GSA awards $450 million E-Travel contract to Northrop Grumman, Carson Wagonlit
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The General Services Administration this week awarded its E-Travel program contract to two companies, which will now compete to provide online travel management services to federal civilian agencies. <br>
The General Services Administration this week awarded its E-Travel program contract to two companies, which will now compete to provide complete online travel management services to federal civilian agencies, GSA officials announced today.
The 10-year $450 million, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract went to the Mission Systems unit of Northrop Grumman Corp. and Carlson Wagonlit Government Travel Inc. of San Antonio.
'We saw two exceptional providers on cost, value and creativity,' said Tim Burke, E-Travel program manager.
The two companies will supply end-to-end systems to handle everything from processing travel authorizations and making reservations to submitting claims and reconciling vouchers.
E-Travel is one of 25 cross-agency e-government initiatives that aim to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government operations. If agencies continued buying travel services using their current procedures, they would spend about $1 billion over the next 10 years. With E-Travel, costs should be half as much, Burke said.
The two services will be available for governmentwide use by December. All civilian agencies are expected to complete migration to the new services by Sept. 30, 2006.
GSA, with 22 other agencies, conducted a six-month review before choosing the two contractors. Their systems are similar; the primary difference is their user interfaces, Burke said. The contractors will be able to refresh their software periodically, he said.
The offering fielded by Northrop Grumman Mission Systems of Reston, Va., is called GovTrip. It includes implementation, training and the ability to interact with agency financial systems. Company staff will work with agencies to configure GovTrip to support their travel processes and preferences, said Leo Hergenroeder, Northrop Grumman's E-Travel service program manager.
'We think we have a very attractive value proposition and will be able to win most of the task orders,' he said.
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