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Spector360.com >>> Case Studies >>> Beijing Yoshinoya Fast Food Co.
Spector 360 Provides Fast Food Company
with Recipe for Success
The Setting
Industry: Food & Beverage
Location: Beijing, China
Founded: 1930
Employees: ≈ 4,000
Beijing Yoshinoya Fast Food Co., Ltd is a multi-brand fast food operator based in Beijing, China. Group lines include Yoshinoya, Dairy Queen, Pipalli, Ministry of Bread, and Pizza Company.
Chris Tay, Deputy General Manager and Chief Technology Officer, manages a computer network of approximately 190 Windows XP and Vista workstations.
"The workplace is casual but it is very traditional Eastern-style ... fun but conservative in some ways," said Tay. "We are urbanites and in a city with more than 18 million people, we are indeed rather cosmopolitan in many ways. The 2008 Olympics certainly helped with the profile."
The Challenge
Tay said he believes it is human nature to want to "know, control and execute certain things."
"With the advent of technology and information at their fingertips, computer users can accomplish many things within the comfort of their armchairs," said Tay. "But this is a double-edged sword ... the power and control can be abused.
"In the workplace, the abuses can be as serious as a security leak ... the leaking of proprietary or company confidential information to competitors or even to un-commissioned researchers. Another serious abuse is employees spending unproductive hours at the computer instead of doing real work."
Search for a Solution
"Our business is no different from American or Western companies when it comes to protecting privileged data or information," said Tay. "In addition, we are also no different in that we also want to ensure our employees are at their highest productivity level. Our General Manager, who owns the company, brought up the matter of addressing these issues. We both discussed it and I was tasked to search for software to do this kind of job. Our initial thinking, and a philosophy that remains today, is not to be Big Brother over our employees.
"But we also felt that as our company has grown, it has become harder to secure information and data exchanges between our employees and the outside world or even amongst themselves.
"And with the increase in competition in the marketplace, we wanted to know if our employees are indeed productive. We were also concerned about whether management assigned the right tasks to employees. If we allocate the wrong tasks to the right people, they can feel defeated and thus drag their feet to work."
Neither Tay nor the company had experience with monitoring software prior to using Spector 360. Tay said he found Spector 360 by conducting a Google search.
"The first item of consideration was does the product do what it claims to do on the marketing materials," said Tay. "Then, we weighed features and benefits over price. Price is always a concern, but after-sales service is more important."
Tay said he was also influenced by the Spector 360 testimonials found on the product website.
"I was impressed by the many powerful customer comments," said Tay. "The quality of information on the SpectorSoft website was important. I appreciated the interactive nature of it ... I could see very clearly how the product works. Last but not least, the website of another program we looked at was not that clear, and their sales rep was not knowledgeable in helping me solve issues and running through the total package."
Discoveries
"Especially in a country like China where saving face means a lot, I initially thought the system would backfire," said Tay. "Fortunately, it did not. Spector 360 encourages employees to be more alert and more careful with what they transmit, receive, or view. The frequency of idling away hours on nonproductive activities has dropped tremendously, like 70 percent!"
- "Were employees surfing non-work related web sites? Sure, no doubt about it," said Tay. "Anything from surfing adult sites to spending hundreds of hours chatting were caught with the software. We also wanted to put all employees on alert that we do not tolerate downloading of unauthorized software or copyrighted materials in our company, and that we have the means to determine if this happening."
- Tay found Spector 360's activity/inactivity time sheet very useful in finding out if employees are "productive at their desks."
"My impression is that the time sheet feature is a fair and independent monitoring of everyone, including me," said Tay. "It is a tool but whether we act on the information captured by it is at the discretion of the management. In short, it is great!"
- Tay finds the User Explorer feature "great in monitoring repeat offenders."
"Comparing reports in User Explorer makes it clear as to whether an employee has improved or made changes to their work habits," said Tay.
Working With Employees
Tay said employees were informed about the use of monitoring software.
"We do not want to do anything behind our employees' backs," said Tay. "I politely explained to all employees that it is like living in any city or country. A country cannot do without law and order, and thus they put police officers in place. We all know that the police exist and they are on our streets to keep us safe. That does not mean that they will break into homes and steal. On the same thread, this does not mean there will be no crime. Perhaps the crime rate will decrease significantly but still, there will always be offenders. So, I ensure them that monitoring is a deterrent, and not an invasive system."
Spector 360: The Software of Choice
"The number of hours on non-work related sites has come down so fast that it is unreal," said Tay. "Productivity on the computer has gone up and less chats are seen these days unless it is for work. The change happened almost overnight."
- "The sales experience was simply great. It was clear, concise, no beating around the bush," said Tay. "We emailed and we spoke over the phone. Pricing was clear and straight-off ... I even bought maintenance for the second year. I have a wonderful sales person who constantly keeps in touch with me and puts a lot of heart into servicing my company's needs. In addition to his sales expertise, he has a great grasp of the technical, which I find valuable."
- Despite the company being "half-a-world away," Tay lauded SpectorSoft's customer service.
"We find SpectorSoft Technical Support very helpful," said Tay. "Response is immediate and I appreciate that ... I wish more companies were like this."
- The Spector 360 Dashboard, focal point for program administration, received high praise from Tay.
"I love the 360 Dashboard. I find it easy to use ... even a 6-year-old would know how to use it," said Tay. "The graphical diagrams, screenshots, everything in the system ... very easy to read. Kudos!"
- Spector 360's Quick View charts and graphs also were objects of Tay's enthusiasm.
"I use the Quick View feature a whole lot," said Tay. "With it, I can very quickly scan all users, pick up on the anomaly activities, and zoom in to a user and into a user's particular page. How cool is that?!
"Plus, I use the Quick View reports at the end of each month, printing them out for submittal to the HR department for review and appropriate action. I have not had to create custom reports because Spector 360's ‘out of the box' Quick View reports have been perfect."
- "Has Spector 360 restored order? Spector 360 certainly has restored order for us," said Tay. "Is 360 worth it? In terms of price, time to install, learning and upkeep, Spector 360 is worth every penny. You can't put it better than that."
- "The purchase of Spector 360 is a wise investment," said Tay. "It is an investment in our employees. We love our employees. We as management are loyal to them and likewise, they are loyal to us. We do not think of them as marauders of data and abusers of work time.
"We only want them to be more effective in their work and we know that there are many distractions. All we want is for everyone to focus on what is important. What they do after work is none of the company's business. We respect their privacy and their space. We do not intrude on them, so it is perfect for us that Spector 360 works so well as a background item, and not an in-your-face system."
"With the threat of losing critical information and low productivity in the workplace being a norm, having a system like Spector 360 makes a big difference between profit and loss," said Tay. "Spector 360 has helped tremendously in ensuring we get the best out of our employees.
"My company is China's fifth largest food and beverage group and I believe that not many companies in China are using a system like Spector 360. I think they should."
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