Is GSA reducing the number of e-travel providers?

Is the federal government moving to one governmentwide electronic travel system?

The General Services Administration's draft statement of work seems to make the case that it is.

"The purpose of this firm, fixed price, Indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract is to provide a highly usable, secure self service and non self service "end-to-end" travel management service that is hosted and operated by a commercial vendor and provided to the federal government via a secure Web portal environment," GSA states in the draft request for proposals.

GSA issued the draft RFP Nov. 6 on Fedbizopps.gov and comments are due Nov. 20.

GSA held an industry day Oct. 30. It says it expects to issue a final RFP in January.

GSA awarded three vendors the opportunity to provide e-travel services to all agencies in November 2003.

Carson Wagonlit Government Travel, EDS and Northrop Grumman received a spot on the 10-year, $450 million contract.

The initiative has been mildly successful over the past six years.

The Office of Management and Budget says in their 2009 E-Gov report to Congress that agencies using one of these systems has decreased travel reimbursement processing time from more than seven days to an average of three days.

Additionally, 65 percent of all travel reservations are made online.

GSA says 23 major agencies and 38 smaller ones have fully or partially implemented the systems, and more than 170,000 vouchers are processed each month.

But the initiative is far from a total success. Three major agencies that account for nearly 33 percent of all federal travel have not moved to the new system-the departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and Justice.

The 87-page draft statement of work details a host of mandatory requirements covering everything from the use of smart cards to log on to the ability to upgrade the system as technology improves to provide access through mobile or wireless devices.

"The contractor shall provide ongoing support, including initial and ongoing implementation, deployment and training, knowledgeable, responsive, timely and available help desk support, timely and accurate reservation and fulfillment services, management of ongoing changes to workflow, ongoing changes to any and all financial system interfaces and mission related non-self service travel functions shall be included as further specified," the draft RFP states.

"E-Travel shall also support and facilitate all aspects of travel management including assistance with enhanced of all federal travel programs such as City Pair Air fares, FedRoomsŪ, SmartPay and government rental car program(s) through the use of policy settings, including but not limited to configurable context sensitive advice and displays, reason codes, and filtering."

---
On the Web:

FedBizOpps.gov -- E-Travel Draft RFP

FederalNewsRadio -- GSA makes its case that the government is a good buyer

GSA -- E-Travel contract awards press release

(Copyright 2009 by FederalNewsRadio.com. All Rights Reserved.)