Spector360.com >>> Case Studies >>> Blackburn Rovers Football Club

Spector 360 Helps Blackburn Rovers
Show Red Card to PC and Internet Abuse

The Setting

Industry: Sports
Location: Lancashire, UK
Founded: 1875
Employees: ≈ 800

Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English Premier League team based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, England.

Senior Systems Administrator Ben Hayler manages a Windows Server 2008 computer network with workstations running a mix of Vista Business, XP, and 2000. While most of the club's PCs reside in the administration facility based at Ewood Park, Hayler also tends computers installed at a separate Training Center as well as the team's Football Academy, where students age 14 and older learn the finer points of the immensely popular British sport.

Hayler described the workplace as casual, with "no strict procedures other than on match day."

The Challenge

"As a Premier League club we have to ensure that we operate our computer systems and Internet use responsibly," said Hayler. "Because of this we have to make sure all emails, files — all communications — are closely monitored."

Search for a Solution

Hayler said the Blackburn Rovers began looking for a monitoring solution when the club's web filtering product was up for renewal.

"We took web filtering as far as it would go," said Hayler. "We started looking for something more and through a Google search, Spector 360 not only came up, but stood out. We saw lots of products with partial solutions, but we were looking for one product to do it all."

After initial contact with SpectorSoft corporate headquarters in the United States, Hayler became engaged with Snapguard, SpectorSoft's exclusive UK distributor. Blackburn Rovers then embarked on what might be described as a classic sales path.

"We had a need, searched for a product to meet our needs, found a potential solution, contacted the solution provider, then participated in a webcast," said Hayler. "Following the webcast we were impressed enough to commit to a pilot, and at that point it was clear we had discovered a really wonderful product ... so we took the logical last step and purchased Spector 360."

Discoveries

"Using Spector 360 we found it's good business practice to monitor everyone, all the time," said Hayler. "Spector 360 pinpointed a few employees who were clearly abusing the system. Their web surfing habits were clearly excessive ... doing it virtually all day long.

"The feeling is that Spector 360 uncovered time-wasting. We also saw some people using very high bandwidth consumption"

• "Spector 360 definitely has restored order," said Hayler. "Productivity is up ... you can see it. You look at a person's day, and all that shows up is business apps.
  
  "Before monitoring, we had one person who – especially when their boss was out – who spent a lot of time ... on Wikipedia ... anything but work. Now, even when the boss is away, they just carry on with what they're supposed to be doing."
• Hayler said Spector 360 helped uncover the use of proxy servers to get around web filter blocking.
  
  "We used to block most social networking sites, now we block ALL social networking sites," said Hayler. "For employees, there is no reason for these to be accessed at work."
• "Spector 360's Keyword Alert feature is invaluable," said Hayler. "On match day, we have about 100 employees accessing one application and we've had attempts to hack in ... now we use Keyword Alerts to great advantage by entering system commands. If someone tries anything related to a command line, it's immediately brought to our attention."
• Regarding applications like chat and IM, Hayler said those tools are in place primarily for use with customers, and then for appropriate communications between employees.
  
  "Our position on chat and IM is that these tools are for business," said Hayler. "It's valuable to be able to see when and how these programs are being used."

Working With Employees

"About five years ago there was management discussion over our lack of an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), so we created a draft and sent it out for comments," said Hayler. "People thought it was too restrictive, so at that time it just ‘went away.'

"Deciding to monitor forced us into a position where we needed to come up with an AUP, which really was good.

"This time we released an email with the AUP attached, and made it part of the staff handbook. We instructed everyone to read it carefully, because it was being made part of the Terms and Conditions of employment. Some comments were made about us ‘watching them' but for the most part, nobody had a problem with it. One or two individuals seemed to be bothered more than anyone else, as you might expect."

• Hayler said the Blackburn Rovers use Spector 360 not only to eliminate PC and Internet abuse, but that the keen insight derived from the program's detailed reports and screen snapshots facilitate effective employee training as well.
  
  "You can see what they are doing and why," said Hayler. "Also, Spector 360 is valuable for IT troubleshooting ... to be able to see every detail surrounding user mistakes makes it much easier to correct what used to be troublesome problems."

Spector 360: The Software of Choice

"Instead of several separate programs, Spector 360 solves all our problems," said Hayler. "Spector 360 is great ... none better ... covers it all. Spector 360 delivers just like the name says ... it provides a complete all-around view ... 360-degree protection."

• Spector 360 helps the club stay compliant with the rules and regulation of the worldwide Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard.
  
  "Part of the PCI standard requires access to ALL credit card information," said Hayler. "Because Spector 360 monitors, records, and archives every bit of data surrounding those transactions, it is a key part of our PCI compliance."
• "Spector 360 is easy to install and configure," said Hayler. "As proof, just last week our Spector server crashed because the motherboard failed. It took a day to get the Windows OS operational. It took just 15 minutes to bring back Spector 360! As far as upkeep, Spector 360 pretty much takes care of itself."
• Hayler had nothing but praise for Spector 360's design and layout, especially the Dashboard with its Quick View charts and graphs.
  
  "As soon as you open the program, you see the big picture immediately," said Hayler. "Then you just click on anything that looks like an anomaly."
• "Spector 360 has no loopholes," said Hayler. "Many products claim to do the job, but users find ways to get around them. There's no way around Spector 360. Especially the youngsters ... they try to find a weakness. It's great that there is a piece of software without the flaws.
  
  "Spector 360 fills all the boxes we needed. And when it comes to stealth, there's nothing a user can get at ... even if they try to disable it, Spector 360's screen snapshots can show us they're trying to do it!" "Working with SpectorSoft and Snapguard is absolutely fantastic," said Hayler. "Our every question is answered, sometimes within minutes. From the initial contact, to the webcast, up to the minute ... very professional."

"Spector 360 has given us tremendous peace of mind," said Hayler. "It pays for itself. It makes it so easy to see what activity we have on our network and act accordingly."

For more information about the Blackburn Rovers, please visit:
www.rovers.co.uk.

For more information about Spector 360, please visit www.spector360.com ... or for more information about SpectorSoft and its other dependable, full-featured PC and Internet Activity Monitoring Software products, please visit www.spectorsoft.com.