What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?

The main type of output required is how much time they spend
interacting with programs windows and the names of the programs. An
utility that can track which windows are active and how much mouse and
keyboard activity occurs on those windows.

In the case of websites there will be a need to check which web sites
are the most used.

/voipfc

voipfc wrote:
> What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?
>
> The main type of output required is how much time they spend
> interacting with programs windows and the names of the programs. An
> utility that can track which windows are active and how much mouse and
> keyboard activity occurs on those windows.
>
> In the case of websites there will be a need to check which web sites
> are the most used.
>
> /voipfc
>

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

voipfc wrote:

> What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?

Google is your friend, but I'm curious: why do you think you *need* to
do this?

> In the case of websites there will be a need to check which web sites
> are the most used.

That is best handled by a proxy server on your end that tracks and logs
outgoing connections though your link to the internet. It's not a job
for a desktop monitor program.

> /voipfc
______
Dennis

On Apr 27, 6:09 pm, Dennis McCunney <Dennis.McCun...@NOSPAMGMail.com>
wrote:
> voipfcwrote:
> > What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?
>
> Google is your friend, but I'm curious: why do you think you *need* to
> do this?
>

The purpose is to ensure that the main office programs such as the
Office programs, quickbooks etc those relevant to the work is what the
spend most of their time in. If staff don't appear to finishing their
work on time, it is important to now what they are really doing.


> > In the case of websites there will be a need to check which web sites
> > are the most used.
>
> That is best handled by a proxy server on your end that tracks and logs
> outgoing connections though your link to the internet. It's not a job
> for a desktop monitor program.
>
> > /voipfc
>
> ______
> Dennis

voipfc wrote:
> On Apr 27, 6:09 pm, Dennis McCunney <Dennis.McCun...@NOSPAMGMail.com>
> wrote:
>> voipfcwrote:
>>> What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?
>> Google is your friend, but I'm curious: why do you think you *need* to
>> do this?
>
> The purpose is to ensure that the main office programs such as the
> Office programs, quickbooks etc those relevant to the work is what the
> spend most of their time in. If staff don't appear to finishing their
> work on time, it is important to now what they are really doing.

The simple solution for that is a standard image rolled out to all
company PCs that only includes authorized software, and setting the user
accounts as "Power Users", who can run installed software but not
install their own. "So and so is a lazy sod who is goofing of on
company time" is not the first assumption I make in such cases.

Granted, if they don't finish their work on time, you need to know why.
But assuming going in they are goofing off and doing other things
instead of working is a questionable idea. There may be other reasons
entirely, like too much work to get it all done, or procedures that get
in the way.

Going with a monitoring solution like this certainly does one thing: it
communicates to the employees "We don't trust you to do your work unless
someone is standing over your shoulder, so Big Brother is watching you!"

Speaking personally, I wouldn't want to work for an employer who held
that attitude. Would you?

And depending upon where the business is located, you may be legally
required to tell the employees such measures are in place and their
activities may be monitored.

At my employer, there was a standard image with approved software rolled
out to all PCs, and employees who needed something non-standard needed
approval from their manager and a request to IT to install it. There
was also a company policy handbook that specified acceptable use of the
resources that everyone had to read and sign a paper acknowledging they
understood. Employees who performed poorly got bad performance reviews,
and if improvement didn't happen, they got terminated. No employee
monitoring software was ever deployed because it was not seen as needed.

Efforts spent making sure employees aren't goofing off on company time
are better applied to making sure the employees *can* do their work
without unnecessary impediments, and making sure the company is a place
people like working for and *want* to do their work.
______
Dennis

Dennis McCunney <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

<snip>

>Efforts spent making sure employees aren't goofing off on company time
>are better applied to making sure the employees *can* do their work
>without unnecessary impediments, and making sure the company is a place
>people like working for and *want* to do their work.
>______
>Dennis
>

<applause>

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

"Ron Martell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> <snip>
> <applause>
> <snip>

I'll second that! A *very* well put case, and one I wholeheartedly agree
with.

Ed Metcalfe.

