Spector360.com >>> Case Studies >>> Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority

Monitoring Software Receives "5-Star" Rating from Not-for-Profit

The Setting

Industry: Not-for-Profit Organization
Location: Juneau, Alaska
Founded: 1973

Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority works to meet the affordable housing needs of native and non-native individuals and families in Southeast Alaska.

Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority maintains a Windows 2003 Server on a dedicated domain, with 42 PC workstations and 8 laptops running XP Pro.

The Challenge

For the most part, Information Technology and Productions Administrator Richard Sheridan said the culture of the workplace is diligent and industrious.

"Most people here want to work," said Sheridan. "But every tree has a bad apple or two. Sometimes in non-profit organizations, employees abuse the system ... sort of like why should I worry, my job is secure.

"Management had some concerns over some particular employees, and we needed a way to corroborate productivity issues. We wanted to see if productivity was a function of someone's mentality, or if they were bumping into stumps somewhere."

In addition to those concerns, because the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority handles a significant amount of personal and financial data related to potential housing candidates, security of confidential data is a major issue.

"Confidentiality is a very big concern for us," said Sheridan. "We have bank account data, Social Security numbers, and background check reports ... highly confidential information that must be safeguarded."

And while keeping a network "up" might come to mind as the main thrust of any IT department, keeping intimately aware of the files and data moving across the system also ranks high on the list of critical activity. Such attention to detail by Sheridan brought to light a concern that soon turned from awareness to alarm.

"I started to see gaming engines on the system," said Sheridan. "I wondered who was using them, I wondered what exactly was going on, so I started paying closer attention. I didn't want to leave anything to chance. I needed a tool to attain clarity and be absolutely sure ... especially before I pointed a finger."

Search for a Solution

Given the gaming engine discovery, Sheridan suggested PC activity monitoring as a way to get to the bottom of what was happening. Previously, he had experience with a "system traffic" monitoring program — one designed to watch for bandwidth bottlenecks and similar tech problems — but he was not acquainted with programs capable of recording everything employees do at their PC workstations.

"The concept of monitoring just arose out of my head," said Sheridan. "I asked myself the question: is there such a thing?"

The first source he investigated was the State of Alaska, but his contact there had no applicable advice.

"Before I discovered Spector 360 I was very frustrated," said Sheridan. "I was ready to give up and say it can't be done."

His next move was to try online research. Following some Internet queries, Sheridan found the SpectorSoft Corporation website and was intrigued by what he saw.

"Even when I found Spector 360 you could say I was skeptical," said Sheridan. "Records EVERYTHING? Sure!"

Despite his wariness, he dug deeper into the Spector 360 product description, and following commonly accepted business practice, investigated two competitive proposals.

"I got three quotes," said Sheridan. "One was from SpectorSoft for Spector 360. The other two were ridiculous." Sheridan said SpectorSoft's sales department played a significant role in his decision-making process. "SpectorSoft's sales team gave me an incredible amount of assistance and assurance," said Sheridan. "I have no fear of asking questions ... my philosophy is, if questions can be asked, there probably is an answer."

After all was said and done, it turned out to be SpectorSoft.

Discoveries

Sheridan emphasized he is not a hardliner when it comes to people's PC activity and personal preferences.

"I have to find things that are downright problems," said Sheridan. "Things that will make me say this stops now or the person goes! Things like any kind of porn, gambling, and online video gaming.

"During the Spector 360 evaluation, we found a lot of gambling, some pornography, some coupon sites, and some humor sites with profanity as well as racial and sexual content.

"Lots of places being visited were sites known to be loaded with spyware. There's no such thing as something for free ... you go there, they get something back."

• Sheridan said Spector 360 paid for itself – and then some – within the first few weeks of implementation.
  
  "We found everything we needed," said Sheridan. "As a result, a gentleman was let go. This person was the first on our list of concerns. After running Spector 360 for just about a week, the boss said ‘let's take a look.' The report came up and it was ‘oh my God' ... in your face, clear as day. We just played the screen snapshots through ... we were able to review five days in less than 10 minutes.
  
  "We saw extensive hours of surfing porn, hacks and cheats related to games... 3-D accelerated games pumping through our network ... almost no work time. It was hands-down: pack your stuff and get out ... we don't need people like you in our organization!
  
  "On this one man alone, considering his compensation package, we saved $65,000 to $70,000.
  
  "This could have gone on for 10 years. That's $700,000 ... nearly a million dollars ... on video games, surfing porn, and Instant Messaging."
• "We approve of Instant Messaging in-house, it's a phenomenal tool," said Sheridan. "But with it comes a responsibility ... some adults don't seem to understand. There had been multiple complaints on this individual ... but before Spector 360, nothing could stick. I warned him four times, but he continued to be blatant."

Working With Employees

Sheridan said the use of monitoring software was made perfectly clear to the workforce.

