RESTON, Va., Aug. 26, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- More than one million travel vouchers have been processed by GovTrip, an online service that streamlines arranging reservations and managing expenses for government travel. GovTrip was developed by Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) for the U.S. General Services Administration.
The one millionth voucher was submitted by Dr. Luis Rodriguez, a research leader with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service facility at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York on July 15. As is typical, Rodriguez's voucher was electronically routed and processed, and he was reimbursed in about three days.
"Rapid reimbursement is one of the GovTrip features most popular with federal travelers, who previously often endured extended delays before receiving travel reimbursements," said Dan Gildea, GovTrip program manager at Northrop Grumman's Mission Systems sector. "Also, more than 80 percent of all GovTrip travelers book online, which is efficient and saves agencies money."
"Usage of GovTrip is increasing constantly," Gildea said. "On the day the one millionth voucher was processed, over 2,500 other vouchers were also processed in GovTrip."
In July 2008, over 65,000 vouchers were processed, with more than 9,000 users logged on to GovTrip each work day. An average of 506,257 Web pages were served each day, with a typical response time of about one second. August is on track to finish at an even higher usage level. In June, more than 55,000 vouchers were processed. Each month this year, GovTrip has broken its previous voucher-processing record.
GovTrip presents information to travelers that is compliant with federal and agency policies and procedures, which reduces approval errors. This supports the President's Management Agenda E-Gov goals of improving efficiency and effectiveness through consolidation, transparency, accountability and cost savings.
GSA's Federal Acquisition Service awarded contracts in 2003 to Northrop Grumman and two other vendors to provide Web-enabled, end-to-end travel services to thousands of government travelers on official business. The online service will replace more than 250 travel-booking practices at various agencies cutting travel management costs by an estimated 50 percent over the next 10 years.
GovTrip customers include the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Interior, and Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Smithsonian Institution.
Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.