Federal travelers are required to use a Travel Management Service (TMS) and their ETS. In 2003 the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) were published to state in Chapter 301-50:3 that travelers must use the ETS once it becomes available through their TMS.  However, for reasons beyond my control or understanding there remain individuals and groups who appear to continue to follow business as usual with no regard to the change in the FTR.  And, until someone with a lot more importance or influence than I have puts a stop to it, the practice will never change.

The ETS is the current way of doing business in the government. In November, 2003, three competitively bid E-Gov Travel Service Contracts were awarded to: CW Government Data Systems Corp (EDS), Northrop Grumman Mission Systems (NGMS).

Over my 20+ years in the travel field for the government; I have seen many changes.  However, I believe the current ETS can be a highly effective way of doing business IF and WHEN we can train, convince, or somehow force the employees out there who are resisting the change to utilize the system.  As long as there remain exceptions (as in employees) we will never have a fully effective system.

The current ETS is not designed to handle the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) vouchers, so these will continue to be processed manually at this time.

I believe that as Bureau Administrator for the ETS, it is very important for me to maintain an open line of communication with both the Department and our contracted ETS vendor.

Having a good working relationship is important no matter what level you are, or who you are working with.  In my position, it is extremely important as customer service is my main concern.   As travel administrator, I am the help desk for my office.  I also have Regional administrators who forward issues they cannot resolve up to me.  I serve as the liaison between the Regional administrators and the Department and ETS Vendor.

The relationship you build with your ETS vendor is a very important relationship.  We count on them to provide us the flights, hotels, and rental cars that we need to conduct our business; at the lowest possible prices.  If you do not have a good relationship with your vendor, how do you expect them to be willing to work with you on getting flights to small offices loaded into the GDS?  Or to make programming quirks or changes to enhance the system to better suit our needs?

Sure, there are times and issues that we all wish would get resolved, we as government employees feel the ETS vendors just aren’t listening to us on the priority of some of the issues, however; after taking this course, I now understand that the vendor is probably sitting over there with a list just as long as ours trying to figure out how to make everything work for everyone.

If you have a good working relationship with the E-Gov vendors TMC team, they will be more willing to work with you in resolving your help desk issues, and to resolve questions that they get from our employees.  Gradually; by working together, the issues and problems will decrease, which means the call volume for both of you decreases.

The ETS is a constantly evolving system, as we mold and modify it to make it compatible with our day-to-day operations.  Of course, the travel industry is constantly evolving as is government reporting regulations, so the ETS system must continue to be a work in progress to keep up with the changes demanded of it and its users.  Not only are we making demands for changes to keep up for current reporting requirements, we are preparing for implementation of a new financial system, so our ETS vendor is having to work with us on that as well.

Presently, we are in the testing mode for the next version of our ETS system, which I hope implements easier than the first.  So far; it appears to be more intuitive and user friendly which is what our travelers were asking for.

Shirley Keller

“The comments presented here are mine personally and do not reflect the views of either my agency or the government.”

With all of this attention focused on the Government’s travel spend, agencies are required by regulation to provide requesters with any information they may request (with a few exceptions) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or under the Open Government Directive.  A White House official recently stated to Federal Computer Week that people requesting data through open government initiatives are getting much quicker responses than people using the traditional FOIA channels.

Federal open government offices are promoting a culture in which large quantities of data are being made available to the public in easily accessible formats on a regular basis.  Each Federal agency now has one of these units that can assist people in obtaining the data they desire, which leads to more transparency and government accountability.  Each agency now maintains their own open government webpage (www.{agency name here}.gov/open) that contains information on the Open Government Initiative, the agency’s Open Government Plan, and most requested data along with links to FOIA information and other reporting mechanisms.  Other open government initiatives include Data.gov, eRulemaking, IT Dashboard, Recovery.gov, and USAspending.gov.  Agencies are required to update their open government data sharing methods according to the latest technologies that become available to them.

