Several U.S. government agencies are in the midst of deploying end-to-end travel management technologies—including pre-trip authorization, online booking, expense reporting and travel management company integration—as part of the General Services Administration's ETravel program. Aiming to consolidate processes across hundreds of government agencies and provide online booking and reimbursement technology for all civilian government employees within two years, the program is among the most widespread travel management initiatives ever undertaken.
So far, six government agencies have signed contracts with the vendors GSA selected. "Now begins the deployment," said GSA ETravel program manager Tim Burke during a panel at the Society of Government Travel Professionals held this month in Alexandria, Va. GSA said government agencies must select one of three ETravel end-to-end providers—CW Government Travel, Electronic Data Systems, or Northrop Grumman Mission Systems—by year-end and is slating full deployment across hundreds of governmental agencies for Sept. 30, 2006.
The ETravel program, which Burke described as an amalgam of corporate best practices, has its roots in corporate travel management, but given the federal government's sheer size and scope, the lessons learned and the level of success of the program is likely to shape developments in the corporate sector. "It is extremely ambitious but they've got some tremendous software involved," said Management Alternatives consultant Carol Salcito. "They'll have to do it step by step, just like any other organization. The government's just 10 times larger than any other organization. If this is successful, it's going to be an outlined process for others to model their programs."
Burke asserted GSA is "taking advantage of best commercial practices" to fulfill the ETravel mission, yet the scale of the project and the complexities of government travel exceed undertakings in the private sector. "The U.S. government is the largest corporate entity in the world," he said. "It's also the most complex."
Given the "93,000 civilian employees who travel for business every day," GSA estimates the government spends $100 million per year on the "operations and maintenance of travel management services," in addition to billions more on actual travel services. By moving all government agencies to a common platform, the government's program will replace 250 disparate booking practices, cutting travel management costs by more than 50 percent during the next 10 years, GSA said. GSA also expects to bring online booking adoption to 70 percent. As such, transactional costs, which currently average $52 for each reservation, are expected to dip to $30 per reservation.
The ETravel initiative is one of President Bush's 24 EGovernment initiatives, which aim to make the federal government "more efficient by using technology and putting more agency information and services online."
When GSA in 2002 took a look at federal government travel practices at President Bush's behest, it noted a series of problems not unlike those faced by corporate travel managers: a decentralized travel management structure with inconsistent processes and procedures across federal agencies, a "frustrating" experience for many travelers, "the need to maintain multiple, redundant systems on a standalone basis" and problems monitoring and managing travel at the agency level, according to GSA documents.
Although commercial offerings as well as government-specific offerings were available to government agencies to automate the travel process, "many agencies used outdated, paper-intensive planning, vouchering and reimbursement processes," according to GSA. In addition to the wealth of problems that made travel costly for the government and taxpayers, many agencies that had automated had not integrated reservation, voucher and approval systems, according to GSA. "There was a heavy burden on the traveler to navigate cumbersome processes and a patchwork of standalone systems," Burke said.
Reviving and Refining End-To-End
The concept of a fully integrated end-to-end travel management system for years has been a goal among many in the industry. "The corporate side has been looking for an end-to-end solution for years," said Bob Lichtman, Santa Clara, Calif.-based consultant with Corporate Solutions Group, which GSA contracted to examine vendors. "Because the systems really couldn't integrate well for most corporations, the whole concept was dropped. There are a few companies that have put together their own versions of end-to-end solutions, which was a mishmash of other systems."
While such companies as Xerox Corp.
(BTN, Jan. 29, 2001) and PNC Bank
(BTN, Oct. 27, 2003) have integrated solutions to create their own versions of end-to-end technology, examples of successfully streamlined systems are few and far between.
GSA is attempting to address the pitfalls that many corporate travel buyers have associated with end-to-end—from problems with technology integration to hefty upfront capital investments.
Dan Bohan, COO of Omega World Travel last year told BTN that since "there are different agencies and to standardize will be difficult," the likelihood of a "roaring success" with the government's end-to-end solution was limited
(BTN, April 28, 2003).Yet, GSA ETravel lead customer service representative Bryan King stressed at the SGTP conference that the ETravel initiative is meant to be flexible for government agencies in terms of integration. Each of the ETravel vendors is expected to accommodate integration with every governmental agency's TMC of choice, while also offering the ability to link to human resources and financial systems. "Agencies have a choice here," King said. "They can stay with their current TMC, as ETravel vendors must be able to integrate with the travel management company of choice."
While all three ETravel vendors offer government agencies a booking tool as part of their suites, the government already has contracted to use FedTrip, TRX's government travel version of ResX, and all vendors must be able to integrate to the booking tool—leaving yet another choice for government agencies.
According to GSA the three ETravel contractors already have passed "independent verification and validation testing" on the workings of the systems and their abilities to interface with TMCs and financial systems. King said ETravel has "proven to be the quality offering that was expected."
Lichtman said corporations also have been reluctant to implement end-to-end technologies due to "limitations on capital expenditures" and the burden on IT departments.
However, when GSA released its requests for proposals last year, it specifically required the vendors offer hosted applications that "require no IT setup on behalf of the federal government," King said, and require less upfront investment than technology licenses purchased in full.
While the government has addressed many of the problems that have limited the widespread use of end-to-end systems among corporations, the government is—despite many similarities—a different beast than Corporate America.
Lichtman in a recent BTN Op-Ed noted the government's complex travel standards that stem from an extensive pre-trip approval process that routes requests from approver to approver—not a standard practice among U.S. businesses
(BTN, Aug. 2). Lichtman told BTN that since the technology has met the government's intricate criteria, it should lend itself to the less complex needs of American corporations. "Theoretically, if you understand algebra, then you can add," Lichtman said. "Likewise, if they can make something this complex then they can make it more simple for businesses. Meeting the most complex scenario will make these products available to normal businesses because all they have to do is tweak them down—not tweak them up—to be viable in commercial environments."
Already, sources said they expect ETravel offerings to migrate to commercial entities in the future, though the vendors have made no formal plans to do so. "They all indicated that they feel that working with government business will be a great foray into the commercial world," Lichtman said.
As the government still has much to accomplish before its savings and efficiency goals are met, vendors and buyers noted mixed feelings on the likelihood of success of the government's program.
"This is an enormous undertaking," said Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition. "When all is said and done, there will certainly be a lot that will be learned from it—both in the area of what was successful and what were the pitfalls that were not anticipated. It's pretty big."