In 2002, General Services Administration (GSA) initiated the introduction of electronic travel systems to create an end-to-end travel process that included: authorizations, travel reservations and voucher filing. The system also had to incorporate the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR). The system, better known as E-Gov Travel Service or ETS, had to include a service for booking common carrier, lodging, and rental car reservations. It also had to take into consideration Government wide travel policies, ticketing requirements, contract city-pair fares, per diem rates, Fedrooms and FEMA approved properties.
Along with these requirements, the system had to have reporting functionalities. It had to be able to determine the number of reservations by type of service, if reservations were in compliance with travel policy and reasons for exceptions; along with origin and destination of flights, location where lodging accommodations and rental car reservations are being made. The reports could be scheduled on a routine basis or could be ordered individually.
On the back-end, once a trip has taken place, the system had to include an interfacing program to link up with a federal agency financial system for voucher payment. The interface reduced reimbursement time for the traveler to less than 5 days in most cases. It also created electronic tracking of funds and payment reconciliation processes.
After much evaluation and confirmation that all requirements were met, GSA awarded contracts to three companies. Once the awards were issued, federal agencies were tasked with the duty of selecting an ETS vendor by December 2004.
By: Chanda Garrett
The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.