It is imperative that Travel Administrators develop a good working relationship with their Travel Management Center (TMC) and the E-Gov vendor’s TMC team. As a matter of fact, it is a must. You will find that it nearly impossible to administer your agency’s travel program without their assistance.
My agency has developed a mutual friendship and good working relationship between both parties. The TMC has been very helpful in assisting us with resolving issues and creating guidance for educational purposes. The same also applies to the E-Gov vendor’s TMC team.
The majority of our travelers were used to using an automated system. However, the reservation module was new to them, so they experienced quite a few problems in the very beginning. Of course, we had the travelers who did not confirm that they received their final itinerary from the TMC before arriving at the airport. The reason some of the travelers did not have tickets was due to a system glitch or agent error. However, if the reservations could not be confirmed by the TMC, the traveler would have received an email notification. We discovered that our travelers were not always responding to the emails from the TMC. We quickly realized that we needed to learn the ins and outs of the reservation module and instruct our travelers as to how it worked. The E-Gov vendor and the TMC team educated us on this process.
Since we would have issues from time to time, we decided it would be beneficial for all parties to set up biweekly meetings. During the meetings, we discussed the current issues and our concerns. The TMC provided answers or gave us suggestions on what we could do to improve the situation. As time went on, the issues decreased significantly and the standing meetings were cancelled.
Prior to converting to an E-Gov travel system, an agency/traveler would have been charged up to $40 (full-service fee) for a TMC fee. A benefit of converting to an E-Gov system was that the TMC fees would be as low as $4 (self-service fee), if the reservations were booked online. Suddenly our travelers were very concerned as to how much they were going to be charged when they booked their reservations either online or directly with the TMC. Our help desk received numerous calls from our travelers inquiring how much their fee would be for their reservations. In the past, the travelers did not give it a thought about how much the TMC fee would be. They just picked up the phone and made their reservations. The TMC team helped us construct a scenario sheet indicating how much the TMC fee would be in various situations. The scenario sheet has been extremely helpful to our help desk.
Some of the scenarios are outlined below:
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS with a carrier that participates in the GDS, the fee will be the self-service fee.
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS with a carrier that does not participate in the GDS, the fee will be the full-service fee.
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS and one leg is with a carrier that participates in the GDS and the other leg is made with a carrier that does not participate in the GDS, the fee will be the full-service fee.
- If a traveler has airfare reservations in ETS, which have not been ticketed and they make a change to them in ETS, the fee will be the self-service fee.
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS and the reservations have not been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to request an earlier or later flight for the same day, the fee will be the self-service fee.
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS and the reservations have not been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to request to leave a day earlier or a day later, the fee will be the self-service fee.
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS and the reservations have been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to request an earlier or later flight, the additional fee will be the full-service fee.
- If a traveler makes airfare reservations in ETS and the reservations have been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to request to leave a day earlier or later, the additional fee will be the full-service fee.
- If a traveler has reservations in ETS and the reservations have been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to make changes and requests them to ticket the new reservations, the additional fee will be the full-service fee.
- If a traveler has reservations in ETS and the reservations have been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to make changes, but does not have the TMC to ticket them, they will only be charged the original fee.
- If a traveler has reservations that have been ticketed and the traveler calls the TMC to get a seat assignment, the fee will be an additional the full-service fee.
- If a traveler selects advance ticketing in ETS, the fee will be the self-service fee.
- If a traveler calls the TMC to request advanced ticketing, the fee will be the full-service fee.
- If a traveler calls to have the form of payment changed, the fee will be the full-service fee.
The vendor’s TMC team also helped us in understanding the business rules. They explained the rules to us in layman’s terms. The business rules outlines all aspects that the TMC will provide in order to fulfill the reservations. Some of the information outlined in the business rules is ticketing parameters, processing of Premium/Business Class, the process for unused tickets and much more.
Both the vendor’s TMC team and the TMC were very helpful to us when we conducted release testing. We have always tested each release in training and then again in production. There have been many changes made to the reservation module. The vendor’s TMC team and the TMC were very helpful to us with the testing and educating us on what the new features would or wouldn’t do.
If you are converting to an E-Gov travel system, be sure to take the time and develop a good working relationship with all the parties involved. It is worth the time and effort.
by Pam Morton
The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.