Posted on 09/27/2006 12:46:03 PM PDT by kenn5
Annapolis company's systems help to monitor employees' computer use By ANDREW CHLDERS, Staff Writer
Marylanders know a thing or two about surviving the tedium of work, ranking among the nation's top time-wasters on the job.
But Ermis Sfakiyanudis and Alan Schunemann are just determined to ruin it for everyone.
ETelemetry in Annapolis specializes in business intelligence, helping firms to track their own technology infrastructure and people, to find out who's working diligently and who's updating a MySpace profile or rearranging a Netflix queue. The bane of office loafers everywhere, eTelemetry's Metron and Locate network trackers can pinpoint individual "bandwidth hogs" on a company's network, even tallying the time individual employees spend surfing the net.
"Web pages aren't very big. You can surf all day and it wouldn't show on a bandwidth graph," said Mr. Schunemann, eTelemetry's chief technology officer.
And the average worker spends a lot of time surfing. According to a recent survey by America Online and salary.com, Maryland ranks 16th in the nation for time wasted at work, with 2.4 hours a day going down the tubes, costing employers an estimated $17 billion in wages annually. Missouri workers rank as the nation's loafing kings, with more than three hours of each workday squandered.
While a quarter of that time went to chit-chat with co-workers and two minutes of company time went to looking for a new job, by far the most common time drain was the Internet. Workers blow an hour each day just surfing the Net.
The folks at eTelemetry have even turned their systems on themselves, raising a few eyebrows when their own employees' Internet use was tracked.
"It's amazing what we've discovered," Mr. Schunemann said. "Very useful from a manager's perspective."
But busting employees for tweaking their fantasy football rosters is only one benefit of eTelemetry's systems, which provide companies with "business intelligence." Metron and Locate simply plug into existing network hardware to evaluate how well systems interact and where Internet bandwidth should be allocated most effectively.
"Some of our customers use it as a resource tool to allocate resources," Mr. Sfakiyanudis said.
In the rush to add the most updated technology during the 1990s, some businesses may have overlooked ensuring that all of the components worked together optimally, and eTelemetry has carved out a niche in the technology market helping companies make the most out of the infrastructure they already have.
"Now you can add some sanity," said Mr. Sfakiyanudis, company president.
The company, founded by Mr. Sfakiyanudis and Mr. Schunemann in 1999, is growing exponentially. Last week eTelemetry moved into new larger offices as it announced $4 million in venture funding that will more than double the size of the company within the next year.
From 12 full-time staffers now, the company expects to grow to 25 or 30 people by late 2007. Connecticut-based Centripetal Capital Partners is investing $4 million to continuing developing Locate and Metron.
"Critical to our decision-making is solid evidence of a competitively advantaged, strong and proprietary product that meets an unmet or underserved need in a large and growing market," Centripetal Capital principal Jeff Brodlieb said in a statement issued this week.
Part of a growing tech community in Anne Arundel, eTelemetry has also become a refuge for a number of former USinternetworking employees. Mr. Schunemann and Janice Roper-Graham, vice president of marketing, both spent time at USi, and they credit the enthusiasm generated by that firm for spawning a swath of other, smaller tech businesses in the county.
Drawing on his business background and geekish proclivities, Mr. Schunemann said the goal of eTelemetry was to meld the two previously incompatible worlds.
"I wanted to do something good for business with geek stuff," he said.
Not a problem if you are the IT dept.
Who Shall Guard The Guards?
>>>Everyone who calculates how much labor is wasted by folks spending time on the web assumes every minute would otherwise be productive. It ain't so for most of us corporate drones. >>>
I agree. Sometimes the surfing helps me keep focused (if that makes sense) in my ADD way. I work, and flip to browse and I promise I would go NUTS if my entire day was filled with insurance. I would most likely turn in my notice and be of NO value. I think maybe the one hour a day I browse the net should just be considered a 'bonus' of my employment'. How does that sound? LOL
Easy answer:
Bring your laptop to work and if you have access to a wireless connection which is outside the purview of the corporate network, you're in (back in) like Flint.
As this is bought by employers, the U.S. unemployment rate will sky rocket.
People need brain-breaks. It helps to get away from the desk, the normal routine, or whatever. That's why office naps really aren't a bad idea, even if they are only 15 minutes. Even if a person is on the computer all day an internet "break" is still just that, it's a change of brain use.
The more rejuvanation, the better the productivity. Now tell that to the people you work for. ;)
Wireless web access is the answer to this threat! Then we won't need their stinking networks.
all I ever do is look for nice gifts for my boss and his family, things I can only afford to buy online because my wage is so low
;-)
Use other people's machines when they're away from their desks.
BTW, my immediate supervisor is ok with minor browsing, as long as work doesn't lag. But she is just as cubicle bound as the rest of us.
The only ones who have a problem with it are the big wigs who spend about a 1/3 of their week on the golf course or on corporate 'lunches'.
So they feel free to crack that whip. When I was a supervisor at my previous job, I realized that you can't consume someone for 8 straight hours when they are expected to be productive (creative/mental). They will burn out quick. It's one thing to do an assembly line job, but to expect people to use their brain ALL THE TIME, I don't know if anyone could handle it for long.
>>>As this is bought by employers, the U.S. unemployment rate will sky rocket.>>>
LOL, that'll teach em!
Send this to her. Cubism
Bummer.
The irony is that most people can only produce about one hour of real work a day, if they are young and attentive. They cannot be forced, bribed, or motivated to do more. They just *can't*. It is not sustainable for more than a week or two at most.
And even when you get someone who tries to force their own productivity, no one else in the system can deal with their increased production, so it log jams, and the end result is that the slowest person in the chain will dictate productivity.
Into this situation are people who are utterly convinced that they *can* get vast amounts of work out of other people, *and* that it will be productive work, not just busy work. Such people are as addicted to that idea as much as those who play the lottery are addicted to that game. And with less chance of success.
I got to experience the apex of productivity in a disciplined office, and indeed it was highly effective, but utterly repulsive to the business system. Employees were instructed to stay away and take care of family business unless they were "feeling productive", based on their own opinion. When they were at work they were left strictly alone.
Employees came and left at odd hours, sometimes very early in the morning or late at night, and even on weekends. They usually stayed for an hour or less, but were at their peak productivity during that undisturbed time.
In short order, six months of management backlog had been turned into six months of advance planning, almost a year of work in just a month.
We were ordered to discontinue the programme, as the extra work had both created an administrative nightmare at our higher headquarters, and it made other branches look sluggish.
As a reward, we were all required to be in the office during regular office hours, be interfered with by others, shuffle useless memos and such. The system was restored to balance, and we spent the next six months productively doing nothing productive, until we were back on a push schedule.
These folks haven't come over to the darkside ... addiction to FR guarantees at least a 4 hour a day habit.
This monitoring has been happening for a very long time at least since I worked in IT in 1997. I used to know all about the internal workings and would 'off hand' warn just about everyone whose path I crossed to watch their butts when it came to email and web activity. I was in a position where they knew I wasn't making this up.
My heart went out to many of the people as even though I too was a very hard, productive worker, there were times I needed a mental break and would naturally go up on the Internet or email friends (instead of to the break room or take a walk). This did not screw with my productivity.
Yet some people spent their whole morning up on the web as well as much as their afternoon and needed to have their ass fired. They were too. I did feel though that all of these people needed to know they were monitored and then at least they could make their own decisions.
:-) and that is for just the 'normies' or addiction light crowd.
I use other people's computers whether they are at their desk or not, from my desk, and even when I'm at home. Of course I'm the network admin lol.
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