The General Services Administration (GSA) said today it plans to launch its new GO.gov travel management system for all Federal civilian agencies in November.
The GO.gov system is being created as part of GSA’s OneGov initiative that the agency launched in April with the aim of modernizing and streamlining Federal IT and other acquisitions through standardized terms and pricing.
Since then, GSA has inked governmentwide pricing deals on a range of services with tech firms Oracle, Elastic, Google, Adobe, and Salesforce, and with non-tech services firms including rideshare provider Uber.
GSA said that GO.gov will “serve as a single travel management solution for all civilian Federal agencies, providing a more intuitive experience for booking federal travel and better access to commercially available features like charge card integration and a mobile interface.”
GO.gov will be operated under a 15-year contract that GSA inked last year with IBM, which will build and operate the new platform that will integrate with travel management companies and manage booking, authorization, expenses, and reporting.
GSA said GO.gov is working toward achieving FedRAMP accreditation.
The launch date for the new platform is expected for November of this year.
GSA said that use of the GO.gov platform is expected to save the government up to $131 million in annual travel costs, “and approximately $2 billion in administrative efficiencies, over the life of the contract, by driving use of government-negotiated discounts.”
“There is little value in civilian agencies maintaining independent travel management systems,” said GSA Deputy Administrator Stephen Ehikian in a statement today.
“GO.gov is a prime example of how GSA continues to keep front and center the importance of being good stewards of taxpayers dollars,” he said.
“Common systems are an industry best practice and are proven to drive efficiency, promote compliance, and establish uniform processes across agencies,” added Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum.
“As part of GSA’s OneGov strategy, GO.gov will allow all agencies to accomplish more while spending less, improve performance, provide a better customer experience, and reduce administrative burdens,” Gruenbaum said.