"We gave everyone extensive prior warning," said Sheridan. "The monitoring concept was documented in multiple emails."

• Sheridan said that at first he was somewhat concerned over the potential of monitoring software casting a pallor over the work atmosphere. However, the need to maintain a functional, efficient computer network outweighed the slight uncertainty.
  
  "I didn't want to set up a negative atmosphere," Sheridan said. "But I did want to see who was fooling around and why my network was not working right ... why it was going slow."
• Thanks to Spector 360's flexibility, Sheridan said he devised a two-level monitoring policy.
  
  "Level One is set low ... a screen snapshot once every minute," said Sheridan. "Going to Level Two goes into effect only if a manager comes to me with authorization, in writing. At that point I might increase the screen snapshots to once every 30 seconds."
• Sheridan said the Housing Authority had an Acceptable Use Policy prior to the advent of Spector 360, but it was not as comprehensive and hard to enforce.
  
  "Spector 360 has helped us strengthen and redefine the usage agreement," said Sheridan. "Everyone signs the paperwork at hiring, and it's amended every year."
• "We don't have a Big Brother-type, militant organization," said Sheridan. "We don't work under the thumbs of oppression ... and even with monitoring in place, that attitude has survived ... I'm so pleased."

Spector 360: The Software of Choice

"Monitoring software is a reassurance tool for management," said Sheridan. "Personally, I don't need to watch employees. But for management, it's a phenomenal tool."

• Sheridan said Spector 360 has lived up to its billing.
  
  "It's true, it records EVERYTHING," said Sheridan. "If you sneezed, it would tell me. It gives me whatever I want to know. It has a tremendous amount of power, recording the daily events of everyone here."
• "SpectorSoft's sales team was the turning point," said Sheridan. "Spector 360 stands alone, but the sales team made the difference. I came in belligerent, chest out, saying ‘I need this, this, and this' ... SpectorSoft said ‘no problem.'
  
  "I received a product evaluation, PLUS advice ... that was the deal-maker. Also, there's SpectorSoft's live Technical Support. Given all of that, I said it's too bad we can't buy EVERYTHING through them!"
• "I deal with enough technical stuff, so I wanted and needed something with boldface English, something I didn't need to interpret," said Sheridan. "For me, Spector 360 did that ... it speaks plain English. Other products did not do that ... and other products required lots of modules.
  
  "Not only does Spector 360 speak English, but also the Technical Support department speaks English. The wait time is minimal and they're courteous ... they don't treat you like you're stupid. Plus, there's a comprehensive online manual."
• "Nothing has broken ... the only time I have called Technical Support is to ask a question about a feature ... to see if we could take the Screen Snapshots and import them into a slideshow for use on a projector," said Sheridan. "The answer was yes ... we could actually create an AVI movie ... so ANYBODY using Windows Media Player could just hit play and there you go!"
• "Other product choices were client-based, and we needed to put it on the server," said Sheridan. "With other products, we were constantly bumping into limitations."
• "The Spector 360 install was a piece of cake," said Sheridan. "And I also like the ease of the update feature. I have one planned for this afternoon."
• "Spector 360 hasn't needed much attention," said Sheridan. "And that says something right there."
• "Spector 360 is user-friendly," said Sheridan. "It's very flexible. It lets me dictate ... it does not run me. It does not affect my network at all — the network actually runs better — and that will happen when you remove 5MB movies bogging down the system!"
• "We've had auditors come through and I showed them Spector 360," said Sheridan. "They were stoked ... they saw it as a tool to weed out problems."
• "My bosses are happy and we're saving money," said Sheridan. "That's kudos right there. Spector 360 is the best we could ever have, bar none."
• "Spector 360 has helped me change policy to protect the organization, to protect the network," said Sheridan. "The estimated cost of our system being down is $1,000 to $1,500 an hour ... you just can't afford to let things run rampant.
  
  "We spent basically NOTHING on Spector 360 when it acts as a deterrent to save us tens of thousands in one month," said Sheridan. "Isn't that worth it tenfold?"
• "We put a stop to a $70,000 calendar year loss," said Sheridan. "I can't imagine the real impact ... what we lost because of what he (the major offending employee) failed to do. It's not just the lost wages, but the indeterminate amount of dollars ... it's horrifying to me. It's hard to put a dollar value on it. I know this: thanks to Spector 360, I can go home and get a good night's rest."
• "With Spector 360, we can't miss a thing," said Sheridan. "If Spector 360 had only HALF of what it has, it would be worth it.
  
  "My thanks go out to SpectorSoft for being a 5-Star software vendor. Don't ever stop what you're doing ... hats off!"

"It was like night and day between SpectorSoft and the competition," said Sheridan. "Maybe there is no competition ... maybe Spector 360 is in a class all its own ... maybe there's no other program like it."

 

For more information on the Tlingit-Haida Regional Housing Authority, please visit: www.thrha.org.

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.