The General Services Administration (GSA) announced on Wednesday that it has selected IBM for a 15-year contract to provide a travel and expense (T&E) technology-managed service for the next generation of the E-Gov Travel Service (ETS).
A dollar value of the contract was not disclosed.
The ETS is a governmentwide, web-based travel management service, and is a mandatory solution used by over 124 civilian agencies. Task orders for the current ETS2 contract end in June 2027, so GSA is rolling out a new travel platform, called ETSNext.
In addition to standard features, GSA said ETSNext will provide a more intuitive experience for booking Federal travel. It will have improved access to features such as charge card integration and a mobile interface.
“When Federal employees travel on government business, we want to make sure we’re being good stewards of taxpayer dollars while ensuring a good customer experience for these dedicated public servants,” GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said in a Nov. 27 press release.
“This project has been led by human-centered design, bringing in user feedback, and delivering a solution that will provide a more efficient, easy-to-use shared service that will meet the government’s needs into the future,” Carnahan added.
GSA expects ETSNext to serve over 124 civilian agencies, more than one million Federal travelers, and over 2.6 million transactions a year.
With the help of IBM, the T&E technology-managed service will include planning, authorizing, booking, and vouchering for travel expenses. It also provides a streamlined approach to audit and reporting services to ensure Federal travel is in compliance with travel regulations.
GSA’s Travel and Expense Shared Service and IBM will work with Federal agencies to help them transition to the new service starting in fiscal year 2025. GSA said all agencies will migrate to ETSNext by June 2027 – when the current ETS2 contract ends.
“This is the first time Travel and Expense will be delivered as a shared service to civilian Federal agencies, making it easier to provide a modern, compliant, and secure experience for Federal employees traveling on official business,” said Tim Burke, governmentwide travel category executive, and GSA’s executive director for the Office of Travel, Employee Relocation, and Transportation. “ETSNext will further category management objectives by consolidating more than 30 data models used across the ETS2 systems into one centralized model.”
