Johannesburg, 23 Jun 2016
About the client
The Government Printing Works (GPW) has a long history of producing security printed matter such as passports, identity documents (IDs), visas and related publishing, offering services of the highest quality for government institutions.
Today, it ranks as one of the most progressive security printing specialists in Africa, boasting a high-technology production facility with world leading technologies. The GPW is the custodian of a host of government publications and provide publication and gazette services to the general public.
GPW's vision is to consolidate its position as the state's mandated security printer, while extending its reach into southern Africa's public sectors. In order to achieve this, it strives to provide cost-effective and timeous printing services to all spheres of government, while delivering information to the public through technology, innovation and service excellence.
Business case
For GPW, the processing of notices and publishing of gazettes has always been a largely manual process, which created numerous challenges for the organisation. Duplication of work (such as printing of electronic copies and re-typing), high printing costs and increased employee overtime costs were some of the reasons that GPW chose to implement an automated gazette solution.
The eGazette project was motivated by Intervate as part of the overall enterprise resource planning (ERP) delivery within GPW. Soon after the start of the eGazette project, the strategy changed to first focus on "quick wins", standardising of the Adobe forms and engaging with other government departments to gain some valuable guidance and advice (from SARS), where similar solutions using forms to automate the processing of information had been implemented.
Solution
In consultation with GPW, Intervate designed a gazette solution that focused on advanced automation and control capabilities when processing notices and publishing gazettes. In addition, the solution needed to create the visibility required to manage and respond to both internal and external requests, ensuring that all stakeholders were able to stay informed and up to date on gazette and notice information.
The vision for the eGazette project was to enable customers to interact with GPW electronically, which allowed for internal processes to be more effective through increased customer service and a reduction of risks.
Quality, speed of delivery and cost were the main objectives of implementing the solution.
The solution leveraged GPW's existing technology investment in Microsoft SharePoint, K2 and Enfocus Switch. Kofax and Adobe forms were also integrated as part of the solution.
Results
The key benefits for GPW from implementing this automated gazette solution were:
* To make GPW more sustainable and competitive
* To ensure standardised processes across all gazettes
* To improve Customer Service
* To show a reduction in printing costs
* To produce Government Gazettes on time, every time
While the full extent of the benefits will only materialise over time, some of the early results are already becoming clear.
Benefits
This solution has enabled Government Printing Works to restructure its operations in line with global best practices, to better achieve its mandate and vision. While these benefits are already apparent, the 'big win' will be the next phase in the programme, which will see integration between GPW's gazette operations and its financial systems - to ensure all notices are correlated with a clear view on the status of payment and (in some cases) the bulk-payment account to which it relates.
From the Intervate Programme Manager (Russell Glover)
The GPW eGazette project was an enormously significant undertaking for all parties involved. Making the decision to fully automate a historically manual process is a landmark in any organisation, and doing it in a critical line of business process like the Government Gazettes, created a fundamental impact on the effectiveness of communication between government and the citizens of South Africa.
The project had to deal with minimising the risk of publishing notices in gazettes, while at the same time introducing a completely new process that required both GPW employees and the South African public to change the way they worked.
The overall success of the eGazette solution can largely be attributed to the GPW management team and staff's commitment to the change. Without the buy-in and commitment from GPW, such a change in process and technology would not have been possible.
With a strong team of resources covering skillsets in Adobe, Kofax, K2, SharePoint, Microsoft SQL, C# and desktop publishing, the team was able to implement a solution that delivered on the GPW agenda and strategy.
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