"The DTS is coming!

"Within the next few years, we will deploy DTS to most high-volume travel sites within DoD. It will take time to deploy DTS to all of the Department of Defense, but the process has begun."

COLONEL LARRY SCHAEFER

DTS Program Manager

Deployment of the long-awaited Defense Travel System (DTS) is under way. The locations where the system is being deployed this year correspond to the stars displayed in the DTS advertisement making its debut in this issue of Armed Forces Comptroller. The deployment of DTS is a major accomplishment for the inter-Service Defense Travel Team, and is the first phase in a worldwide rollout.

Of special note, Washington, D.C., will be the site for four fieldings of the DTS: Marine Corps Headquarters, the Navy's Office of the Chief of Information, the Navy's Office of Supply and Logistics (known as N41), and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service Headquarters itself.

"Within the next few years, we will deploy DTS to most high-volume travel sites within DoD," says Colonel Larry Schaefer (USAF), the DTS Program Manager. "Next year, for instance," he explains, "we're already scheduled to go to nearly 60 sites, and the following year we're planning to reach many more. It will rake time to deploy DTS to all of the Department of Defense, but the process has begun.

Colonel Schaefer's Chief of Fielding, Colonel Alan Tomson (USA), has people on the ground at each deployment site before and during the fielding. Colonel Tomson notes, "In simple terms, the DTS will mean online TDY [temporary duty] travel for virtually every person in the Department of Defense, both civilian and military."

"To me, this is a quality-of-life issue for our soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen and -women, as well as our Defense civilians," Tomson relates. "With DTS, they'll get reimbursed for their travel expenses in 2 or 3 days, not 2 or 3 weeks, or much longer, as too often was the case in the past. The DTS is a state-of-the-art, 21st-century e-commerce system, and our people deserve it. Why should they be subjected to antiquated business practices? Why should they have to finance our operations, which in effect they are doing when we don't reimburse them promptly?"

From Interim Systems to Real-World Operation

Two of the deployment sites, Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station, South Carolina, and the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, have had this past year the benefit of using an interim system known as DTS-Limited. DTS-Limited aids sites in making the transition to fall DTS. This sometimes is necessary when either information technology infrastructure impediments or connectivity issues preclude the full range of DTS capabilities.

Customers at both sites attest to the advantages and quality-of-life improvements. Jim Carroll, who oversaw the implementation of DTS-Limited this past year at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah (a satellite activity of the Aberdeen Proving Ground), notes, "Quality of life was improved with DTS, not to mention that the government recovered productive work time."

As DTS matures, the Department of Defense finance and accounting community will derive benefits that run the gamut from more accurate financial records and automated voucher processing to the elimination of cross disbursements (the requirement for one service to reimburse another when travel is performed on behalf of other services). There also will be a significant reduction in unmatched disbursements.

Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, last year was the site of DTS operational assessment. The Ellsworth site gave the DTS ream a real-world environment to test its system. At the same time, the Department learned a lot about DTS and helped the developers identify areas that could be improved.

As with any new system, there have been minor glitches along the way; but developers, testers, and users of DTS so far feel that it will be a timesaving, convenient tool for Department travelers. DTS users will be able to take advantage of accurate financial records, automated processing of vouchers, and fully automated reconciliation of travel card centrally billed accounts--important and exciting functionality that will be fielded in the future.

DTS Flexibility Translates to Individualized Efficiency

The DTS is flexible--one of its major advantages. For example, each organization can determine the best way to utilize the system. Those with frequent travelers may want to put the program on each desktop, while other organizations may opt to have DTS only at centralized locations, with help available for infrequent travelers.

DTS puts the approval of travel arrangements and the certification of travel vouchers at the traveler's worksite instead of in the supporting bill-paying or disbursing office. This allows decision-making to take place at the lowest level, where the mission actually is performed.

The DTS budget module enables management at all levels to apply strict financial limitations and to control travel obligations. Data is easily accessible, and expenditures are easy to track.

Training--A Key Component

To prepare each site for DTS, the Program Management Office and the lead contractor, TRW send mobile training teams to the field. These trainers spend much of their time modifying and enhancing business processes, training the key local Defense travel personnel to be effective DTS administrators, and helping on-site personnel to train others so that they can spread the knowledge of how best to engage the new system.

In addition, to alert service members and Defense civilians to the changes that are about to take place at their installations, communications materials have been developed and field-tested at a spectrum of installations that included Scott Air Force Base, Illinois; Fr. Leavenworth, Kansas; Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois; Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri; Langley Air Force Base, Virginia; and Crane Navy Weapons Depot, Indiana.

Colonel Schaefer's goal, which is shared by all of the services' representatives, is to field DTS rapidly, get its capabilities out to the user community, and ultimately make DoD business travel and the administration of that travel quicker, easier, and better for all personnel within the Department.

Anthony C. Garcia is a traffic management specialist in the Business Processes Branch of the Program Management Office, Defense Travel System (PMODTS). He is involved in the functional management of the DTS. Mr. Garcia's transportation career began in 1964 at Fart Ord, California, where he spent 25 years in the personal property field, serving as chief at the Personal Property Inspection Team and later as chief of the Personal Property Branch. He transferred to HO, Military Traffic Management Command as a traffic management specialist in 1989, where he joined the Passenger Travel Branch until his transfer to the PMO-DTS, Currently, Mr. Garcio is serving as the PMO's public affairs officer and is involved with the fielding of the OTS. Mr. Garcia attended Sacramento State College and Monterey Peninsula College and brings 38 years of government transportation experience to his current position.