Internet Access: Businesses Find New Class of Software Saves Millions of Dollars Annually - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Oct 26, 1998

IS and technology departments are finding the deployment of Internet access management systems could save their companies over $11 million per year.

These saving are realized in the avoidance of lawsuits, improved employee productivity, and enabling efficient use of company resources, according to San Diego-based Internet software developer NetPartners Internet Solutions Inc.

The figure is calculated using the following statistics. On average, companies without any system in place for policy enforcement find that 20% - 50% of online time is spent on non-business related activities. Using an employee cost of $35/hour, an average online time of 2.5 hours a day -- 35% of that time spent on non-work related activities -- a theoretical 3,000-employee company with only 60% of its employees online could spend over $11 million annually in lost employee productivity costs.

Additionally, IS departments could easily see $250,000 in costs from unmanaged Internet use. This is based on an IS department cost of $60 per hour and 2 hours per year of support for each computer on the Internet as a result of non-work related Internet surfing, combined with unnecessary bandwidth consumption.

As a result, advanced Internet access management (IAM) systems are deployed by businesses worldwide. IAM includes software to manage company Internet resources through site selection, or denying access to non-business related sites, comprehensive monitoring, and detailed reporting.

California-based research firm, Frost & Sullivan, expects spending to increase to $2.5 billion annually on IAM technology by the year 2004. As an example of the savings that can be realized by the deployment of an IAM system, a major retail store chain with headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas calculated annual savings of more than $390,000 in employee productivity alone, by installing NetPartners' IAM system, WebSENSE.

Another WebSENSE client, Robert F. Driver Co., a multi-billion dollar insurance company, has implemented the system to reduce employee productivity costs and legal liability costs.

"As an insurance agency, we're very aware of lawsuits that have been filed charging sexual harassment or a hostile work environment because of the display of inappropriate Internet material, and we wanted to protect ourselves," said Randy Sysol, vice president of Information Systems at Robert F. Driver Co. "This is another reason (in addition to employee productivity concerns) we need WebSENSE."

NetPartners' WebSENSE is the leading IAM solution for businesses in terms of revenue and installed base, offering high-performance Internet policy enforcement and distributed reporting. WebSENSE's scalable architecture is used in companies with as few as 25 users, to companies with over 40,000 Internet users. About NetPartners Internet Solutions Inc.

NetPartners Internet Solutions Inc. is the world-leader in the development of Internet access management systems for corporations, schools and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). NetPartners' leadership position is exemplified by its five "best product" awards and being the first to develop an Internet access management (IAM) system for deployment across the enterprise.

The company is a founding member of the Secure Internet Filtering Technology (SIFT) consortia, in conjunction with the ICSA. NetPartners is a privately held corporation, venture backed by Morgan Stanley Venture Partners and Edelson Technology Partners, and is based in San Diego. FMI: http://www.netpartners.com or call 800/723-1166 or 619/505-3020.