Online Trading Costs Individual Businesses $140,000 Daily; How Much is That $10 Trade Costing Your Company?

Business Wire, April 5, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2000

Survey Finds That Businesses Pay as Much as $35

Million Per Year Supplementing Cheap Online Stock Trades

Online stock trading at work costs some American businesses $140,000 each day, a new Cyberslacking survey from JSB's surfCONTROL reports. While more investors are lured to the Internet by low trading costs, it is corporate productivity that is suffering - as workers consistently use company resources and time to trade their personal securities online.

The survey, jointly conducted by JSB's surfCONTROL and QuickTake.ComSM, reveals that while 55.2% of respondents admitted to conducting online securities trading while at work, an overwhelming 90.1% of these traders claimed the trading was for personal - not business -- reasons.

This survey of 250 online traders also reveals that the majority of these transactions (44.8%) occur during the prime business hours of 8 and 2 pm, with the average trader (70.2%) spending 30 minutes to one hour each day.

These survey figures highlight the overall business impact associated with personal `day-trading', and the staggering costs to corporate America. It costs a company $35,000,000 per year for 1,000 employees to conduct one hour per day of personal Web surfing at work (Assuming a 50-week work-year and a five-day workweek). This means the daily cost of 1,000 employees conducting one hour of personal trading at work is $140,000 - or $140 per employee! Considering the $10 trade price of most online securities, it is costing American businesses 14 times more than the cost of the trade to allow employees to trade online at work.

"Cyberslacking at work is not a new challenge for today's business managers - the challenge is keeping up with Internet content, which is constantly changing," said Steve Purdham, President, JSB's surfCONTROL, the No.1 corporate filtering company. "Managers must realize there are many different forms of Web content that has the potential to distract and seduce today's employees from doing their work. It is every manager's job to pay close attention to how their employees are using the Web at work - and how these Internet distractions affect corporate productivity and network bandwidth."

For more information on how to protect worker productivity and optimize bandwidth utilization through the installation of Internet monitoring and access control software, log onto http://www.surfcontrol.com.

ABOUT JSB's surfCONTROL

surfCONTROL, a division of JSB Software Technologies plc Is the No. 1 Market Leader in Internet Access Management, offering a complete line of Internet filtering Solutions for every environment. Based on patented "Expert Filtering," "Pass-By," and "Pass-Through" technologies, the surfCONTROL family of products ensures that "Internet Access is Appropriate Access." This comprehensive line of Internet monitoring, management and filtering solutions include SuperScout -- Advanced Filtering Architecture for the Enterprise; Little Brother -Straightforward Administration for Small to Midsize Growing Networks; and SurfWatch - Trusted Filtering for the Home and Education Markets as well as Software Development Toolkits for OEM clients. These solutions address many of the key issues raised by Internet access, such as productivity, legal liability, infrastructure bandwidth, and network security for the corporate environment, as well as protecting children from harmful Internet content.

surfCONTROL (www.surfcontrol.com) is a division of JSB Software Technologies plc (www.jsb.com), the prime architect for the Windows Sockets standard and provider of innovative communications technology for the world's leading ISVs. surfCONTROL works with a range of strategic partners, including Check Point Software (NASDAQ: CHKP), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Hewlett Packard (NASDAQ: HWP), IBM (NASDAQ: IBM), ICSA, ISS, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISSX), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR), and Tivoli Systems. Headquartered in Scotts Valley, Calif. and Manchester, UK, JSB is quoted on the London Stock Exchange as `JSB' and the EASDAQ as `JSBS.'

Note to Editors: The QuickTake(TM) survey is directional in nature and reflects the Digital Opinions(TM) of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results are not scientific and cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole.

Products mentioned herein may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. surfCONTROL is a registered trademark of JSB Software Technologies plc