-----Original Message-----

From: Papier, Joel (NIH/OD)

Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 10:18 AM

To: List ICTRAVELPOC-L

Cc: Stith, Kenneth (NIH/OD); Howard, Florence (NIH/OD); 'Mbharlow@aol.com'; Thomas, Sonya (NIH/FIC); Burr, Matthew (NIH/NEI); NIH Executive Officers

Subject: OFM Transmittal No. 174 - Governmentwide eTravel Initiative - HHS Selection of Travel Management Center

Importance: High

All,

The following information was transmitted to the HHS community by the eTravel Team. Please distribute this message to your respective IC Travel Planner and Administrative Officer communities.

Thanks,

Joel

The Department of Health and Human Services has reached another critical milestone in our plan to implement eTravel, one of the President's eGovernment initiatives. We are pleased to announce the award of a task order to Omega Worldwide Travel to provide Travel Management Center (TMC) services for the entire Department.

The Department has 23 TMC contracts with 10 different vendors today. All except for one of the existing contracts were issued under the GSA master contract for TMCs. This master contract expires in February 2005, and has been replaced with a new Travel Services Solution (TSS) schedule. Therefore nearly all of the Department's current TMC contracts need to be replaced between December 2004 and February 2005 (when the actual task orders expire).

The Department's selection team, which consisted of representatives from each of the OPDIVs and STAFFDIVs, spent a significant amount of time detailing requirements to ensure future services were at least equal to the services that HHS has today. Together they determined that if one vendor could meet their collective needs at a fair price then the Department should consolidate to one TMC. The requirements detailed by the team went out to the Department's top four vendors in the form of an RFQ.

After a thorough selection process, the Department determined that the vendor that offered the best value for HHS was Omega Worldwide Travel.

The eTravel PMO will be working with internal stakeholders, Omega, Northrop Grumman and the Department's current TMCs on transitioning the TMC services by the time your existing contracts expire. We will be developing implementation plans and activities and work with you closely to ensure transition to Omega is successful.

Omega offers numerous enhancements which will provide both quantifiable savings to HHS and additional benefits and services for both the Department and its travelers. Omega provides a full range of travel agent services necessary to satisfy the travel management requirements which includes, arranging and booking travel for individuals and groups; providing travel policy support; providing customer service; reconciling centrally billed accounts; and providing management reports. Omega's products and services will complement and support the HHS eTravel selected vendor in an efficient and cost-effective manner. HHS is pleased to have Omega as our TMC provider.