BENEFITS OF COMPUTER TRACKING SOFTWARE
Computer-tracking software
proves to be an effective application for people who need to deliver projects
within strict deadlines. It can help in sales and lead generation, tracking of projects and
issues, managing people, projects and activities as well as coordinating them.
Everyone knows the saying that
time is money, and anyone in business knows that this is very true. When you
are running a business, whether you are the only employee or you have a stable
of a hundred or more workers, if you are wasting time, then you are wasting
money. Since you are reading this article, you know that it’s time to stop. You
need to make some changes, and you need to do it soon. One of the best ways to
do that is by implementing employee monitoring software for your
company. It can actually help you in a range of different ways. Let’s look at
some of the biggest and best benefits that using the right keylogger software
can offer.
Internet Monitoring Software
Internet monitoring software is a powerful tool that can
detect and regulate traffic on the network that the software is installed on.
Controlling internet traffic allows a company to regulate its employees,
regardless of whether or not they work in a brick-and-mortar office space or
work remotely.
There is an increasing number of companies adopting internet
monitoring software in order to protect their bottom line. This is most
likely because malicious attacks are becoming increasingly more prevalent and
they can cost a company millions.
Additionally, with more and more remote employees, remote
monitoring can minimize the risk of workers accessing sensitive company data
remotely.
Implementing internet monitoring software can: decrease
the level of risk associated with weak network protocols, increase the level of
security around potential insider threats, and can maximize productivity so
tasks are completed efficiently and on time.
While these are three of the main benefits associated
with internet monitoring software, many companies are not aware that this
software can provide useful data for improving your ROI. And
by improving productivity, your company can have better insight into
competitive marketing techniques, unique solutions, and better customer
awareness.
To better understand why your company needs to invest in
a premium internet monitoring software, here are some of the benefits to
implementing one:
Manage
Employee Productivity
It is almost human nature to try and find a way to get
paid while doing as little work as possible. This lack of effort not only
wastes your company’s precious money but can also affect the client-facing
portion of your business.
Employees who do not complete tasks on time are
negatively impacting your company’s ROI and affecting your client-base. Network
monitoring software has time tracking capabilities, so employees must log the
hours for completing a task. This can allow you to identify how long a task is
really taking from start to finish.
On top of that, employee monitoring tools can track the
amount of time an employee spends on applications, websites, or programs, and
take screenshots of a computer’s image. Analyze these screenshots to see if an
employee is truly working on a project when they say they are. You can use this
data to establish specific timelines for projects.
This can be done with the employees or as a top-down
approach. Monitoring software can also set time allowances for personal sites,
such as social media platforms or banking sites.
Collect
Data
The data you collect through monitoring tools can be
applied to all business operations. This data can tell you: how much time and
money is spent on wasted time, how this time/money is impacting your ROI, the
level of effort needed for certain types of tasks (client-facing versus
internal operations), and much more. Having extensive data on employee and company
workflows gives your management insight into how day-to-day operations can
broadly affect annual returns.
Avoiding
Harmful Websites
Harmful websites house malicious file transfers that can
tap into an employee’s computer. These file transfers can start small. While it
may not seem like the computer or network is initially infected, a malicious
file transfer can download itself onto your computer and remain inactive for a
period of time until the perfect moment to strike. This is known as an advanced
persistent threat (APT). APTs can stealthily navigate your network to find and
expose potential breach points and mine your data.
Since malicious attacks can be very deceptive, it is
impossible to ask your employees to discern a safe website from a harmful
website. Leave that up to your IT department. With network monitoring software,
your IT department can restrict known harmful websites and attributes of
harmful websites to keep your employees (and customers!) safe.
Alerts
to Malicious Attacks
Even with the highest security measures being
enforced, malicious attacks still happen. However, with monitoring
software, your team can stay on top of potentially malicious activity.
Monitoring software will monitor any events that you wish
to track. When a malicious event is registered, the software will alert your
company’s admin console to the breach.
Flag specific network activity (like a request to
download a certain number of data) and receive an alert each time that activity
occurs. You can also flag specific employees, either because of a history of
high-risk behavior or because a major network change has taken place.
Additionally, daily security reports can be generated for
your team so security protocols can be constantly adapted. These reports allow
you to perform analyses and alert your team to critical operational or productivity
issues.
Advanced
Security Protocols
Internet monitoring software works beyond your network’s firewall, anti-viral, and anti-malware software tools. While these types of software will defend your computer and network against intruders that aim to gain access to your sensitive information, there are other ways in which sensitive data can be leaked from inside your company.
Additionally, these types of software typically do not
allow for employee time-tracking, nor do they monitor application activity or
take screenshots.
Advanced security protocols with monitoring software will
allow your team to cross-reference risky behaviors, malicious sites, and
unwanted internet protocols. This software will also work hard to pinpoint
potential vulnerabilities and beachheads (when they happen).
Another benefit of monitoring software is that it allows
your team to practice data recovery. In the event that a data breach occurs,
your company will most likely be unable to participate in normal business
operations.
Your data might be held captive, or potential movement in
your company might trigger malicious behavior from an APT. Therefore, during
malicious attacks, there is a period when your data is untouchable, when your
data needs to be recovered, and when your company needs to rebound from the
attack. Without a proper recovery plan in place, this might take months.
Minimize the downtime and lost revenue with a proper recovery plan instituted
by monitoring software.
Bandwidth
Controls
One way in which your data can be stolen from under your
company’s nose is when an employee or infiltrated malicious attacker siphons
data through an uploading terminal.
These terminals may be undetectable to you and your team.
Therefore, the prospect of defending against this type of attack may feel
hopeless. One way you may be able to fight back is to establish bandwidth
controls.
