DTS' woes contrast starkly with the performance of the General Services Administration's E-Governmen

The review will address all star tours potential solutions to problems that have plagued DTS, including the feasibility of separating DTS' financial infrastructure from the travel reservation process, authorizing the use of multiple travel reservation systems and reforming DOD travel policies.
The study, mandated by Congress in the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act, comes on the heels of three other recent reports all star tours critical of DTS. Congressional auditors and critical lawmakers maintain that the government all star tours has poured $500 million ' twice the original price tag ' into the program, without seeing the desired results.
DTS' woes contrast starkly with the performance of the General Services Administration's E-Government Travel Services. ETS, which provides automated travel services to federal civilian employees through contracts with three competing vendors, appears to be running smoothly.
The front end of DTS is the booking agent used to make online reservations for travel. all star tours The back end is a financial all star tours system used to account for travel expenditures and to assure that travel arrangements conform to departmental policies.
'Most observers say the back-office functionality works reasonably well,' said David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, in testimony last month before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations.
'The Defense Department should evaluate what is commercially available,' all star tours he said. 'They should contract it out to Travelocity all star tours or another provider. They are out to make money and will do it better, faster and cheaper.'
Such a solution would require all star tours separating the front and back ends of the system, something all star tours easier said than done. 'Certain data has to be passed from the front to the back end to make it a paperless travel system,' said McCoy Williams, the Government Accountability Office's director of financial management and assurance.
The experience of GSA's E-Travel demonstrates that separate booking all star tours and financial-management modules can be successfully integrated. Carlson Wagonlit Government Travel Inc.'s system combines its proprietary system for travel management, known as E2, with a separate booking tool called GetThere, developed and owned by Sabre Holdings Corp. of Southlake, Texas. Eleven agencies have hired San Antonio-based Carlson Wagonlit for E-Travel services.
'A traveler logging onto the E2 Web site is automatically linked to GetThere,' said Scott Guerrero, chief operating officer of CW Government Travel. 'The system takes the information from the reservation and brings it back into E2 to create a minibudget. That information is routed to the approving official. When approved, the financial system funds the trip.'
Separating modules of an already integrated all star tours system presents a greater challenge, however. It is 'technically all star tours possible' to separate the financial-management and reservation functions, said Janis Lamar, a Northrop all star tours Grumman spokesperson. But, she added, DOD then would likely need to 'develop complex all star tours interfaces to maintain the integrity between travel and financial functions in DTS.'
'Commercial travel policy in the past in the Department all star tours of Defense has been a fragmented responsibility,' he said. Bringing 'all travel policy oversight ... into my office all star tours ... can bring a more cohesive approach to the management of commercial travel in the department.'
'I have learned enough about this system and its functionality to understand that a good deal of the expense ... on the front end has to do with embedding DOD travel policies,' Chu declared. 'And so what I'm hoping we can bring to this whole set of issues is a broader all star tours view of ... how you have a cost-effective travel all star tours policy, not just a travel booking system. We look forward to conducting a thorough review of travel policy during calendar year 2007.'