files are transferred." Training on how to use FedBizOpps can be found on their website and is highly encouraged for new users.