Written by UCSF Campus Life Services Contract Writer and Project Manager, Judi Baker
Early in 2018, a representative from the Cyber-risk Coordination Center (C3, UCOP) reached out to The Studio at Documents and Media (DM, UCSF) for help with a rebranding and web project, design, and materials for the Cyber Security Summit, and assistance with design on the 2018 Annual Report.
Since this was pre-pandemic, the Summit was an in-person event that required programs, table tents, posters, and more. And, because the Annual Report was a print project, Senior Project Manager, Print and Design, Tracey Long, took over as the main contact and project manager. Long brought in an editor, designer, and photographer, and the report was produced in a couple of months.
Process Improvements
In 2019, Wendy Rager joined the C3 team as the Cyber-Risk Coordination Center Manager. Working closely with Long, they improved the process of creating and publishing the report. Long also brought on Studio designer, Ellen Sherrod.
“Ellen is brilliant at information design and has developed the UCOP Cyber-Risk brand to what it is today,” Long said. “We work with a number of different designers in the Studio, but once I find a good fit, I like to maintain that consistency. We’ve made a great team.”
In 2020, C3 needed to quickly switch gears to deliver a virtual summit in four weeks. It was all hands on deck to make this transition. The strong partnership between C3 and the UCSF team was a key to this success.
“There was a software learning curve, but we put together The Studio’s first virtual event,” said Long. Rager said the trust developed through this partnership created a team that was able to move mountains.
Thanks to the quick and skillful responses to the challenges of the pandemic, and the high engagement and satisfaction scores for their summit, C3 won the inaugural UC Tech Awards Program Golden Award for IT Security.
Cohesive Project Management
Long’s role as project manager on the Documents and Media side means that she hires the players, manages purchase orders and invoicing, generates quotes, tracks budgets, and keeps the project database and archives up to date. Though her background is in business, photography, design and printing, her best skill is knowing the creative people to pull together on a project.
Benefits to UC Clients
According to Long, coming to The Studio benefits clients (like C3) in a few ways:
- They can be recharged through a simple cost transfer
- They don’t have to go out for bids or produce scope of work documents
- They are experts in the UC brand guidelines
- They have access to the logo and photography libraries
- When they are the provider, the copyright to all creative remains with the University.
As an institutionally owned in-plant printing operation, Documents and Media can leverage the internal recharge billing process for UCSF customers and for other UC clients, like UCOP. And, the department supports diverse spending goals by partnering with key local small and diverse businesses, supporting the local economy and helping to keep the money in California.
“We really strive to keep the funds within UC as much as possible. This arrangement helps in that goal,” added Rager.
“Our team appreciates all the opportunities we receive to support the various UCOP customers, like Wendy and the Cyber-risk Coordination Center (C3), we have today.” said Associate Director of Documents & Media, Mario Carmona.
To see the online versions of the 2019-2022 Cyber Risk Program Annual Reports, visit https://security.ucop.edu/about/annual-report.html.
