World Cup fevor reaching businesses?

While the biggest football tournament on earth is great news for me, and for football fans all over the world, business’s may be less excited. With matches readily available to watch over the internet and times clashing with working hours, the number of unaffected businesses will be very small indeed.

Effective internet management plays a large part in negating this but the approach taken will very much vary from business to business. Some will opt to block their staff from websites they feel will be counter productive while others will allow full access and just keep track of how much time (and bandwidth) is spent following the World Cup. Then, of course, there is everything inbetween.

Naturally, the approach to take depends entirely on the type of company, the workplace environment, and the damage that following personal interests during working hours could have on the business.

Personally, I’m an advocate of the middle ground in most cases. If employees work hard and put in the extra mile, they should be rewarded and given an element of freedom to manage their personal lives at work. However, with a large proportaion of websites designed to immerse the viewer and keep them browsing, there is a fine line to be drawn. 

The internet allows for the work/home lives to merge considerably and this flexibility can enhance the morale of the staff and actually increase productivity. On the other hand, it can (and often will) impair productivity and very quickly contribute to an office environment operating far below it’s potential.

Suprisingly, bandwidth use is something often overlooked when it comes to web restriction or monitoring and is a key element. Streaming or downloading video places a considerable strain on company networks as corporate bandwidth limits are met or exceeded. Internet access across the business will slow down, emails will take longer to send and recieve, and vital day to day process will be affected as a result.

What I am in no doubt of is that internet activity needs to be monitored and (in most companies) some websites need to be blocked. Employers and managers need to be aware when someone is taking advantage of resources to quickly prevent the problem becoming more of an issue.

Web Policies: Everyone needs to Know!

It is increasingly important for companies to effectively communicate their web at work policy to everyone in the organisation to ensure safe and productive browsing and to avoid confusion.

Firms have generally become more relaxed about the personal use of IT at work, as the costs of supplying internet and PCs have come down. They should be reasonable in setting rules and communicate them effectively to employees, Netsafe executive director Martin Cocker says.

“Many companies are saying, `Yes, you can use Trade Me, but only in your lunch break’.”

However, Sarah Trotman, managing director of business network Bizzone, says businesses have become stricter about employees using social networking sites at work.

Firms are often finding that employees are “twittering” or blogging on behalf of the business without their knowledge, and employees are often more clued up about social networking sites and the web than business owners.

“It has become more challenging to control the amount of information going out about their own business.”

Mr Cocker says surveys have shown small and medium-sized businesses often have incomplete IT policies and security.

This was highlighted by the Safe Air email controversy. An employee at the Woodbourne aviation engineering firm was dismissed for sending 425 lewd emails at work over a six-month period, but the Employment Relations Authority ordered Safe Air to reinstate the worker, since he was unclear about acceptable standards for IT use.  

Web socialising at work reduces output

Facebook at work amounts to social “not-working”, according to a new survey that shows employee productivity is hit by people socialising on the internet during office hours.

A new study by Boston IT advisory firm, Nucleus Research found that, companies that allow users to access Facebook in the workplace lose an average 1.5% in total worker productivity.

Nearly half of employees in the recent social net-working study use Facebook during work hours some as much as two hours per day. The average worker uses it for 15 minutes a day, and most couldn’t come up with a legitimate “business reason” for logging on.

The survey of 237 employees also showed that 77% of workers who have a Facebook account use it during work hours. And “some” employees use the social networking site as much as two hours a day at work, the study found.

Do you think blocking social networking sites is a good idea?

To restrict Facebook access at work see BrowseControl. Click here for a free trial or feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements.

Mixed Messages from Facebook

A recent study named “The Cost of Social Notworking”, examined specific details about how office workers use the immensely popular Facebook. And it reveals that some 77% of those workers surveyed had an account. Of those people, 66% accessed their profiles while at work, with some 6% exclusively doing so while on company time. That should raise alarm bells in many an employer’s minds, particularly when you learn that 87% of Facebook-using employees can’t come up with a legitimate work-related reason for visiting the site, and the average access time is 15 minutes. For a small company of 200 workers that fifteen minutes multiplies up to 50 working hours (one whole man week) lost to Facebook each and every day.

The knock-on effects on revenue loss are incalculable because they vary with the workload of each employee and the fact that the business model is different for every company. Although difficult to accurately measure, off these figures the money lost throughout the US and Europe concerned is likely to tally up to billions of lost dollars per day.

Some might say that in the current financial climate, Facebook could well be portrayed as The Great Downturn Facilitator.

