Travel Management-The Things You Need To Know

Everyone associated with doing business with the government is familiar with the E-Gov initiatives that were launched in 2002 by OMB. One of those is eTravel initiatives, which is designed to improve the federal government's travel process, reduce costs and improve employee productivity. The electronic travel (eTravel) project is grounded in the President's E-Government (E-Gov) initiative and the Administration's commitment to employ the latest technology to create a more efficient, citizen-centered Federal Government. Corporate America has been enjoying the benefits of consolidated travel management for years and is currently evolving toward a new model of service. The advent of eCommerce is a major factor in this evolution, initiating the trend toward direct connections to Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) for booking reservations, direct connections and direct payments to banks and suppliers. This also includes the use of web technologies to support the expansion of online self-service environments for travel management.

Over the past few years the federal government has been moving towards eTravel, but eTravel is the destination, not the journey. Through its eTravel contracts the Federal Government hopes to develop an environment and architecture to embrace the future while effectively supporting the business needs of the present. This includes software solutions that integrate reservation, voucher and approval applications and a business data warehouse providing aggregated business intelligence to support dramatically improved Federal travel management. However, there are a number of processes and events that need to occur along the way in order for the transition to an efficient eTravel management system to work. Some of these elements include figuring out how to integrate travel vouchers and documents into the current financial system, implementing one of the available eTravel solutions and the old cliché of getting buy-in from both users and upper management.

Since GSA awarded the eTravel contract in 2003, many agencies have selected an eTravel vendor and are moving forward with trying to achieve the goal of having the system fully implemented. In order to meet this ambitious date, an agency needs to analyze where they are now, and what they want the end result to be, and then map out the way to achieve their goal. This can be a challenge, in today's tight budgetary environment.

One of the questions that needs to be answered is "Who will manage the travel management system implementation and operations?" In the past, some agencies believed that the travel management system implementation and operation process was a part-time position that could be performed by someone on staff as an "extra duty." They soon found out that this is not the case. The reality is that travel management needs to have a dedicated staff that knows the travel management software inside out. The travel management team needs to be comfortable with the technical aspects of the software, be able to conduct training on the system on a national scope, be knowledgeable of the agency's protocol and terminology and be able to answer any and all questions and requests through an agency specific helpdesk. Ideally, they should also have some idea of the travel process from the booking agent's perspective.

When weighing the expense, it seems to be far more economical for an agency to procure the resources of a consultant who has worked with federal travel management systems and has benefited from the lessons learned along the way, than to start from scratch and either hire someone new, or reallocate resources to the travel management program. Choosing a consulting firm that is experienced in core accounting and financial systems implementations, and has applied this expertise to travel management systems for the federal government is probably the best choice.

The MIL Corporation has been assisting a number of agencies with the integration and business processes reengineering of travel management systems since 1997. Some of the agencies MIL has worked with on travel management systems are the Department of State, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Navy and the Food and Drug Administration. These agencies, and others, have turned to The MIL Corporation for assistance with world-wide training, integration of the travel system with their financial system, and helpdesk support. Both HUD and FDA were awarded "Travel Manager of the Year" awards for their strides in travel management.

The Transition to eTravel

In January, 2004, an amendment to the Federal Travel Regulation required that all civilian agencies begin implementing eTravel systems be the end of 2004, and to be completely operational by September 30, 2006.

A key benefit of eTravel is that the system is available anywhere you can access the internet. Previously, all travel planning needed to be done at the worksite. With eTravel, a Federal government employee can plan a trip from anywhere, and the approving supervisor can authorize the expenditure from anywhere. No longer does the employee have to wait until a supervisor is back in the office to make travel arrangements.

Agencies are already on the way to making full eTravel implementation a reality. A few have already successfully used the system to book travel, obtain approvals, and create voucher travel documents... all in a web-based paperless environment.

About The MIL Corporation

Found in 1980, The MIL Corporation is headquartered in Bowie, Maryland and operates satellite offices in Washington, DC, Lexington Park, Maryland, Charleston, South Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia. With over 400 employees, MIL currently provides public and private sector clients professional management and technical support services to meet the most pressing issues organizations face. For more information, visit our website at www.milcorp.com