IBM wins $930M federal employee travel system contract
Gettyimages.com / Greg Pease
By
Ross Wilkers
The General Services Administration expects 124 civilian agencies to transition to the new system by June 2027.
IBM has won a potential 15-year, $930.5 million contract to help the federal government stand up a new system for managing travel and related expenses for civilian employees.
The General Services Administration established ETSNext as the new version of its E-Gov Travel Service that supports the planning, authorizing, booking and vouchering aspects of travel expenses.
All civilian agencies currently face a June 2027 deadline for migrating to ETSNext, GSA said Wednesday. Once that transition is complete, GSA expects the new system to cover 124 civilian agencies and at least 1 million employees that travel for work.
“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,” Tim Burke, GSA’s executive director for the Office of Travel, Employee Relocation and Transportation, said in a release. ETSNext will further category management objectives by consolidating more than 30 data models used across the ETS2 systems into one centralized model.”
When GSA issued the ETSNext solicitation in October 2023, the agency made clear that it wanted to move away from having two providers of travel and expense software.
GSA instead sought to hire a single company responsible for providing a shared service solution to be used across all civilian agencies. The Defense Department uses its own system to manage the travel of uniformed and civilian personnel.
GSA also outlined its desire for a “configurable (and) commercial” service with features such as charge card integration and a mobile interface.
SAP Concur and CW Government Travel are both incumbents on the current contracts that are slated to expire on June 3, 2027, in keeping with GSA’s timeline for the transition to the new system.
ETSNext will also have audit and reporting services to ensure employee travel is in compliance with government regulations.
GSA received five other bids for the new contract, according to Federal Procurement Data System records. The initial base year is worth $148 million.