Others see Facebook in an entirely different light altogether, and take the view that Facebook actually contributes to increasing their staff’s office productivity. After all, accessing Facebook is all about learning what your friends are up to and playing casual games: Both of these could be viewed as bolstering an office worker’s cheerfulness levels and thus resulting in a more positive working environment.

What do you think?

Read how BrowseControl can restrict inappropriate web browsing here. Alternatively, to discuss your requirements please feel free to contact us.

Supermarket Chain Freezes Internet Access

Every company has their own way of dealing with internet abuse in the workplace and their own methodology to keep repeat offences low.

One Kansas City operator of 28 supermarkets and pharmacies, Balls Food, seem to have hit upon the ideal model for them.  Their stores are the very model of how a network – and its users – should behave. Not that the users really ever had a choice.

Balls Food’s remarkable network usage, documented in an audit performed recently by Networks Unlimited, is the product of restrictive policies that grant Internet access to employees on a case-by-case and site-by-site basis.

“I’m relieved at the audit results,” says CFO Mike Beal, who stands firmly behind the policy.

Harry Segal, president of Networks Unlimited and a veteran of dozens of usage audits was equally surprised. “These results are unusually good.”

Usage audits look for exposure in four areas: productivity loss, legal liability, bandwidth consumption and data security.

Balls Food did well in all four. Most users can’t get to shopping, auction or sports websites, so there’s little lost productivity. Likewise, the inability to access objectionable content minimises legal exposure. Unable to connect to Internet radio streams or download multimedia files, bandwidth is preserved. Finally, spyware, Trojans, viruses and keystroke loggers are kept out through aggressive e-mail filtering and web download prohibitions, assuring the security of sensitive data.

“If we had an open Internet policy, our problems would be much worse,” says Lance Fischer, Balls Food’s network systems manager. “Our policies and practices are well-established, known by every employee with a computer and strictly enforced”. 

 What internet policies work for you?

Read how BrowseControl can restrict inappropriate web browsing here. Alternatively, to discuss your requirements please feel free to contact us.

Internet Surfing Restricted for British MP’s

An Internet filter on the Parliament IT system blocks access to websites that contain “offensive or illegal content or are sources of malicious software”.

The policy emerged after an MP was unable to access the Daily Sport site.

“Because of the things they are trying to censor they may have made an assumption about this particular website,” said Lembit Opik, MP.

Guidance issued to all MPs in December 2007 warns that they have a duty to ensure the Parliamentary network is used properly “by themselves and their staff” and to avoid actions that “threaten the integrity of the system or bring it into disrepute”.

The aim is to protect security but also to “help to prevent users of the network from being exposed to inappropriate material”.

The web filtering system also “collects data related to user activity, including user names and all websites visited whether blocked or not and will be retained for a period of 12 months”, it adds.

MPs who try to access sites deemed inappropriate are presented with a screen asking them to contact the Commons authorities for permission to view the material.

Those who break the rules face being disconnected from the system by the Serjeant-at-Arms.

Do you think MP’s should be allowed to browse freely?

For more information on how BrowseControl can help you restrict your internet access please click here.

BrowseReporter can track and monitor your browsing activity. Click here for more information or for a free 30 day trial.

Alternatively, please feel free to contact us for more information or to discuss your requirements.

88% of IT Managers unaware of Web dangers

The recent findings of an independent survey conducted by Dynamic Markets highlight that only 12% of IT managers in the UK believe that the ‘dynamic’ Web (the top 100 most popular sites) contains the biggest security threat when, according to a similar report focused on technical research, approximately 70% of the top 100 most popular websites have hosted or directed users to malicious code or put them at risk to fraudulent activity.

More than a third (37%) disclosed that employees at their organisation have tried to bypass IT security policies to access unapproved Web sites which fall into this category. This is despite the fact that 82% of respondents reported confidence in their organisation’s Web security although 9% of IT Managers aren’t even sure of their own IT security policies.

Unsurprisingly, more than half (57%) of IT managers believe that the internet is important to their business. The survey also highlights that three quarters (75%) of IT managers feel pressured to allow more access to the web for employees. This pressure is coming from all areas including management as a way to demonstrate trust in their staff. As the importance the internet plays in businesses continues to evolve, IT departments will face increasing pressure to strike a balance between preventing security risks whilst also allowing staff to access this business enhancing tool in a safe and secure way.

In an office environment, one way of allowing staff the freedom and trust to browse freely is to establish a comprehensive web use policy and to monitor business traffic.

How secure is your network?

Click here to learn more about how BrowseReporter can help you do this. Alternatively, please feel free to contact us to discuss your requirements.