News
Press Releases: Internal Efficiency & Effectiveness
December 18, 2002
President’s E-Gov Travel Initiative Meets Milestone with On-line Booking System
Booking System Will Manage Federal Government’s Travel Function
WASHINGTON D.C. - Federal officials today announced that the eTravel initiative, one of President Bush’s 24 E-Government initiatives, has met a significant milestone with the selection of an on-line booking system as the first component of a governmentwide travel management service. The eTravel initiative is managed by the U.S. General Services Administration.
eTravel supports expanded e-government by leveraging the knowledge and expertise of partner agencies and best-of-breed technologies to deliver an integrated, Web-based travel service to every government employee that is both easy-to-use and efficient to operate. When fully implemented, the eTravel service will offer end-to-end travel planning—from making travel authorizations and reservations to claims and voucher reconciliation.
The on-line booking engine, FedTrip™, is a self-service, on-line booking reservation system that provides federal travelers with convenient 24-hour access to reservations, profiles and itineraries. The system also allows travel managers to have direct control over specific variables such as travel policy, supplier preferences, negotiated airfares and hotels, car rental supplier agreements and traveler supplier preferences. FedTrip was developed for the Department of Transportation by Atlanta-based TRX, Inc., a provider of travel processing solutions to travel agencies, airlines, hotels, and corporations.
”A number of Web-based on-line booking engines were evaluated according to the needs of federal agencies and assessed according to functionality, system technology and scalability,“ said Tim Burke, GSA Project Manager for the eTravel initiative. ”FedTrip will provide federal agencies with a cost-effective, interim booking solution while at the same time giving federal travelers much greater control and flexibility over their travel planning. This first step will begin to lay the foundation for how the federal government will use E-Government tools to improve its travel operations. Deployment of a common end-to-end travel management service is slated for late 2003.“
The eTravel initiative will bring leading practices and technologies to government travel to make life simpler for government employees who travel and make government more efficient for taxpayers. Under this initiative agencies are working together successfully; continued collaboration will be key to achieving results in the eTravel initiative," said Mark Forman, Associate Director for Information Technology and E-Government of the Office of Management and Budget.
Additional information about eTravel is available at http://ftswebteams.gsa.gov/e-gov, or by sending inquiries to etravel@gsa.gov.