Ed Metcalfe wrote:
> "Ron Martell" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> <snip>
>> <applause>
>> <snip>
>
> I'll second that! A *very* well put case, and one I wholeheartedly agree
> with.

Thanks to both of you. This is kind of a pet peeve of mine.

Robert Tonwnsend, in "Up the Organization", went on about "Theory X" vs
"Theory Y" organizations. "Theory X" organizations implicitly assumed
that people didn't want to work, would slack off at every opportunity,
and needed to be stood over. "Theory Y" organizations assumed that
working was as natural as eating, sleeping, and breathing, and that most
organizations with problems had made it unnecessarily difficult to get
the work done, and needed to rethink their policies and procedures.

Townsend did his best to create Theory Y organizations. He was the CEO
at Avis Rent a Car during their famous "We Try Harder" days, when Avis
came from having Problems to being a solid number 2 in the industry and
having regular revenue and profitability increases. "Up the
Organization" was in part the story of what he did at Avis, and why, and
it's one of the two best books on management I've read. (The other is
Peter F. Drucker's "Management: Tasks, Practices, and Responsibilities")

When I see questions like voipfc's, I think "Theory X", and my first
question is "Why do you assume your employees are trying to goof off on
you, and *need* such a setup in place?" The usual reasons for such
assumptions have little to do with actual employee performance, and
everything to do with insecurity on the part of the manager.

> Ed Metcalfe.
______
Dennis

I have a very powerful tool from SpectorSoft.com Their product records
sites visited, programs used, emails sent, etc. It has the ability to
alert you when keywords appear. For example, if your employees are
using myspace or porns sites, you can find out. I do not work for or
with the company. I use their product to track my home network. I
have six kids and I need to be able to know what they are doing with
their PCs. I realize my use in not the same as an office, but I know
this would work well in that environment. You can have the tool
snapshot the screen from time to time, you can capture text messages,
emails, etc. I know a bunch of people will complain about whether
this is right or the best way to handle this. I am not going to weigh
in on that topic. In my office, I can manage people with more
positive methods, however, I can see that it is likely that some
people work in areas where that is not so easy. I simply have used
several products like this to try to monitor my kids PCs and this is
the best one of them all. It is also relatively cheap. As you would
expect, the software hides itself from the user and can be managed
remotely.

On Apr 27, 5:51 am, voipfc <voi...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?
>
> The main type of output required is how much time they spend
> interacting with programs windows and the names of the programs. An
> utility that can track which windows are active and how much mouse and
> keyboard activity occurs on those windows.
>
> In the case of websites there will be a need to check which web sites
> are the most used.
>
> /voipfc

On 28 Apr, 14:11, "tpant...@gmail.com" <tpant...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have a very powerful tool from SpectorSoft.com Their product records
> sites visited, programs used, emails sent, etc. It has the ability to
> alert you when keywords appear. For example, if your employees are
> using myspace or porns sites, you can find out. I do not work for or
> with the company. I use their product to track my home network. I
> have six kids and I need to be able to know what they are doing with
> their PCs. I realize my use in not the same as an office, but I know
> this would work well in that environment. You can have the tool
> snapshot the screen from time to time, you can capture text messages,
> emails, etc. I know a bunch of people will complain about whether
> this is right or the best way to handle this. I am not going to weigh
> in on that topic. In my office, I can manage people with more
> positive methods, however, I can see that it is likely that some
> people work in areas where that is not so easy. I simply have used
> several products like this to try to monitor my kids PCs and this is
> the best one of them all. It is also relatively cheap. As you would
> expect, the software hides itself from the user and can be managed
> remotely.
>
> On Apr 27, 5:51 am,voipfc<voi...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> > What are the best utilities that monitor staff desktop activity?
>
> > The main type of output required is how much time they spend
> > interacting with programs windows and the names of the programs. An
> > utility that can track which windows are active and how much mouse and
> > keyboard activity occurs on those windows.
>
> > In the case of websites there will be a need to check which web sites
> > are the most used.
>
> > /voipfc