NEToutcome's Services

Computerworld Canada - March 27, 1998. As global competitive forces push many businesses towards increased productivity and efficiency, corporate strategies are constantly being refocused to allow for the incorporation of tools which can maintain or enhance the momentum of growth. In the last few years one of the most widely embraced of these tools in the workplace has been the Internet. However, Internet access in the office is a double edged sword. On the one hand employees are able to do competitive product and industry research, upgrade software, order products, check courier weigh bills, and hundreds of other useful work related tasks. On the other hand, they can view their own stock portfolio, look up old friends, check lottery and sports scores, keep current with Olympic results and yes, even view and download pornography. By providing employees with unlimited access to the Internet, companies simultaneously open themselves to numerous issues of concern because of the broad spectrum of information available. And because some of this information can range anywhere from moderately offensive to outright illegal, and is being viewed and/or stored on company property, businesses can be putting themselves in a precarious position. There are many issues within organizations around providing unlimited Internet access to employees during the work day including: Pornography can be used as an instrument for sexual harassment. Pornographic Web pages are automatically downloaded on company hardware. Illegal material, although rare may be stored on company owned hard-drives. The collective waste of time on non-work related "surfing" could add up to hundreds even thousands of dollars per employee. Pornography sites often maintain the IP address of their viewers, thus providing a link back to your company. In order to prevent such situations, it is essential that companies first acknowledge the potential dangers to themselves and their employees, then put in place protective measures which will eliminate the possibility. It is key to note that this can be done in a way that need not appear restrictive to the employees. This is where Net Outcome can help. We will sit down with your information systems, marketing and human resources staff to outline a process for implementing protective measures. This will include: Rethinking Internet access guidelines Updating policy guidelines Developing a corporate memo to inform employees of the changes Evaluating systems options, both client and server based Implementing software and hardware installations Testing and evaluating the implementation. In the world of employee Internet access, ignorance is definitely not bliss. For those organizations that are unprepared to consider the potential risks of unlimited access by hundreds if not thousands of employees, the financial and political costs associated with dealing with the after affects of an incident could be enormous. On the other hand, those forward thinking businesses which are open to looking at all sides of the issue can make a small investment now which will pay for itself many fold down the road. The choice is yours...