The use of information technology as a means for greater Government transparency has a legacy that goes back many years, at least to the founding of Thomas.gov by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. The leadership of the 104th Congress directed the Library of Congress to make Federal legislative information freely available to the public. Since that time Thomas.gov has expanded the scope of its offerings to include Bills, Resolutions, activity in Congress, Congressional Records, schedules, calendars, Committee information, Presidential Nominations, Treaties, Government resources, and a section for teachers.

More recently, in September 2010, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Managing Director Steven VanRoekel announced a suite of new tools designed to unlock FCC data and drive innovation across the public and private sectors.  The suite of tools released by the FCC includes a number of APIs (Application Programming Interface) — interfaces that enable communication between independent databases — for use by developers across a broad range of industries, including federal, state, and local government. The FCC also announced the creation of a developer community (http://www.fcc.gov/developer) designed to help drive future releases through feedback and collaboration.

Not only are Federal agencies stepping up to help meet the open government directives, many state and local governments are developing their own webpages and tools to become more “open” as well.  Open government is becoming part of the culture of all governments, not just an ideal.

So what are Federal agencies doing internally to be able to gather, maintain, report, and supply their data in response to the open government initiatives?  When it comes to Federal travel data, Federal agencies are required to maintain their travel records in the agency-designated E-Gov Travel System (ETS). Maintaining travel data in the ETS enables the Government to capture real time visibility into the buying choices of travelers and assist agencies in optimizing their travel budgets while saving taxpayers’ money.  However, the reporting capabilities of the current ETS that my agency utilizes are somewhat limited.  This should improve immensely with the award of the ETS2 contract. Our travel office can run standard reports from the ETS or submit a report or data request to the ETS vendor for reports not already created in the ETS.  The ETS vendor would provide the report/data from the ETS by creating a new query/report.  If the data was related to the reservation, the ETS vendor contacts the travel management center (TMC) to obtain that report/data.  This process can at times be time consuming, especially when responding to regulatory data calls.  Executive agencies receive periodic data calls from various regulatory agencies, such as the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

To assist agencies in their response to these regulatory data calls (among other reasons), GSA contracted a vendor, TRX, to develop the TravelTraxSM database web reporting system.  Currently, TravelTrax contains all TMC travel records for agencies utilizing the system.  This data includes all reservations made through the TMC. With ETS2, the ETS vendor will be required to submit all ETS data to TravelTrax as well.  Sometime in the future, travel card data is supposed to be submitted to TravelTrax, which would allow comparison of three types of travel-related data.  TravelTrax currently allows agencies to run reports on managing their spend on travel for air, rental cars, and hotels.  There are reports showing restricted tickets, international tickets, and the top travelers by spend.  There is another section in TravelTrax that allows agencies to monitor their data with data availability and validation reports.  A third section allows agencies to verify Government travel program utilization by running reports that show non-City Pair fare usage, lodging over per diem, and rental car spend.  The regulatory section of TravelTrax contains reports for premium-class travel, first-class travel, and greenhouse gas emissions, all which satisfy data call requirements.  There’s even a Sourcing section that covers marketing-type reports on airline, hotel, rentals, and city destinations.  The data can be downloaded into a .pdf or .xls format for further analysis.

With the implementation of ETS2 and wider utilization of TravelTrax, it should become easier for agencies to be more “open” with their travel data and to be able to fulfill FOIA and open government travel data requests in a more timely manner.

By Angela Miller

“The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.”

For the most part, our E-Gov Travel vendor provided what was promised. The system allows travelers to complete their travel authorization and book their reservations all at the same time. Policies and procedures are built into the system that ensures compliance with the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) and individual agency policies. These built in features allow the government traveler to complete their travel authorization without going to another web site to look up per diem rates or city pair fares. They receive pop up or warnings messages when they are outside of FTR or agency policies and can instantly go back and change their authorization or reservations to be in compliance or justify the need to deviate from policy. Today’s systems allow the traveler to return from their trip, log back into the same authorization and complete a voucher for reimbursement. If they completed their authorization to accurately reflect the authorized trip, most of the necessary information is copied to the voucher and the traveler only needs to update a few line items with the actual expense cost and they are ready to submit their voucher for reimbursement. Our current system allows the FTR and agency required receipts or documentation to be attached so that that it is readily available for the approving official to review and for post payment auditing. The system even maintains all documentation for the required retention period. With all that our current systems provide our government travelers, how can we say that we are still old school?

