The Defense Department awarded a $263.7 million contract last week for an automated travel services system that promises to make the lives of DoD travelers much easier.
Once the winner of the contract, BDM International, and its subcontractors work with the Military Management Traffic Command to get the system up and running, DoD travelers will be able to use one system to book travel arrangements, get approval for expenses, look up travel regulations and file for reimbursements--a start-to-stop travel administration system.
The contract initially covers DoD travel region 6, which includes 11 states (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin) and covers about 200,000 travelers, according to the Pentagon. By 2001, the travel system will be used across the world by Defense employees. DoD will also let other federal agencies use the system.
During pilot tests at several DoD locations, travelers were reimbursed in half the time it used to take, costs went down 65 percent, traveler satisfaction went up and travelers got through administrative steps in a third the time, DoD says.
DoD concedes that its traditional way of doing travel business is annoying, laborious and slow. Accounting clerks have to go through as many as 25 steps to approve, authorize and pay travel expenses, requiring the traveler to keep track of stacks of invoices, vouchers, authorizations and other supporting documents. The Pentagon says administrative overhead for its $3 billion a year in travel expenses is about 30 percent of costs, compared to eight percent or less in the private sector.
With the new paperless system, DoD expects to save $300 million a year.
BDM's contract runs for five years, with three option years. Subcontractors include: American Express, GELCO Information Network, G2 Software Systems, HCI Technologies, MCR Federal, Oracle Corp. and Sun Microsystems.
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