DoD Goes Paperless

ast year 27 Defense Department facilities cut their travel costs and processing time in half. They did it while testing the new Defense Travel System (DTS). In four years, when the new system is fully in place, every DoD facility worldwide can expect to reap similar benefits and savings.

Financial cost analyst Jan Christensen, who oversaw the pilot at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, is sold on the system. "The feedback I'm getting from travelers is very positive," she says. "Certainly there is a learning curve; some of us are reluctant to change. But the people who use it like it. They want the whole [process] to be electronic."

The Defense Department spends $3 billion a year on temporary duty travel,almost half of what the federal government spends on all travel combined. So DoD is a good test bed for new travel processes and technology.

Here's how DTS should work. Defense workers will enter their travel needs into a desktop computer. The information will be sent to the agency's commercial travel office, where the travel agent will make reservations and charge them to the employees' government travel cards. The agent will send itineraries and expected costs back to the travelers electronically. Travelers then will send the information to the official who authorizes their travel and expenditures. The software flags anything outside the norm for the authorizing officials. After authorizing officials approve the expenses, the software automatically adjusts the department's travel budget.

When the employees return from travel, they enter the actual costs of the trip into the personal computer. The software automatically computes the claim and initiates expense reimbursement to the travel card vendor and to the travelers. Electronic signatures prevent fraud. The software also automates random audits.

Christensen's experience at the mapping agency is a case in point. "We have improved the process from the time the traveler starts working on the travel voucher, through the authorizing official, until it goes to the travel pay people," she says. "They can process it in the same day, link to DFAS [Defense Finance and Accounting Service], link with the Federal Reserve, and get a payment in the bank in 48 hours."

At the Air Force 11th Wing, the Federal Automated System for Travel, a DTS-style prototype, has processed more than 45,000 travel vouchers in a paperless environment.

"With the manual order," says FAST project manager Robert Milne, "the traveler had to run it down the hall for a bunch of approvals and signatures. By the time you got done with all the checking the checker's stuff, manually computing the voucher with a stubby pencil and a stack of travel regulations, you'd put the check in the mail, and if you were lucky it would reach the traveler's home in three weeks." FAST has reduced payment time to a reliable 48 hours into the traveler's account using electronic funds transfer.

Getting Results

Three principles are guiding redesign of DoD's travel: Delegate authority, simplify rules and use best industry practices. With those principles in mind, DoD tested key elements of the reengineered travel system in 27 sites with 50,000 employees. The results:

• Average government labor costs of processing travel decreased 56 percent.
• Payment cycle time decreased 48 percent.
• Traveler and authorizing official satisfaction increased close to 100 percent on many factors.

In a June report to Congress, the DoD comptroller's office said, "Customers considered the reengineered process to be faster, easier, and more fair than the current system."

The pilot system faced some problems. Many arose because of software and network inconsistencies, as well as cultural barriers to change and the training required. Most difficult was changing the "rule-bound, compliance-oriented culture."

Still on the agenda: Simplify the travel rules, put in place DTS training programs, and improve commercial travel software.

Next Steps

In June, DoD issued a request for proposals for contractors to put DTS in place in the first of 10 Defense travel regions: Region 6 (11 Midwest states) has 70 major installations and 379,000 people.

"In a year or so down the road, users will say, 'this is the greatest thing since sliced bread,'" says Commander Bill Schworer, deputy program manager at the Defense Travel System project management office.

"We don't want to oversell the system or make false promises," Schworer says. "So often in government, change gets dropped in the lap of the users and after you get burned a few times you get cynical. A lot of people want to know 'will my credit card bill get paid on time?' 'will it cost jobs?' "

The answer to the second question may be "yes." Some loss of jobs is likely as systems become more automated and efficient.

Changes to the permanent change of station procedures are next. The success of the effort to reengineer temporary duty travel has led DoD to establish a task force to reengineer permanent change of station travel. Look for its report, due out in January.