Bandwidth usage controls are a type of security setting
that limits the number of data that can be processed through a server.
To isolate network attacks, you can limit bandwidth on
each user’s computer so that no matter how much data passes through the
network, your monitoring software can identify whether or not one computer is
doing the majority of the work.
Some highly sophisticated attacks can detect this type of
information. But monitoring software can also suggest a potentially suspicious
activity if a certain type of packet is repeatedly getting moved when it is not
supposed to be. Bandwidth controls can be your saving grace for slow-leak data
hacks.
Additionally, bandwidth controls will also look at the
type of data that has contributed to high or suspicious network traffic. If a
removable device gains access to your network (either allowed or by hacking
in), then the internet monitoring software will be able to monitor data passing
through undetectable devices.
Monitoring software cannot be installed on mobile devices
so you are unable to monitor employee phone activity or protect it directly
from malicious attacks. However, if mobile devices access the network that your
monitoring software is observing, then you are able to monitor the behaviors
that a mobile device wants to perform on your network.
Monitor
for Insider Threats
Insider threats are increasing in a world where data is
becoming more valuable and larger companies cannot maintain close control. A
malicious attack by an insider threat is the cause of nearly 50% of all
malicious attacks in 2019. This means that 50% of the time that your company’s
data is stolen, it is done by an inside source.
Real-time monitoring can help you protect against
insider threats in two valuable ways. The first is that this software
performs keystroke logging. Keystroke logging is a method whereby a program
records, logs, and categories each keystroke that happens on a given computer
during a given session. Log and categorize all keystrokes 24/7 to identify suspicious
internet usage. Keystrokes are logged regardless of the application or website
visited and all the data is timestamped. A keystroke logger logs and
categorizes every key that a user hits during any given session. Keylogger technology
used by SoftActivity will help detect insider threats, and logs international
characters as well as English letters and numbers.
Another useful feature is screen monitoring. Screen monitoring gives your team the ability to screenshot a computer screen image, to monitor employee activity on a computer screen live, or monitor employee personnel through a live webcam feed. This way you can stay on top of what activities are being performed and who is performing them.
Keep
Better Records
For many individuals, as well as small and large companies, keeping accurate records can be difficult. With proper software, it’s possible to track time spent on various projects far more easily, and it’s possible to create records for individuals, groups, and company wide so everyone has the necessary information. Consider the way that you are currently keeping track. Chances are you are using a paper and pen method, or you are using keylogger software built for other purposes. It is a far better and more efficient idea to use keylogger software specifically geared toward time tracking.
This is also much easier for your
employees. Instead of trying to remember the paper timecards, they can simply
log their information into the computer. They can be sure that accurate
information goes to the accounting and payroll department.
See
the Waste and Eliminate It
Once you start tracking time, whether on a personal scale or across the company, you will start to be able to see the biggest time wastes and sinks. For example, some companies are spending an exorbitant amount of time in meetings each day. By combining topics into a single meeting, it’s possible to eliminate the ones that are unproductive and that could be sucking away all of the employees’s time.
Consider these numbers. If you have two meetings a week, and each lasts for half an hour, that’s one hour of downtime for each employee. Cutting this in half saves plenty of time and can help to make your employees more productive. One of the other things that you need to remember about meetings is that the downtime lasts for longer than just the meeting. It can take employees several minutes to get to and settle into the meeting room, and another five or ten minutes after the meeting to return to work and get back up to speed.
Of course, meetings are just one of the areas where you might see waste. You might notice that some employees, or you, spend too much time on the chat or on the web when you really should be working. One of the nice things about computer monitoring software is that you will notice the discrepancies in time reporting by you and your employees, and that means you can get a much better handle on where you are wasting time.
Improved Resource Allocation
After some time, analytics dashboard within the
employee monitoring app will show you which teams and employees perform more
productively and efficiently. Knowing this can help you better allocate your
next project.
Having an overview of everyone’s daily activities
will also give you better insight into who are your busiest employees, so
you’ll avoid piling up more work for them.
You’ll also have everyone’s working hours in one
place, and payroll calculation will be fully automated. Besides employees
hours, you’ll be able to track billable hours for your clients with perfect
accuracy. It’s a simple, effective way for everyone to get paid fairly.
Enhanced Employee Evaluations
How many times did you start preparing for employee
evaluations just a few days ahead of scheduled meetings? Running around the
office, going back to past projects to check what your employees have done
takes up a lot of time.
With a staff tracking software, you can easily
access all activity data going back MONTHS to see what the evaluated employee
was up to. Furthermore, you’ll be able to deliver a more objective evaluation,
thanks to data the software provides.
It’s good for employees too… They get fair
appraisals that could lead to their promotions, bonuses, or other rewards. And
because they also have access to their own data, they can take it at any time
and request a salary bump or a promotion.
Litigation Protection
In the event that a freelancer tries to take more
money from you than they should, you can always go back to their records and
check how much productive time did they have exactly.
Additionally, if your clients ever question your
billable hours or try to serve you with a lawsuit over this, you have proof of
work which is extremely valuable.
And it’s not only the outsiders that can sue you.
With some of the more advanced employee monitoring apps you can get ahead of
office misconduct of any kind.
Conclusion
Internet monitoring activity could save your bottom line
from malicious attacks. It can also boost your ROI by providing your company
data of wasted productivity and negligent employees. Internet monitoring
software is a powerful surveillance tool for both web-based and on-premise
solutions. These are just seven of the benefits of internet monitoring
software. Check out the SoftActivty website to learn more about how our workstation
monitor and TS monitor can benefit your company.
0 Comments