GSA selects IBM to provide technology-managed service for governmentwide travel and expense management

November 27, 2024

WASHINGTON – The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has awarded a 15-year contract to IBM to provide a travel and expense (T&E) technology-managed service for the next generation of the E-Gov Travel Service. In addition to the standard features government travelers have come to expect, the new travel platform, ETSNext, will provide a more intuitive experience for booking federal travel, and better access to commercially available features like 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,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “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.”

“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. ETSNext will further category management objectives by consolidating more than 30 data models used across the ETS2 systems into one centralized model,” said Tim Burke, Governmentwide Travel Category Executive, and GSA’s Executive Director for the Office of Travel, Employee Relocation, and Transportation.

GSA anticipates that its Travel and Expense Shared Service, in partnership with IBM, will serve over 124 civilian agencies, more than one million federal travelers, and over 2.6 million transactions a year.

The T&E technology-managed service includes planning, authorizing, booking, and vouchering for travel expenses. It also provides audit and reporting services to ensure travel is performed in compliance with travel regulations. This streamlined and consolidated approach will make the federal government more efficient through standardization across agencies.

GSA’s Travel and Expense Shared Service and IBM will work with agencies to transition to the new service beginning in FY25. All agencies will migrate by June 2027.

For more information, visit GSA’s ETSNext webpage.

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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing about $100 billion in products and services via federal contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us at @USGSA.