The President’s Management Agenda (PMA), set forth in 2001, is intended to improve the efficiency and management of the federal government by improving policy and reducing fraud, waste, and abuse. As explained in the PMA, “new programs are frequently created with little review or assessment of the already-existing programs to address the same perceived problem. Over time, numerous programs with overlapping missions and competing agendas grow up alongside one another-wasting money and baffling citizens.” The General Services Administration (GSA) manages five of the initiatives including E-Gov Travel.
E-Gov Travel was launched in August 2002 as a way to use technology to engineer cost savings and employee productivity. Its use is mandated by Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) and encompasses all departments and civilian federal agencies with the Department of Defense (DoD) utilizing the Defense Travel System (DTS). This service will replace more than 250 different booking practices over the next ten years, effectively cutting travel management cost by approximately fifty percent. Three contracts were awarded for E-Gov Travel Services (ETS) in November of 2003; CW Government Travel (CWGT), Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), and Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS). These vendors were tasked with providing web based management services and after an additional seven months of testing, the first ETS task order was created in June of 2004.
ETS gives government travelers the capability to manage travel arrangements beginning to end through one web based government technology. Self-service booking is cost effective and government rates and restrictions are loaded into the common system. Travelers can book their own lodging and transportation needs. Travel authorization requiring detailed itinerary and cost estimates can be handled through the same system as, as well as, filing and processing official travel claims and travel reimbursement processes. By combining all of these processes in a centralized data warehouse allows for cost savings due to the large scale of business being contracted, lowers hardware and software maintenance, and fewer licensing fees as there are so many fewer travel management systems or products being utilized across the board.
By: Crystal Wright
References:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2002/mgmt.pdf