In today’s technology savvy world, everyone knows something about the travel industry. The Internet and mobile technology have vastly increased the public availability of travel information.  Web sites provide unprecedented transparency into fares and hotel rates. Smartphones serve up travel knowledge that arguably competes with what travel agents can see on their desktop computers and from their Global Distribution Systems (GDS). When all this is put in the hands of a talented, motivated, and mobile workforce with access to more and increasingly sophisticated technology, our government travelers don’t want to be tied to a “system” to meet their business travel needs. These wily travelers have figured out how they could use their personal smartphones loaded with leisure travel mobile apps to increase their productivity while on business trips. Instead of logging into a system to change their reservations to meet a new meeting deadline, they could access their itinerary right on their phone, update their reservation and be on their way. Technology companies, both inside and outside the travel industry, recognized this area of opportunity and have started to build applications that support corporate travel policies and booking processes, but what about government travel? Yes, even government travel is moving towards the new mobile connected school. GSA recently introduced the Per Diem Mobile App that allows travelers to look up Federal government per diem rates by city/state and ZIP code in locations throughout the United States and its territories. Some government agencies are developing apps that link their travelers to their internal agencies policies and procedures. But, are we there yet?

As we move towards ETS 2, travel managers must drive enhanced programs for the mobile employee. Our focus should be on not only keeping compliance to the on-line booking tools, but also have flexible and adjustable travel policies to support the road warrior. We should be looking for mobile booking tools that support the government travel programs.  ETS 2 will give us the opportunity to work with our selected vendors to develop smartphone applications that access the travel program, policies, and information.  As travel managers, we must lead the charge and be the first to say that the old school way of operating the travel program is over. Travel managers can help focus our agencies on getting in front of what the travelers have already embraced – using smartphone technology and other virtual collaboration tools to make themselves more productive. By becoming the knowledge expert on mobility and virtual collaboration we’ll find ways we can actually increase productivity and reduce our travel cost.

By: Carole Byrd

Disclaimer: The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.  Use of this equipment is consistent with the agency’s policy governing limited personal use.

Source:  ETS2 information is from this month’s Business Travel News.

By:  Joy Borja

E-Gov Travel is a Government-wide initiative that is mandated by the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR) for all federal travelers and is one of 24 E-Gov initiatives outlined in the President’s Management Agenda (PMA).   The E-Gov Travel vision is to deliver a unified, simplified service that delivers a cost-effective travel experience, supports excellent management and results in superior customer satisfaction.  The E-Gov Travel goals are defined as follows:  develop a government-wide, web based, world-class travel management service; establish a cost model that reduces or eliminates capital investment and minimizes total cost per transaction for the government; and create a policy environment based on the use of best travel management policies.

Recent studies have shown that approximately 70% of travel system users are new or infrequent travelers that travel less than three times per year.  Therefore, the system must be intuitive and easy to use.  Otherwise the traveler is having to learn the system each time they have a need to travel on official business.  Many travelers encounter problems when creating the travel authorization, making reservations, and using online help.  We routinely hear that commercial systems are much easier to use than the government travel systems.  However, government travel is more complex with the addition of the Federal Travel Regulations, agencies internal policies, required justifications for certain types of travel, funding sources, approval requirements, reporting requirements, etc.

Communication is the key to identify agency travel needs and develop requirements for the next ETS2 contract.  Many agencies customized the current ETS travel systems by funding enhancements to meet their agency’s mission.  These enhancements further complicate the concept of “one system fits all”.  In order to be better prepared for the next contract solicitation, agencies are collaborating their needs and identifying problem areas to ensure that the requirements for the next ETS2 systems are clearly defined and existing functionality is not lost with a new system(s).

