Showing posts with label monitoring programs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monitoring programs. Show all posts

Monday, February 7, 2011

The Importance Of Software Monitoring And Reasons You Should Acquire It

Software monitoring programs are fast gaining popularity all over the world. The essence of these programs is to monitor web content and ensure that the PC owner is protected from illegal web activities. It can also be used to control the kind of web content that is accessed via a certain computer network or PC. The importance of this program to parents cannot be overstated.

These programs allow the owner of a computer network or a PC to control the online content and activity that is being accessed via his/her computer networks or PC. In today's life, almost everyone has a computer and the PC and networks are the only shared technology. With different users, these networks remain vulnerable to abuse and illegal downloads. There is therefore need to control the content and activity on the internet.

Parents and employers among other people have been able to successfully curb any abuse of their PC and shared networks through the monitoring programs. For parents it has been about protecting their children from negatively impacting content and sites while employees have been keen to reduce the wastage of time and resources on unproductive online activities during working hours.

Since there are many programs in the market to help one gain control over the internet, there are factors to consider when purchasing the monitoring programs. Top on the list is the eligibility of the buyer. In order for one to buy the programs they must fulfill one of three criteria used.

Sharing a PC with other people can be tricky since the machine is actually under one name. Whenever another person accesses or engages in illegal activities through the PC the owner will be the ultimate suspect for a crime which they may not even be aware of. The monitoring programs help combat this by allowing the owner access to every other user's activity. This can help one deal with a situation before it gets out of hand.

The advantage of using these programs is that they are very discreet so that those whose activities are monitored might not even be aware of the act and one can easily filter web content and block other sites without people ever knowing your identity. This program also alerts the owner of the computer whenever keywords with expletives, sexually explicit phrases or profane words are used. This way the owner can block chat rooms and emails or websites that promote this content.

PC monitoring and administration is another vital feature. This allows the computer owner or administrator to remotely control the computer using common commands. This may include restarting the computer, enabling or disabling software, freezing the mouse among others. The feature also enables one to track the time spent on the internet on a particular site. It should also include automatic screen shots of the desktop's users and it should track documents and store data.

Apart from parents, the software monitoring program has been very useful to bosses who want to curtail abuse of working hours through idle blogging and unproductive online activity. Employers have been able to monitor their employee's online activities and some have even blocked social networks which are viewed to consume working hours. In this case, employees are also able to monitor emails, chats and gauge the seriousness of the employees in serious, productive and work related tasks.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Track Your Employees With A Desktop Remote Monitoring Service

Countless studies have revealed that a majority of employees who have access to the internet during their workday spend a lot of time conducting non-work related web browsing at the expense of their employer. The result is hours upon hours of lost production and potential profits. But there is a way to effectively increase production and it comes in the form of a desktop remote monitoring service.

If your employees require access to the internet, you probably have already tried some different tools and methods to decrease the personal usage of the internet by employees. Unfortunately, many filtering programs are ineffective or are just a waste of money. Even if a filtering program works, oftentimes it not only blocks bad websites, but blocks websites that your employees need access to as well. And cutting internet services altogether is probably not an option either.

With a desktop remote monitoring service, you can have specialists monitor the productivity of your employees without restricting their internet accesses. You can ensure that their internet activities are work-related and not just for pleasure. Furthermore, employers can use these services to verify that employees are not accessing websites that can be harmful to their networks or make sure that confidential data is not being leaked.

There are a wide variety of remote monitoring tools and software packages available. You will need to determine how much you want to spend on monitoring software, what you want it to monitor, and how you want the data to be monitored. Furthermore, monitoring internet usage is time consuming, so you may also need to consider hiring specialists or subscribing to a monitoring service.

Remote monitoring software prices have dropped considerable over the years as technology has become more affordable. Some basic software can be found online for free, while other advanced programs can be quite expensive. Outsourcing to an online service gives you freedom from worrying about purchasing the programs, software licenses, or upgrades.

You will also have to consider how in depth you want the monitoring to be. Basic monitoring programs keep lists of what websites your employees viewed without much additional data. More advanced programs can capture detailed information about their internet activities, such as how much time was spent on each website or what was downloaded or uploaded to and from the website. Other programs even log employee keystrokes, capture emails, and can even record voice.

Desktop remote monitoring services work in two different ways. The more secure, costly method is to have the monitoring serviced connected directly to your network. This requires that you have specialists employed for the task, but it keeps all of the data on your local network where it cannot access the internet. Outsourcing to an online remote monitoring service, on the other hand, is much cheaper. However, there is a risk that the data could be intercepted by competitors to your business.

No matter what software package of service that you ultimately choose, you have a legal obligation to inform your employees that you are monitoring their activities. Otherwise, you could be breaking the law and be punished with lawsuits, fines, or imprisonment. The most effective way to make them aware of the monitoring is to have your employees sign documentation that they acknowledge and consent to the monitoring.

Using a desktop remote monitoring service is a highly effective way of increasing productivity. It allows employers the ability to keep tabs of their employees while they are working at computers throughout the work center. In most cases, the cost of these services is offset by the amount of profits that can be regained by the increase in productivity.