GPW_AR_2013_Final_v10.pdf

125 year anniversary

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER’s REPORT

With 2013 representing a landmark year for the GPW, being its 125-year anniversary, it is only ½ tting to report that the 2012/ 2013 ½ nancial year period has been highly successful for the organisation. Highlights of the past year include an increase in revenue, which has more than doubled over the past four years, making the GPW into the R900 million company it is today. The awarding of new projects, including the rollout of the new national smart ID cards (of which production will commence in the second half of 2013) for the Department of Home Affairs, have helped the GPW to reach its vision of becoming the state’s mandated security printer. The organisation also undertook two considerable projects for the Department of Basic Education. The ½ rst was the / ha Ri Gude project, which saw the production of books for school learners, including numeracy, literacy and learner assessment portfolio books in all 11 languages, as well as English for Everybody. 719,622 books were printed for each category, at a value of more than R35 million. In addition to this, GPW printed the Train the Trainer Brochure and the Facilitators Guide (41,622 of each) as well as administration documents and banners and has been awarded the project to print in the next ½ nancial year. A second project undertaken for the Department of Basic Education involved the printing of Grade 11 Mathematics textbooks, Grade 11 Physical Science textbooks, Grades 4 – 6 Natural Science and Technology workbooks, Grade R readers, teachers’ guides, “Mind the Gap” workbooks, including geography, accountancy, life sciences and economics workbooks. In a project valued at around R255 million, the total number of books printed for this project came to 11,603,392. Projects of this magnitude certainly reflect the rising reputation of the organisation, which is growing both within local government departments and the private sector. Over the reported period, the organisation underwent the complex process of preparation for its new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system implementation and general technology infrastructure upgrade in late 2012, in order to streamline business operations and better integrate various business areas. This project has been successfully completed and GPW now boasts a state-of-the-art data centre, servers and network infrastructure, all based at its Visagie Street site, with more ef ½ cient and collaborative operations.A major part of this upgrade was a focus on information communication technology (ICT) security, ensuring that the GPW is resilient to intrusions and attacks, through the use of a number of security technologies.

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