In order to make a more intuitive and easy to use system, some of the areas that need to be addressed are, but not limited to, the following:  easier navigation through document preparation to ensure that the user knows what steps have been completed and what areas still need to be completed, the terminology needs to be consistent and easy to understand throughout the application, page-based help and help links, timely email alerts on actions needing to be taken in the system, up-to-date training materials, clarification on error messages so travelers know how to correct the issue, timely table updates by the vendor such as per diem rates, mileage rates, FedRooms rates, timely agency table update requests, auto fill of certain fields to avoid duplicate entry or excessive clicking from drop down menus, forward and back buttons to allow travelers to move within the application, ability to copy expenses through a date range for reoccurring expenses throughout a trip, constructive voucher functionality for comparison when traveler deviates from official business for personal reasons, dynamic routing capability for the building of the accounting string (most travelers don’t know their funding source), and other functionality to stay current with technology evolution.  As you can see there is a variety of areas that can be improved upon with the next ETS2 applications.

In addition to developing requirements for the ETS2 contract solicitation, agencies also place task orders on the contract.  These task orders further define requirements that are agency specific.  It is very important for agency personnel to know the master contract requirements as well as their task order requirements.  If the requirement is not addressed in either of these contracting vehicles, then the vendor may ask for additional funding to provide the service to the agency.

The EGov Travel Service has come a long way since its inception in 2003.  Collaboration, communication, and policy and system training are a few of the important components of the success of this initiative.  All parties involved must form meaningful relationships with each other for continued success, share best practices, and application enhancements government-wide.

With the evolution of technology, who knows what the next generation of ETS2 has in store for the government traveler.  Travelers, travel planners, budget reviews, and approving officials can prepare and submit travel documents electronically from several different media (computer, laptop, PDA, blackberry, other electronic devices) from anywhere in the world at anytime.  All government travel data will be consolidated into one reporting tool for consistent and accurate reporting.  Only time will tell where we will be in the next 10 years of federal travel management.

By:Julie Gilchrist

“The contents of this message are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.

A year ago, the owners of the E-Gov system made a request to all the agencies to review the information and see if any of it could be deleted. Our agency was the only agency that did not have a lot of old data in the system.  We know how important it is to keep only the most current data in the system.  For that reason, we process a yearly review of the data stored in the E-Gov travel system.  Some of the data that should be reviewed on a yearly basis is the list of the agency’s users, routing lists, groups and accounting elements. This will help the system run faster and the travelers and document preparers will have access to only the current data.

The agencies that we service are very good about notifying us anytime a user is exiting their agency.  However, once each year, we request a review of the users in the E-Gov system. We create a report of all the users for an agency and then send the list to be reviewed.  The travel contacts reviews the list and verifies that everyone on the list is an active user of the system. This is a good way to catch anyone who was not exited from the system once they left the agency.

Anytime throughout the year, is a good time to have the agency travel contacts to review their agency’s routing lists and groups in the E-Gov travel system. This is extremely important anytime an agency is going through a re-organization.  The agency’s organization chart is a helpful tool in establishing new and deleting out-dated routing lists and groups.  The routing lists are designed according to a traveler’s division, office, and/or branch. The routing list selected in the traveler’s profile must be correct, so that their documents route through the appropriate reviewer, examiner and/or approver in a timely manner.

We usually request the review of the accounting elements in the E-Gov travel system around the first of August each year (or any time prior to the new fiscal year).  A report of the accounting elements is generated and sent to the customer.  The customers review the report and determine if the accounting elements listed will be used in the next fiscal year.  This process helps keep the accounting data up-to-date and eliminates a lot of confusion for the document preparers and travelers. It also helps the provider of our E-Gov travel system from having to manage unnecessary data. If there are any questions about the accounting, the agency contact will consult with their agency’s budget office.

The accounting changes and the new elements are processed prior to the new fiscal year (usually the first part of September).  Once the new accounting is entered, the document preparers and travelers are then able to start processing the documents for the next fiscal year.

Once the prior fiscal year documents are processed (usually around the first of November), the accounting elements that the agency contact noted as not being necessary for the next fiscal year are removed.

Anytime throughout the year, if a traveler needs to submit a voucher for a previous year’s accounting, we will enter the accounting elements. That is if the funds are still available.  Since our E-Gov travel system is not a part of our accounting system.  We always verify that the accounting is valid in the accounting system.

