Gelco Travel Manager User Group (TMUG) Meeting Update

The Gelco Travel Manager User Group (TMUG) met on October 12, 2005 for their fall meeting.  The meeting took place at the General Services Administration building and included individuals from the following organizations: Department of Justice, Department of Transportation, Institute for Defense Analysis, Internal Revenue Service, Minerals Management Service, National Institutes of Standards and Technology, National Transportation Safety Board, Social Security Administration, and Smithsonian.

Three topics were discussed during the meeting.

First, Troy Thibodeau, VP Marketing for Gelco Expense Management, spoke to the group.  His message was about Gelco’s continued commitment to government clients and its Travel Manager solution.  Although Gelco is not one of the three authorized e-Travel vendors, Gelco still remains very committed to its government clients.  Gelco continues to make further investments and enhancements to its Travel Manager solution as reflected in Release 9.0 this year (for further details on Release 9.0, see the separate article in this Advisor).  Gelco recognizes that many of its government clients are experiencing challenges with the authorized e-Travel vendor solutions and does not want these clients to feel abandoned during this transition.  Gelco will continue to support its government clients and deliver leading solutions and services far into the future.

Next, Shameeka Soares, Account Manager for Gelco Expense Management, addressed the group and provided more information about Gelco’s newest Travel Manager Release 9.0.  The highlights of this new release include the following:

• New, more intuitive user interface, including a Web-based Admin module and streamlined screens for travelers and program administrators.
• Introduction of dynamic documents, which allow users to define multiple types of documents and configure each document to meet the company’s specific business needs.
• Expense improvements, including the ability to itemize an expense and streamlined, more intuitive expense entry screens.
• Introduction of reason codes, which allow users to explain why a travel document was not approved.
• Introduction of non-federally sponsored travel, which allows an agency to track travel that is paid by a third party.

Ms. Soares noted that there is no additional license fee for Release 9.0.  There are nominal fees associated with migrating an organization to the new version, which cover the costs of installing and configuring Release 9.0 for the organization’s needs.  Organizations can also purchase training.  Upgrades typically take between 2-5 days.  Gelco has not yet announced a retirement date for Release 8.2.

The last item on the agenda was a short dialogue about the e-Travel initiative and different agencies’ experiences with the initiative.  Many agencies indicated that they are in a “wait and see” mode, while other agencies indicated that they were in various stages of selecting and/or implementing one of the authorized e-Travel solutions.  The group shared some stories where the migration to an authorized solution was challenging and, in some cases, the migration was permanently stalled.  The group also shared comments on the merits of the various authorized solutions – Carlson’s solution was simple, EDS’s solution lacked the ability to manage to some agencies’ accounting needs, and Northrop Grumman’s solution was viewed as the only one working in several cases.

The meeting concluded with Tom Mundell, TMUG Coordinator, announcing that he will retire from his TMUG post in 2006.  He has already set dates for the next three meetings:

• Wednesday, February 15, 2006
• Wednesday, June 14, 2006
• Thursday, September 21, 2006

Please contact Gelco or Tom Mundell at 301-942-6108 if you are interested in attending one of the upcoming meetings.