During the Fall 2020 quarter, in the midst of COVID-19, I interned with Cal Poly's University Graphic Systems (UGS) print shop through the Cal Poly Graphic Communication Department. This is a required class for all GRC students, and each of us are assigned a manager to intern under for the quarter. My group's manager was the General Manager, and he tasked us with re-organising UGS's file management system to make it easier to find files for past and current jobs.

Before we embarked on this quarter-long project, the server was a mess. It was hard to find not only past jobs but current jobs as well. Managers had a hard time finding important documents too, including templates and standard operating procedures (SOPs). Space was being used up by duplicates and outdated as well, and the current naming conventions were unclear.

By the end of the quarter the system was laid out with clearly named folders and organised in a way that made sense. We spoke to each of the managers and gathered their input to ensure that the layout was understandable and fit their requirements. The team sat down with our manager, Chris, and deleted out-of-date and unnecessary files. Any UGS documents with older branding was moved to an archive folder, and we transferred files meant for specific managers to their folders.

Challenges that we faced were not having the necessary permissions to delete files, trouble logging in, uncertainty, unresponsive files, and ensuring that multiple people were not working on the same file at once.

Once the server was organised, we sent out a survey to different managers and tested their ability to find a specific file. The feedback received confirmed that the new workflow enhanced their experience and made their jobs easier.

To ensure that this system remained intact for the next year's managers, we also created an SOP of Server Guidelines, clearly explaining where each type of file is meant to go and why, along with where they can find files such as SOPs, templates, etc. can be found. These documents remained in use for the rest of the year, allowing UGS to run more smoothly and continue to grow their profits to support the Graphic Communication department.