Hundreds, if not thousands, of man hours are lost by every company each year by staff not doing what they are supposed to be doing with their computers.
Email, social networking sites and online games are the new watercoolers and smoking rooms where employees run off to for a spot of relaxation in between bouts of work.
But while most companies allow for a bit of personal web browsing to take place in work hours, many are now finding that employees are taking things a step too far.
Eight out of ten employees are thought to send and receive personal e-mails while at work, while 90 per cent visit non-work- related websites during business hours.
Now Chamber member Zafar Majid has developed a new software programme called Spysure that can keep track of office, and home, computer usage.
“I had no idea just how damaging this type of problem could be until two years ago I was managing a company and, almost by accident, discovered two of our employees were using the office computers to access gambling sites, adult material and send and receive thousands of personal emails,” he said.
Zafar then began to research how he could be made aware of, and be in control of, the way company computers were used and developed software that could record all the Internet activity of each employee in the workplace.
Spysure monitors all the Internet activity of each employee in the workplace. All website, email and chatroom activity can be seen at the touch of a key, with specific sites being blocked if needed. A “stealth mode” can also be activated, which carries out the monitoring in secret, although the company recommends that employees are notified as this often acts as a deterrent in itself. There are three packages: a home version, an office version and one for computer networks.
Zafar added: “Companies are realising that computer misuse needs to be confronted head on and that a true and accurate record of who is doing what with company computers provides the information needed to stamp it out.” |
