|
Spector360.com >>> Case Studies >>> Bexhill College
Spector 360
'Can Do the Lot' for Bexhill College
The Setting
Industry: Education
Location: Bexhill-on-Sea, England
Founded: ≈ 1900
Employees: ≈ 1,700
Bexhill College is a sixth form college located in Bexhill-on-Sea, a seaside resort on the English Channel in the county of East Sussex, the south of England. Approximately 105 sixth form colleges in England focus on providing education to students aged 16 to 19 following their completion of secondary school.
Systems Engineer and Network Administrator Bob Bailey manages a computer network with more than 20 Windows 2003 servers and 500 Windows workstations.
"We're a little more structured than a university, but less informal than a school," said Bailey. "We monitor all students and student computers in the classroom, but monitor staff only when in the classroom."
The Challenge
"We had a concern about IM, web mail, general Internet misuse," said Bailey. "And before we knew it there was the huge blossoming of proxy servers ... proxy sites reared their ugly head. Proxies were being used IN THE CLASSROOM ... students were wasting time and hiding it.
"Management was saying ‘I think they're doing this' and ‘I know they're doing this' ... they were convinced just from looking. But they needed something more ... they needed proof."
Search for a Solution
Bailey said neither he nor the school had prior experience with ‘proper' monitoring software. "We had content filtering, but that was not up to dealing with the emerging proxies," said Bailey. "We hunted around, not seeing anything much of interest ... then the mail shot came."
The shot heard at least ‘round Bexhill was sent by Snapguard, SpectorSoft's exclusive distributor in the UK, and featured Spector 360 PC and Internet activity monitoring software for education, business, and government.
"There was nothing that gave both the overview and the depth of the SpectorSoft product," said Bailey. "Some were just keyloggers, and some were just applications for tracking web use.
"SpectorSoft was the only one on the deck with it all ... the product's integrated nature was a big selling point. I didn't realize just how much Spector 360 could do until I used it ... and I found it can do the lot."
Discoveries
"Because Spector 360 offers so much, my first impression was that with all that data flooding in it's really going to groan," said Bailey. "But I pressed the button and the reports came out ... information comes up fast and that's one of the things I liked about it from the start, and I like it that way today.
"Spector 360 delivers quick reports about what's going on all the time ... it's very good at spotting trends. With Spector 360 you can find something five feet down."
- Spector 360 was instrumental in ferreting out what could have become a vexing problem with the school's printer credits program. Under plans set by the school, each student is allocated a set amount of credits to use the facility's network printers.
"Using Spector 360's Quick View charts, I started seeing my own application showing up," said Bailey. "Students had gotten hold of my program and were changing values, attempting to give themselves free printing credits. Using the snapshots feature, we narrowed it down to students with the IT savvy to pull off something like this. Using the User Explorer, we drilled down and saw what was happening. We contacted six to seven students and of course they said it wasn't them ... that it was their ‘mate.' Using the screen snapshots, we showed them we knew what was happening, and quickly closed the loophole."
- Bailey said he uses Spector 360's Search function "all day every day."
"The first thing I check to see if they're going to proxy servers," said Bailey. "So, I search for ‘proxy' and Spector 360 will list and deliver me the users. I can focus on one room if I want, and then drill down to the user.
"Using Search, I can narrow the field from 1,500 to five students. You get down to those five, and their first reaction is ‘no, I didn't do it.' But you place the evidence in front of them ... the screen snapshots ... and there's no disputing it, there it is."
- "If a member of staff points to a particular person, we can go right to the screen snapshot," said Bailey.
Working With Students
Bailey said Bexhill College maintains an Acceptable Use Policy stating the school will monitor PC and Internet activity.
"That we will monitor is clear, and it deters most students but we still have to haul some in," said Bailey.
Spector 360: The Software of Choice
"Spector 360's deterrent factor has been great in preventing problems," said Bailey. "It has helped detect and control problems from the outset. If I had not had it, things would have become difficult to bring under control. If we had not had Spector 360, we would not be in such good shape.
"The Spector 360 investment versus the benefit shows a very good value. We have had immeasurable benefits ... excellent bang for the buck."
- Bailey said working with Snapguard was "very smooth. I was quite happy and pleased with the sales process ... very straightforward."
- "The first thing I wondered was could we roll it out ourselves and reasonably quickly," said Bailey. "I found out the answer was yes ... the Spector 360 install went without a hitch. I downloaded it to our server, clicked on ‘install' and that was it."
- "The layout of the Spector 360 Dashboard is nice, easy to get at global criteria," said Bailey. "Drill-down is easy. And by choosing any one of the many Quick View panels, you can come at from any angle.
"Spector 360's Quick View reports are so powerful, for the first 6 months that's all I used. Then we made six custom reports ... mostly just a layout preference. Just about all anyone needs is covered by the SpectorSoft reports."
- "Spector 360 certainly has increased productivity for IT," said Bailey. "As troubleshooters over the years you learn that the problem usually is between the keyboard and the chair, so having Spector 360's screen snapshots helps us tremendously because we see exactly what has happened when we get called to help in these situations. Spector 360 also is valuable in tracking error messages."
- In the UK, educators are tasked with what is called "Duty of Care." Bailey is adamant that Spector 360 helps Bexhill College in this important UK compliance matter, where "Duty of Care" essentially holds that an educator could be held negligent if shown to have failed to "act toward others and the public with watchfulness, attention, caution, and prudence."
"The ability to know what's going on is critical to us meeting our Duty of Care," said Bailey. "Despite the best efforts of some students to do otherwise, Spector 360 has definitely helped us know what is going on."
"With Spector 360, I'm not needing to stop what I'm doing all the time just to fight human nature. In education and government, you've got to give them some slack," said Bailey. "With Spector 360 I can do that ... I can work invisibly behind them and close the loopholes so it doesn't go global. Content filtering alone wasn't letting me do that.
"If it weren't for Spector 360, I would not be able to have an educational environment I can do something with ... I would not be able to do what I want to do, like sit here and drink tea."
|
