GSA releases RFP for complete travel system

The GSA has released the final request for proposals for an online travel management system for the federal government. The contract could be worth up to $10 billion over 10 years.

The General Services Administration earlier this week released the final request for proposals for an end-to-end online travel management system for the federal government.

The long-awaited contract could be worth $10 billion over 10 years, which includes a three-year base and three option periods totaling seven years.

E-Travel is one of five e-government projects GSA is managing. Officials will build upon the online booking engine, call FedTrip, which GSA in December hired TRX Inc. of Atlanta to build.

Officials in the E-Travel program management office released a draft RFP in October and had hoped to release the final version in November, but the complexity of the contract and industry input delayed the announcement.

The firm fixed-price, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract requires the contractor to develop a system that will facilitate the entire travel process for federal employees, including a single environment for travel authorization, planning, reservations, fulfillment, expense, calculation, approval of reimbursements and data archiving. The vendor also must ensure prompt reimbursement of travel expenses, by automating the workflow and notifications for travel, exchanging data with agency financial and other business systems, and linking travel-charge-card activation, authorization and payments.

The travel system should be Web-accessible; owned operated and hosted by the vendor; and use commercial software. GSA also will require the system to accept digital signatures and link to the E-Authentication.

Proposals are due March 28, after which GSA will conduct two rounds of evaluations. There will be a pre-proposal conference March 4.