Northrop Grumman snares Treasury E-Travel work

The Treasury Department has selected Northrop Grumman Corp. to provide online travel management services.It is the first of 24 federal agencies that will choose an E-Travel provider this year.Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems unit in Reston, Va., will provide Treasury’s GovTrip service under a contract worth more than $60 million over 10 years, the company announced today. Treasury processes about 420,000 travel expense reports annually, Northrop Grumman said.EDS Corp. of Plano, Texas, CW Government Travel Inc. of San Antonio and Northrop Grumman got permission May 17 from the General Services Administration to sell E-Travel systems to federal agencies. GSA manages the E-Travel program, which is expected to cut federal travel management costs in half over 10 years. The companies’ E-Travel systems will handle all arrangements, including booking air travel, hotel accommodations and rental cars, obtaining supervisor approvals, interfacing with agency accounting systems and reimbursing employee expenses. Tim Burke, GSA’s E-Travel program manager, said agencies have been preparing organizationally for the program for the past year, so less than three weeks after the E-Travel vendors were approved, the first agency was able to issue a task order. “The department can now reap the benefits of E-Travel sooner rather than later,” Burke said. Northrop Grumman’s subcontractors include travel agency American Express Co., which will provide reservation and fulfillment services, and Integrated Data Corp., Analytical Services Inc. and Bruin Wave Solutions LLC, which will provide information technology services. Leo Hergenroeder, Northrop Grumman’s E-Travel program manager, said the Treasury Department would implement GovTrip in phases. The first training class is under way at the department’s Administrative Resource Center in Parkersburg, W.Va., he said.