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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, DC
– 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.
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