Home

My Expertise

Feature articles, personality profiles, news reports, technical documentation, knowledge base articles, quick reference guides, marketing copy, blog posts, newsletters, SEO, and more. 

Let's work together! Contact me at markhersberger@gmail.com.

About Me

My name is Mark Hersberger and I'm an accomplished writer with more than 20 years experience. In addition to freelance projects I have extensive experience in IT, higher education, retail and consumer marketing, and the staffing industry. 

Annual Reports

ITS Annual Report 2022-2023

Embracing the Future of Learning 
At IT Services, everything we do is dedicated to ensuring students have the opportunity to become changemakers, equipped with the multidisciplinary tools needed to accelerate answers to our world’s most pressing issues. As a result of both Covid-necessitated innovations and accelerating the roadmap of planned enhancements, IT Services’ educational technology teams continue to pursue, embrace and implement cutting-edge technologies in support of student success a...

Email Blast and Newsletters

Graphics

Social Media Graphic

Info graphic

Email Header

Select Articles

For Sheryl Gerbracht, a Career that Added Up

By Mark Hersberger

“I loved my spreadsheets!” exclaimed Sheryl Gerbracht while explaining her choice to earn a Bachelor’s degree in accounting and MBA in finance from San Diego State. “I was always pretty good at math. I liked the analysis that took place - looking at sets of data, and the relationships, and determining if they were telling me what I was expecting or wasn’t expecting.”

Sheryl ended up forging a long career in the accounting and finance fields - one that will draw to a close wh...

UC Tech Lifetime Impact Award Honoree Jim Madden Reflects on 50 Years at UC San Diego

It Began on a Burroughs B6700

Madden got his start in computers at the University of Illinois back in the late 1960s. After earning a math degree, he was working on a master’s degree in electrical engineering and also working part time at the university developing weather forecasting models. To do this, he used a partially-designed but not-yet-built primitive supercomputer. Called Illiac IV, the supercomputer was meant to increase computing speed by working within a system of machines, includin...

UC Secures Systemwide Kaltura Agreement

The University of California has secured a systemwide agreement for Kaltura as an enterprise video content management (EVCM) solution.

By Mark Hersberger, Communications Manager

As announced on the UC IT Blog, the University of California has secured a systemwide agreement for Kaltura as an enterprise video content management (EVCM) solution.

UC San Diego has used Kaltura for several years, but the dawn of the Age of Covid necessitated and accelerated the need for a systemwide agreement, expl...
UC Tech News •

Process Mapping Community of Practice Takes Flight

By Mark Hersberger. Process mapping is a valuable skill—not just in IT but in multiple functions. Tools and approaches abound, and the Meaningful Actionable Process Structures Community of Practice (MAPSCoP, for short) has been created to bring UC enthusiasts together.

Recently, Nick Endsley (UC Berkeley), Katie Mankins (UC Santa Barbara), and Antonio Nava (UC San Diego) joined UC San Diego’s The Current podcast to discuss the foundation of MAPSCoP, its purpose, and how to get involved.

The gr

FIS Release Takes UC San Diego into New Era

UC San Diego’s Financial Information System (FIS) project is live with the release of Oracle Financials Cloud, a world-class financial system, and Concur, a new travel and expense system. FIS is a signature component of the Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) program—the largest technology improvement program ever undertaken at UC San Diego. 
"Our new financial system opens up a slew of new opportunities,” said Bill McCarroll, Senior Director, Internal Controls & Accounting, and FIS Business Proces...

UC San Diego Wins Prestigious CIO 100 Award

Each year, the CIO 100 Awards celebrate 100 organizations across the globe driving IT innovation. This year, UC San Diego received this distinction for setting an inspiring example of how IT leadership, business partnerships and customer engagement are shaping the future.

UC San Diego was honored for a universitywide continuous improvement renaissance that started in late 2016, when IT Services committed to Lean Six Sigma (LSS) training for all its staff. Lean Six Sigma is a methodology used to...

Kuali Research Release

On January 21, UC San Diego activated Kuali Research as the university’s new system for research administration. The go-live was the culmination of a multi-year process that included business process improvement, technical implementation, training and more.
Kuali Research is in place to manage the university’s $1B (and growing) annual research portfolio. “With Kuali Research, we’re able to process a large variety of research agreements in one system, and that provides alignment with the various...

Lean Bench 2019 Recap

UC San Diego’s Lean Bench, a team of Lean Six Sigma experts, has completed another successful year of bringing process improvement to Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR). The group recently met to recognize accomplishments of its 2019 cohort and welcome new members for 2020.  
Over the past year, the Lean Bench continued work on the Research Administration and Financial Information System projects, and started work on the Student Information Systems project. Stay tuned for future ESR newsletters, w...

Service & Support Portal Live

Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) will change a lot about how you work, including new, streamlined processes and leading-edge technology solutions.  
In conjunction with ESR, the way you experience customer support campuswide will also change. On January 13, a new, centralized Service & Support Portal came online at support.ucsd.edu. The site provides one place for faculty, staff and students to access help for business services and IT needs. 
Why centralize? “As a university, we’re moving to a c...

Document Management Made Easy

Have you ever wondered where documents should be stored, how long they should be retained or who will have access to the data?
Have you ever encountered difficulty exchanging documents and other types of content with other departments? For example, your information is in one format, their information is in another, and there is no sensible way to bridge the gap. The result is likely a series of manual, repetitive tasks designed to duplicate the content so it can be shared.  
The Enterprise Docu...