These tasks will keep the data in the E-Gov travel system up-to-date and the system will perform better. My agency takes a lot of precautions in verifying and keeping the data entered into the E-Gov travel system accurate.  As we move to the ETS2 contract, this will be a good time for you to review your agency’s data, and only keep the most current information in your E-Gov travel system.

By: Pam Morton

“The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.”

My agency provides administrative services (i.e. accounting, human resources, procurement and travel) to other government agencies. I work in the Systems and Accounting Section of the Travel Branch.  Our agency uses an E-Gov travel system in order to process authorizations and vouchers for travelers. We have some system administration rights in the E-Gov travel system, which allows us to enter/update the data. It is very important to keep the data in the system up-to-date.  The system will perform better, if only the most current data is in the system.  I believe some agencies do not give any attention to the information after it has been entered into the system.

A year ago, the owners of the E-Gov system made a request to all the agencies to review the information and see if any of it could be deleted. Our agency was the only agency that did not have a lot of old data in the system.  We know how important it is to keep only the most current data in the system.  For that reason, we process a yearly review of the data stored in the E-Gov travel system.  Some of the data that should be reviewed on a yearly basis is the list of the agency’s users, routing lists, groups and accounting elements. This will help the system run faster and the travelers and document preparers will have access to only the current data.

The agencies that we service are very good about notifying us anytime a user is exiting their agency.  However, once each year, we request a review of the users in the E-Gov system. We create a report of all the users for an agency and then send the list to be reviewed.  The travel contacts reviews the list and verifies that everyone on the list is an active user of the system. This is a good way to catch anyone who was not exited from the system once they left the agency.

Anytime throughout the year, is a good time to have the agency travel contacts to review their agency’s routing lists and groups in the E-Gov travel system. This is extremely important anytime an agency is going through a re-organization.  The agency’s organization chart is a helpful tool in establishing new and deleting out-dated routing lists and groups.  The routing lists are designed according to a traveler’s division, office, and/or branch. The routing list selected in the traveler’s profile must be correct, so that their documents route through the appropriate reviewer, examiner and/or approver in a timely manner.

We usually request the review of the accounting elements in the E-Gov travel system around the first of August each year (or any time prior to the new fiscal year).  A report of the accounting elements is generated and sent to the customer.  The customers review the report and determine if the accounting elements listed will be used in the next fiscal year.  This process helps keep the accounting data up-to-date and eliminates a lot of confusion for the document preparers and travelers. It also helps the provider of our E-Gov travel system from having to manage unnecessary data. If there are any questions about the accounting, the agency contact will consult with their agency’s budget office.

The accounting changes and the new elements are processed prior to the new fiscal year (usually the first part of September).  Once the new accounting is entered, the document preparers and travelers are then able to start processing the documents for the next fiscal year.

Once the prior fiscal year documents are processed (usually around the first of November), the accounting elements that the agency contact noted as not being necessary for the next fiscal year are removed.

Anytime throughout the year, if a traveler needs to submit a voucher for a previous year’s accounting, we will enter the accounting elements. That is if the funds are still available.  Since our E-Gov travel system is not a part of our accounting system.  We always verify that the accounting is valid in the accounting system.

These tasks will keep the data in the E-Gov travel system up-to-date and the system will perform better. My agency takes a lot of precautions in verifying and keeping the data entered into the E-Gov travel system accurate.  As we move to the ETS2 contract, this will be a good time for you to review your agency’s data, and only keep the most current information in your E-Gov travel system.

By: Pam Morton

“The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect any position of the Government or my agency.”

Beginning with the introduction of the E-Gov Travel Service (ETS) in the early 2000s, agencies were presented with the option to procure TMC services as part of the integrated solutions offered by the ETS contractors.  The TMCs offered by the ETS contractors are referred to as “Embedded TMCs” while those contracted directly by the agencies are called “Accommodated TMCs” (because the ETS vendor must accommodate interconnections with them).  This new option raised the question:  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach?

The table below summarizes some of the factors for consideration and the characteristics of each for each scenario.

