Defense Looks to Modernize Handling of $11 Billion Account
by Cheryl Rosen /The complicated saga of federal travel booking is about to begin another chapter, as the Department of Defense sets out to modernize its mammoth 10-year-old travel booking and expense-reporting system, which handles an estimated $11 billion in travel annually.
A Request for Information (RFI) now on the street from the Defense Human Resources Activity office gives a hint of the complicated process interested vendors likely will have to follow.
The RFI states that the Defense Department (DOD) “is seeking information on how commercially available products and/or services capabilities might contribute to the modernization of the department’s current travel system.”
End-to-end management
The department asks for vendor input on options that might replace and/or modernize the Defense Travel Management Office’s current “fully integrated, automated, end-to-end travel management system.”
The request, which a Defense Department spokesman characterized as a “market research endeavor,” specifies that the department “is particularly interested in ‘best in class’ approaches to common travel needs.”
In a possible clue to problems encountered in previous government travel management systems, the RFI specifies that the Defense Department is interested in a system “that allows maintenance and upgrades in one module to go forward without unnecessarily affecting the rest of the system.”
It must also facilitate compliance with travel policy, according to the RFI, which states that any travel management solution must “be in accordance with the Joint Federal Travel Regulations (JFTR) and Joint Travel Regulations (JTR) and Departmental regulations.”
3 million trips a year
The Defense Travel Management Office processes more than 3 million trips a year and an estimated $11 billion in travel booking and reporting, based on a 1,000-page travel policy.
According to the RFI, the current travel management system, which was developed by Northrop Grumman, handles travel for the Defense Department’s 2.7 million travelers annually, enabling them to:
• create 3.4 million authorizations per year for travel
• obtain commercial travel reservations
• receive approval
• generate travel vouchers for approval and payment
• receive a split reimbursement between [travelers’] bank accounts and the Government Travel Charge Card vendor.
The travel management system is accessible through “a single-purpose web portal” available 24/7.
Tight-lipped
Insiders at DOD and potential vendors were tight-lipped about the RFI process, which is focused on a travel management system that has often come under fire.
Declining a telephone interview with Travel Market Report, Defense Department spokesman Nate Christensen emailed that the DOD “encourages all interested parties to respond with their capabilities, but cannot interrupt the process in place to promote a fair opportunity to the vendor community."
Challenging account
The DOD’s travel management system was handled internally by the Defense Department’s Business Transformation Agency until that agency was disbanded in 2011. According to the Defense Department, the system is currently “sustained” by Northrop Grumman, which built the system.
For the winner of the contract, keeping everyone happy is likely to be a challenge, as Concur found out after it was awarded the 15-year, $1.3 billion General Services Administration contract to manage travel for 70 government agencies.
First Carlson Wagonlit Travel, a former incumbent, sued, and was awarded a piece of the business. Then the Department of the Interior complained about glitches in Concur's rollout of the new system and asked for “compensation for the costs we have incurred as a result of problems with the system.”
Concur declined to comment for this story.
Not an RFP
Unlike a request for proposal (RFP), a request for information does not seek formal business proposals, nor does it commit the government to soliciting proposals in the future.
In its RFI, the Defense Department specifies that the Defense Human Resources Activity office “has not made a commitment to procure any of the items discussed.”
Responses to the RFI on the DOD contract must be filed in a Microsoft Word-compatible format by Aug. 29 at 11 a.m., EST. It is not necessary to file an RFI in order to bid on the contract, however.
The full RFI (solicitation No. DHRARFI7162014) is available on the Federal Business Opportunities website – www.fbo.gov.
File it under “be careful what you wish for.”