UC San Diego Updates edX Platform to Improve Online Learning Experience

The University of California San Diego was collecting test scores and other learning metrics from 3.4 million students engaged in its offering of 90 massive, open, online courses (MOOCs). However, due to incompatibilities between the data format and campus analytics applications, the university had no effective way of using the data to improve courses and learning outcomes. Diving into the issue, UC San Diego’s IT Services, along with industry partners Arbisoft and Amass, found a workable soluti...

Kuali COI Simplifies Disclosure Process for Researchers

On January 21, the Kuali Conflict of Interest (COI) module went live as a web-based platform to create an electronic process for conflict of interest disclosures at UC San Diego. Releasing the module on time (in conjunction with Kuali Research) is a major milestone.The Kuali COI system determines which activity researchers must disclose to comply with university, state and federal government disclosure requirements. The COI module sends an email to researchers and their delegated support staff w...

Kuali Research Project Experiences Lean Bench in Action

Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) is not just about upgrading outdated and inefficient business systems. Review and improvement of business processes is an equally important part of the program. The combination ensures that as outdated systems are replaced, the processes used to access the systems are updated and efficient to work with today’s robust enterprise systems.

UC San Diego’s Lean Bench team conducts process reviews for ESR projects using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology. LSS improves p...

Lean Bench Wraps Successful First Year

It’s been a busy first year for the UC San Diego Lean Bench, a team of Lean Six Sigma experts tasked with implementing process improvement efforts for Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) projects and other campuswide initiatives.

On the ESR front, Lean Bench has engaged with the Space Management, Financial Information Systems, Kuali Research Administration and AP Next projects. It also helped out One Card, a non-ESR effort designed to consolidate the various campus IDs into a single, all-purpose c...

Expert Sourcing at Work

Expert Sourcing at Work - ESR by the Numbers

“Expert sourcing” – relying on UC San Diego talent – lies at the heart of our approach to Enterprise Systems Renewal. As the program works to reshape the way UC San Diego does business, our diverse set of contributors, project team members, subject matter experts (SMEs) and change champions is making an impact.

The Financial Information Systems project, for example, involved more than 200 people in recent conference room pilots to review prospective
UC Tech News •

Implementing Business Excellence at UC San Diego

UC Tech NewsJuly 18, 2018All Articles, Feature ArticlesAhren Crickard, BE-CoP, Mark Hersberger, UC San Diego, UCCSC, UCSDBy Mark Hersberger. UC San Diego means business when it comes to integrating a mindset of continuous improvement and business excellence. It all comes together through the Business Excellence Community of Practice (BE-CoP), which facilitates training and idea sharing at the intersection of project management, change management and continuous improvement through Lean Six Sigma....

Delivering Smarter Systems

Your favorite apps and software programs are probably simple and intuitive, yet powerful. They can communicate with each other and share data.

Compare those with the applications you use at work. Not quite the same. Enterprise Systems Renewal (ESR) exists to fix that.

How We Got Here and Where We’re Going

Applications like the financial and student information systems that keep campus running came online decades ago. Thanks to continual upgrades, lots of tinkering and countless customizations
UC Tech News •

Process Palooza – Lean Six Sigma in Action at UC San Diego

UC Tech NewsFebruary 28, 2018All Articles, Feature ArticlesLean Six Sigma, Mark Hersberger, Process PaloozaBy Mark Hersberger.  What do you get when you mix a day of education and competition centered around continuous improvement?
Process Palooza – a first-of-its kind event showcasing how UC San Diego gains efficiencies through Lean Six Sigma (LSS).
Attendees convened November 8, 2017, for an action-packed agenda. Experienced LSS practitioners tackled a real UC San Diego business challenge, whi...

Select Campus Memos and Leadership Messages

Duo Upgrade and New Login Experience

OFFICE OF THE INTERIM CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH
March 11, 2024

OFFICE OF THE INTERIM CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH

March 11, 2024

ALL ACADEMICS, STAFF, AND STUDENTS AT UC SAN DIEGO (Including UC San Diego Health)



Duo Upgrade and New Login Experience

Effective March 26, 2024, UC San Die...

Phishing Alert: Fraudulent UCPath Center Email

OFFICE OF THE INTERIM CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH
November 30, 2023

OFFICE OF THE INTERIM CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER,
UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH

November 30, 2023

ALL ACADEMICS, STAFF AND STUDENTS AT UC SAN DIEGO (including UC San Diego Health)



Phishing Alert: Fraudulent UCPath Center Email

Recently, a fraudulen...

Updates to Campus Wi-Fi and General Wi-Fi Best Practices

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR –
ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE 

September 27, 2023

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR –
ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

September 27, 2023

ALL ACADEMICS, STAFF, AND STUDENTS AT UC SAN DIEGO  (Including UC San Diego Health)



Updates to Campus Wi-Fi and General Wi-Fi Best Practices

On behalf of IT Services, I’d like to provide you an update on recent changes to our Wi-Fi network, which is available on main campus,...

Data Protection and ChatGPT

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER 
March 23, 2023

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION SECURITY OFFICER

March 23, 2023

ALL ACADEMICS, STAFF, AND STUDENTS (Including UC San Diego Health)



Data Protection and ChatGPT



With the emergence of ChatGPT, many members of our community are racing to explore the use of it in the academic, research, and administrative mission of the university. I would like to provide some guidance on its appropriate use through the lens...