Department of State Global Publishing Solutions

Situation Before: The Office of Multi-Media Services provided the Department of State’s graphic design, printing, and copier programs through operations located in Washington DC, Manila, the Philippines and Vienna, Austria.  They were largely autonomous yielding very little synergy or cost savings.  The Washington element suffered from lack of capital investment and staff training.  Evolving printing technologies were not employed to cut costs.  The overseas elements produced high quality and timely products but could not recapture their expenses.  Multi-Media Services goals were not aligned with Department objectives, particularly Transformational Diplomacy.

Action Taken: Multi-Media Services (MMS) embarked on an 18-month process to improve its service through competitive sourcing.  The new organization, Global Publishing Solutions (GPS), will have centralized production and revenue targets and monitoring, a management information system encompassing all organizational elements and lines of business, and a quality control system based on ISO 9001:2000 standards.  Recognizing shifting foreign policy emphasis, GPS reduced staff and facilities in Vienna and Manila and will establish a new publishing operation in Cairo, Egypt.  Plants world-wide will use common graphic design and production standards permitting use of the industry best practices such as “distribute and print.”  GPS is a working capital fund business that must cover its costs.  Consequently, GPS will have an extensive customer outreach program assuring its objectives and those of its customers are tightly aligned.

Results: GPS is reducing its costs by more than 30 percent, for an estimated savings of $80 million over the life of the 10-year contract.