While numerous agencies have chosen Accommodated TMCs because they prefer the direct control inherent in that type of relationship, the majority of agencies using ETS have chosen to go with the contractors’ embedded TMCs, citing the reduced acquisition cost and “single point of contact” for managing all travel services as providing the greatest benefits to the agencies.  As agencies transition to E-Gov Travel Service 2 (ETS2), it will be interesting to see if this same trend continues.

By: John Potocko

Each week I meet travel agencies that would love to get into the government travel business.  However most are discouraged before they even get started.  They hear the challenges and the difficulty of new entrants in to the market.    For our industry to thrive we must attract new travel companies and a younger generation to become interested in our industry.

The federal agencies need to put substance behind the initiatives and not just words of apology.   We see going forward there are very real incentives positive and punitive adjustments being proposed in federal ETS2 travel RFP.  These range from online adoptions to service level agreements and others.   Also noting that the upside of these incentives does not appear to be in equal proportion as to the punitive side.

If this is deemed an appropriate government practice then why have Congress do the same to the federal agencies that do not meet their small business goals and set asides.  They should have to forfeit those funds that should have been spent on small or disadvantaged business and going forward reallocate them to other programs or agencies that are capable of making these accomplishments or programs dedicated to SBA.

Why create a set aside 23% of their budget for federal agencies when year after year they fail to me their objectives and goals and there are no punitive changes to create changing behavior within an agency.   If we make the federal agencies accountable maybe there is a chance to bring a level playing field resulting in new entrants to the market place and a desirable industry for the next generation of young people to enter.

 By Rick Singer

In order to keep the program’s fares to a minimum, the government has mandated use of CPP fares through the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR).  While there are certain conditions identified in the FTR that allow a federal traveler to book other than a CPP fare (e.g., contract carrier flight times do not meet mission requirements), the general mandate for CPP travel provides airlines with a level of assurance of the volumes needed to reduce fares to the levels that they do (even though anticipated volumes are not guaranteed).  CPP is a proverbial “win-win” for government and industry.   In spite of this, there are still additional opportunities for savings on federal air travel.

One opportunity that is available today is the increased use of capacity-controlled CPP fares (a.k.a. _CA fares).  According to GSA, increased use of _CA fares “can save billions” since, on average, _CA fares are discounted an “additional 18% below YCA fare(s).” (3)  The primary way of capturing this potential is through increased education of agency travelers so that they understand (and look for) this fare when booking their flights in the E-Gov Travel Service (ETS).  [Note:  The contracted Travel Management Centers (TMCs) will automatically offer _CA fares to travelers.]

Another opportunity is one that will be available in ETS2 (to be awarded in 2012) called Lowest Logical Airfare (LLA).  LLA is defined in the ETS2 Request for Proposal (RFP) as “the airfare associated with the least costly, FTR-compliant … travel option(s), that:

1. use a regularly scheduled common carrier;
2. prohibit preference for any airline, type of aircraft, and connecting airports, except as prescribed by the FTR;
3. may require up to one plane transfer both departing and returning;
4. depart from the airport nearest to the traveler’s duty station or such alternative airport deemed to be equivalent for such purposes by the customer agency; and
5. allow for a configurable number of hours leeway, known as the time window, in scheduling that may necessitate the traveler arrive up to half the number of configured time window hours prior to the start of his/her mission schedule requirements and may require up to a similar number of hours wait after the planned business ending time to take advantage of lower airfares.

Through the implementation of LLA logic in ETS2, federal travelers will now have a better view of whether the CPP fare or a lower, restricted, commercial fare may best meet mission requirements.  Before selecting the commercial fare, however, the traveler must assess the risk associated with anticipated changes to her/his itinerary (including cancellation) since financial penalties will apply.  S/he must also document the appropriate FTR exception code for use of a non-CPP fare in her/his travel authorization.

By: John Potocko

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(1) GSA Fact Sheet:  http://www.gsa.gov/graphics/fas/CPPFactSheetFY11_FederalTraveler.pdf

(2) CGTP Training Course, page 44.

(3) GSA presentation, “Governmentwide Programs – Connection the Dots”, SGTP AdCon, February 23, 2011