Tracking Down "Bandwidth Hogs" - monitoring employee computer and Internet usage - Brief Article

For Michael Shevlev, tracking employees' use of software and the Internet is an absolute necessity for employers who are juggling productivity with employee privacy while trying to remain competitive in an increasingly fierce market.

Shevlev, president of Trysis, the creator of the computer-use tracking program Insight, considers the problem to be fundamental in today's market. "What do you do if you're an employer," he says, "and you want to retain your employees? You have to keep their salaries high, or they will go else-where, hut you also can't raise your prices, or you will be outpriced by your competition. The answer is to increase productivity. You look around the office but don't see people wandering the halls or talking at the water cooler. Everyone's at their computers. The question is, what are they doing at their computers?"

There is much anecdotal evidence that demonstrates the growth of personal use of computers during business hours. Shevlev's solution comes in the form of Insight, which tracks the URLs that employees visit, how much time they spend online, and the amount of bandwidth that Internet use is taking up. It also allows employers to monitor which non-Internet programs employees are using.

"Insight gives employers a snapshot to show how much activity is spent on non-administrative activity," he says.

Some critics see monitoring of employee Internet use as something of an invasion of privacy, but Shevlev disagrees. The program can tell that an employee is spending four hours a day on eBay, but won't disclose the actual activity on it. It can tell if someone is consistently downloading unusually large files, but doesn't disclose the contents of the individual's e-mail.

The program also can tell if employees are spending large amounts of time playing Elf Bowling or Tetris instead of working, and whether more official programs that the company has purchased are being used. If they're not, then further purchases may be a waste of money.

The primary purpose of the software, according to Shevlev, is not to penalize employees for "unofficial" Internet use but rather to pinpoint problem areas in weak-performing employees and to locate "bandwidth hogs," whose overuse of the Internet slows down everyone's work.

If a company has an employee who's consistently not performing, this product allows HR to see how he's spending his time. If he's spending four hours a day on eBay, human resources may want to have a discussion with him. Conversely, the software will also give employers a clearer picture of which employees are dedicated and putting in extra time, and what tools they are using.

"Internet use is a very subjective thing," Shevlev says, noting that not everyone who uses company time for personal Internet use is unproductive, and not every company has an immediate need to crack down on employees who are day-trading for four hours a day. "This is not for every company, but there are companies who need this."

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group