The Setting Industry: Telecommunications Location: Bristol, England Founded: 1985 Officers and Administration: 750

Avonline plc is one of the UK’s leading Network, Installation, and Telecommunications companies. Avonline delivers voice, video, and data solutions for the UK’s largest Network and Service providers across analogue, broadband, and wireless digital networks.

IT Manager Nick Myers operates a network with 17 Windows Server computers and approximately 150 workstations – nearly 70 percent of them mobile laptops -- running Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems.

The Challenge
Myers said Avonline management experienced a feeling of disconnect from its highly mobile workforce, giving rise to fear of costly non-business use of the Internet.

“Sometimes our laptop users are off the network for two to three months,” said Myers.

Protection of company confidential information also was a concern.

“Most of our sensitive data is in-house with finance, business development, and Human Resources,” said Myers. “We are quite strict with those desktop computer users, but that is not our primary computer use concern.”

Search for a Solution
Avonline became aware of Spector 360 when a consultant recommended monitoring to track the use of another installed software product.

“We implemented a company intranet and were interested to see how it was being used,” said Myers. “You could say we initially bought Spector 360 as an applications monitoring program.”

Once active in that role, Spector 360’s broad range of capabilities became apparent.   

“We saw that Spector 360 would help us stay in touch with our employees,” said Myers. “Spector 360 clearly had the power to show us what we do and who we are … not just a tool to detect abuses … but a program that would let us see how business is being done.”

Based on Spector 360’s success, Avonline became engaged with Snapguard, SpectorSoft’s leading distributor in the UK and Ireland.

“Snapguard representatives are courteous, helpful, and display strong product knowledge,” said Myers. “They are very good at what they do.”

Discoveries
Myers said Spector 360 showed him that Facebook activities were responsible for the numerous viruses appearing on the Avonline network.

“Viruses from Facebook were shown to be the number one cause of network and computer downtime,” said Myers. “Viruses were causing most of our IT service calls, and the time it takes me to repair or replace company machines is no small matter. When you see 10 machines in one week with problems like that, you say ‘slow up!’”

Now, between a strong firewall and Spector 360’s powerful filtering, Social Networking sites are blocked company-wide and Avonline’s virus problem has been removed.

• The powerful Search function built into Spector 360 has proved to be a saving grace for Myers and Avonline.

“Spector 360’s Search has been useful on a number of occasions, but none more important than when one of our main databases went missing,” said Myers. “One of our users inadvertently moved the file off the server, causing us considerable concern.

“Using Spector 360, however, it was very straightforward and quite easy to find it.”

• On another occasion, with the insight provided by Spector 360, Myers easily was able to get to the bottom of an unusual print job.

“Spector 360 permitted me to note a particularly large number of personal documents being printed by one individual,” said Myers. “We were interested to see who printed the documents, exactly what the documents were, and how they were stored.

“Most importantly, we were also able to see that this activity was of an explicit nature, allowing us to take action to protect the company against liability, and also address the actions with the individual involved.”

• Myers said Spector 360’s high-level reports provide him with all that is needed when reviewing employee activity.

“We have not had to use the drill-down capability much at all because the overall report is so comprehensive,” said Myers. “But on one occasion, drill-down came in very handy … we had to see what a user was looking at on a particular website, and for that the screen snapshots capability was just what we needed.”

• Myers said that in the three years Spector 360 has been in use, there have been two dismissals based on the information found by the monitoring program.

“In addition, we’ve documented numerous minor indiscretions,” said Myers.

Working with Employees
Myers said he is one of three in management authorized to monitor, but generally the focal point of the activity. Others authorized to review Spector 360 data include the Financial Director and the Operations Manager.

“I check Spector 360 reports, and if there are questionable activities or possible abuses, the issue goes to Human Resources (HR),” said Myers. “We have a ‘three strikes’ policy. The first infraction warrants a quiet word with the employee.

“At a second infraction, there is a written warning. The third event brings a formal meeting with the employee, their manager, and the HR team. The fourth instance warrants dismissal.”

• Myers said Avonline has three separate written policies, and all are required to be read and signed at hiring.

“First, employees are required to sign a confidentiality agreement,” said Myers. “We also have an email and IM use policy, and there’s a separate Internet Use Policy. We are keen to stay away from being Big Brother -- we have no interest in that -- and we ‘dig’ only when we feel there is a threat to business or something illicit.”

Awareness
Myers said that Avonline does not use Spector 360’s optional login message because of clear company guidelines given at time of hire. In addition, Myers said monitoring is discussed when employees are issued company equipment.

“When I assign users their desktop or laptop computer, I have a conversation reinforcing the policies they have signed and agreed to,” said Myers. “At this point, there should be no question as to what is acceptable use and what is not.”

Spector 360: The Software of Choice
“Spector 360 has allowed us to eliminate our one main concern … that computers are used for work, and not for personal use,” said Myers. “We can’t see our employees all the time … often they’re not physically at the office. But with Spector 360, we are confident things are in order. 

 “Spector 360, with its combination of monitoring and web filtering at the client, is absolutely superb. Spector 360 is easily the best program of its type that I’ve come across. It has a lot more scope than anything out there. The ability to see an employee’s time reports, especially active time vs. inactive time, is so powerful. There’s no program that does it all like Spector 360.”

• Myers said Avonline is well aware of the potential drain caused by employee obsession with Social Networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“Time-wasting on the Internet is our Number One concern,” said Myers. “Excessive time on largely personal activities like Facebook seriously impacts productivity. Given that awareness, earlier this year we completely blocked Facebook and similar sites.”

• Spector 360 was installed by the recommending consultants, but Myers said he has handled technical activities since then.

“I have done the updates and upgrades,” said Myers. “The process is very straightforward and I have encountered no problems. Using the login script, the most recent upgrade and rollout was very easy to do. Personally, I have found it simple to learn Spector 360 just by using it. It’s very intuitive and the online Help is second to none.”

• Myers is especially impressed with Spector 360’s ability to run seamlessly on the range of operating systems in use at Avonline.

“We run Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 on our network,” said Myers. “Spector 360 is so good it works across all of them.”

“While we certainly were not in chaos before implementing client monitoring and filtering, I feel strongly that Spector 360 has given us the capability to maintain stability,” said Myers. “We’re not scare-mongers, we don’t use Spector 360 harshly, but it is there as a reference point, to monitor misuse of company and IT policy, especially Internet access. We run reports every week, giving us a snapshot of productivity from person to person.

“With Spector 360, we are comfortable that we have no chat, no adult content, no social networking. You could say we use Spector 360 to lock and watch.”

For more information about Avonline plc, please visit www.avonline.ac.uk