Workplace Productivity Issues

The responsibility of open email and web access can be too great a temptation for some employees to handle. Personal use of these business assets can cause hours of lost productivity every week and thousands of dollars of lost wages per employee every year. For example, an employee with a salary of US$50,000 per year who spends just 15 minutes per day on personal email costs the organization nearly $1,600 per year (based on a 48 week working year).

If this cost seems farfetched, consider that research into web browsing habits has indicated 70% of traffic on adult websites occurs during normal business hours.

Uncontrolled web and email access leaves businesses open to exploitation, and to an expectation on the part of employees that these assets are provided for personal and private use.

Creating a corporate Usage Policy and informing employees as to just what uses are acceptable is the first step in ensuring productive, efficient use of the web. But having a Usage Policy without enforcement tools is like having laws with no police to enforce them.

MailMarshal and WebMarshal are internet management tools that allow you to monitor and enforce compliance with these policies.

MailMarshal lets you specify the size and type of emails which can be sent to or from any user in your organization. Comprehensive reporting allows you to monitor usage by individual user if necessary.

WebMarshal can stop employee web access to non-business sites. WebMarshal's TextCensor automatically updates lists of sites which breach organizational policy.

Productivity control is not just about protecting users from themselves. Employees also need protection from outside sources of unproductive email: chain letters, spam, virus hoaxes, jokes, and non-business attachments. Users can often inadvertently subscribe to email lists resulting in dozens of unsolicited advertising messages and time consuming chain letters. MailMarshal can detect the characteristics of these types of emails and manage them according to your requirements (e.g. reject, quarantine, or delete). WebMarshal allows scanning of attachments to web-based email and can block or schedule access to webmail sites.