Although it might seem unnecessary at first glance, network monitoring will actually benefit your company in the long run. When growing your business from the ground up, you need to control every facet of the organization to protect your long-term interests. Network monitoring services is an investment that you can make work for you. Here are the four main benefits of buying into those services for your business.

Prevents Improper Use

You do not want employees using your network for nefarious activities since the content streaming into and out of your company is your responsibility. For example, illegal downloads through your company network could set your business up for lawsuits from the content owners.

Thankfully, you can have your network managers monitor web activity to pinpoint sites that have the potential to cause problems. From there, have those sites blocked and inform your employees of the decision. Continue monitoring activities to identify workarounds your employees might find, and then block those as well.

Improves Productivity

Although employees will always take a bit of a breather between tasks, you can limit that downtime by keeping certain websites off limits. You must have your network managers identify the sites that act as the biggest time sinks for your employees.

Your workers' interests combined with current trends will determine the problem sites, so it's different for each company. However, across the board, social media proves to demand the most attention from employees.

For the most distracted workers, nearly 1/4 of their salary could be paying for between break downtime alone. By removing those distractions from your network, your employees will turn that downtime into work time, boosting productivity across the board.

Safeguards Data

Without watching your network activity carefully, you will have no idea where your data is going. Employees may share proprietary information without thought by linking documents through unsecured email or instant messaging services. Furthermore, you'll want to track downloads to watch for employees placing company documents on their personal data devices.

Monitoring services will allow you to stop the data loss and control where your information goes. If data goes to the wrong entity, network monitoring will allow you to trace its path and immediately perform damage control.

Make sure you share clear rules about data sharing activities with your employees. Whether it's accidental or on purpose, your employees need to know the exact consequences of giving away protected information. When data does end up in the wrong hands, you may need to pursue compensation for your losses through the court system.

Protects Interests

If you do allow social networking or open email use, you will want to watch the information posted by your employees. Frustrated workers often vent on these platforms, which could result in protected information slips from time to time. Sharing information about new products, business improvements or company operations could give your competitors an edge.

In addition, employees may paint your company in a bad light after having a frustrating experience, resulting in a ding to your reputation. You can have your network monitoring team archive all of the posts created by your workers for later review.

Upon coming across suspect posts, it is important to have them deleted and talk to your worker about the issue. You can use the situation to reflect on the need for increased worker training concerning information protection and proper use of network services.

Finding Balance

You need to be willing to give and take to find the right balance. Completely restricting your employees to work activities and correspondence only will make for a cranky group. Instead, clearly dictate the proper form of communication from work and the sites that workers can visit on their downtime.

For example, you can allow employees to send work appropriate emails and instant messages on their breaks to allow them to better stay in touch with friends and family members. In addition, it might be wise to allow certain fun websites and movie streaming services on breaks to give employees a way to decompress throughout the workday. Go to website for more information.

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