We constantly monitor the changing environment in which our users operate and ensure that the solutions we offer always comply with the needs. 

Home office and hybrid work increased the need for remote, automated infrastructure management and monitoring employee safety and activity. That is why, major changes in Statlook 15.0 include: a new, universal organizational structure for resources\users\licenses, voice and video chat time monitoring (e.g. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet), and integrating Statlook with Azure inbound and outbound client. We've also added many user-suggested improvements in all Statlook modules. 

Statlook 15.0.0.

Updating the software to the latest version is free for all users with active Maintenance Plans. The new version of Statlook will soon receive further updates (15.x), e.g.: Single Sign On and dark mode for master. 

Organizational view: 

• New organizational structure – manage your users, hardware and licenses easily,
• Scheduled synchronization of organizational view groups – define a schedule for importing Active Directory data; perform a scan of network resources at the level of either the selected groups or the entire organizational view. 

Better integration with Active Directory (organizational view): 

•  Automatic import of information about computers and users from Active Directory, 
• Printers – import printer information from AD,
• Domain forest – import the structure for the domain forest,
• Mapping – map AD object attributes with additional attributes for objects in Statlook. 

Voice and video call time monitoring: 

• Camera and microphone usage – the agent automatically detects the usage of the microphone and camera (video and audio are NOT recorded). Activity details are presented in a new report,
• Online conversations and working time – video and audio call data are automatically analyzed and considered in the working time statistics. 

Reporting:

• File details – a new periodic report informing what types of files are stored on computers,
• Sent files – a new periodic report informing what files were sent using browsers (e.g. attachments). 

Object history: 

• Change monitoring –  the object history report (users, resources, licenses, applications, etc.) provides information on the service account responsible for a given modification. You can check whether the modification was automatic (performed by the server) or manual (performed by a user). 

Postal accounts: 

• Exchange – integrate Statlook with Azure for e-mail. Set up your Exchange (Confidential) e-mail client.

Helpdesk:

• The "Requires action" column has been added. Now it’s clearly visible whether you should wait for more information from a user or act/respond,
• A new, user-friendly, and intuitive Kanban view interface.

Remote employee monitoring is the most popular way to check attendance, manage remote work and evaluate remote employee performance, whenever direct results cannot be monitored or evaluated.

Trust is very important and a result based approach is highly required, but not always sufficient. Remote working is a great alternative for working from an office, but despite its advantages, it also poses some threats. Let’s see what are the options to maximize the remote work efficiency and security.

Table of contents

The main tasks concerning remote employees for businesses and organizations

Employee monitoring – best practices

Statlook – a professional and easy-to-use solution to remote employee monitoring

The main tasks concerning remote employees for businesses and organizations:

Manage security threats

The company client details, copyright materials, trade secrets, logins, passwords and other sensitive data are much more vulnerable when the employees work from home. Monitoring employees is a key element of endpoint security. Are you able to connect to your employees’ computers at any time and help them or change the security settings?

Protect your data

Data Leakage Protection (DLP) is a common practice for, both, personal data and business data. Monitoring remote employees’ activity is one of the ways to secure data and prevent potential leaks. Are you sure your data is well protected and you have the right tools to check it?

Check remote employee efficiency

Checking your workers using online chats, e-mails or their VPN connections is possible, but it is not the most efficient way to monitor your remote staff. Making sure that people do productive work instead of taking care of their personal matters is as important as having your workers available for meetings, calls and emergency tasks during their remote working hours. Using their computers is one thing, but do they use productive apps and websites? Is the time spent actively or maybe the applications are just idly running?

Optimize the costs of remote work

Working from home generates some savings from the start as employees do not use your premises, but can you make sure that your costs are optimized? Software and hardware inventory, license compliance, checking software usage – all these things, if performed remotely, can bring you additional savings without any harm for the remote workers.

Employee monitoring – best practices:

Company assets – company rules and regulations

The best way to manage remote workers is to provide them with a computer they can use for work purposes only. Monitoring private computers is much more tricky (although possible). If employees use dedicated workstations they have to obey the rules and the question of their privacy becomes less important, as they have their own, private computers and smartphones to deal with private matters.

Prevention - block applications and websites 

You are not hunting witches, the best way to avoid unproductive work time is to block all kinds of undesired applications and websites as well as removable devices like pendrives or HDD and SSD disks. The employees can still access them using their private smartphones and computers – but then it is just a break in their work, as they are not using company assets  

Do not spy on your staff – just monitor them, and help them

Reasonable monitoring – good, hardcore surveillance – bad. Nobody likes to be “big-brothered” without their consent, so collect only the information relevant to your business. What is more, check the local law and choose a solution that is not interfering with your employees’ everyday tasks. If the solution includes helpdesk and remote control options, make sure your remote employees are aware of that, as they can greatly benefit from it.

Clarity and  transparency 

The most important is to inform the employees about the monitoring on their computers. It is also very useful to clarify the way the monitoring works and explain what is the acceptable use of the assets being monitored. The way you inform your workers is in most cases up to you, but make sure they are familiar with it.

Choose the right tools

As with any software or tools you choose, finding the most suitable solution is a key to success. You need to remember about the reasons why you do it, and respect your employees privacy as much as possible, having in mind the security and efficiency. The collected data should be well protected, stored in a secure location and the access to them should be convenient but safe.

Statlook – a professional and easy-to-use solution to remote employee monitoring:

Managing security threats with Statlook

• Remote software and hardware management
• Data Leakage Protection (DLP)
• User management

Protecting your data with Statlook

• USB blocking and authorizing access
• Employee activity monitoring
• Printout monitoring
• GDPR personal data sets management

Checking remote employee efficiency with Statlook

• Monitoring applications
• Monitoring Internet (visited websites and file transfer)
• Blocking applications and websites
• Recording and commenting on work breaks
• Working time reports
• Monitoring employee productivity

Optimizing the costs of remote work with Statlook

• Software and hardware use – optimization of assets
• Helpdesk / Service desk – easy to use ticket system
• Remote help and remote connection
• Remote access to files, registry and processes without interrupting work

Statlook implementation, even in large companies, is easy and does not require any additional expenses – you can have it up and running in one day!

The monitoring data is stored in your own database (MS SQL or PostgreSQL) and is well protected, while the reports can be accessed via Internet – safety of local database & convenient access.

Statlook collects only statistical data and does not collect any content typed by employees such as: e-mails, chats, logins, passwords, etc. – privacy of the workers and legality of your monitoring one of the strongest advantages of the system.

Choose the FREE Version or check the 30-day Statlook license for all your assets to start your remote employee monitoring.

We are pleased to present you the latest 14th version of the Statlook system! The latest release of our software is another big step towards improving IT infrastructure security management and its full automation. Here are the most important new features!

Statlook 14.0.0.

Get ready for new features in 2020 – Service Level Agreement management, customizable templates, helpdesk hints, new technologies and faster, more accurate algorithms.

Service Level Agreement (SLA) management

• Manage all Service Level Agreements (SLAs) – customize your responses, set triggers, be informed.

Fully customizable working hours and calendars

• Define working hours – you can set different values for each SLA
• Use your own calendars – customize calendars for each SLA based on national holidays, business schedules and individual preferences.
• Make every hour count – you will always be the master of your deadlines

Set your response and resolution times

• Get specific information about the time left – be always one step ahead
• Set automated rules – to help you deal with typical cases
• Documentation and automatization – a great tool to prove your excellent performance in executing your SLAs

Be quick and save your time

• Create your own comment templates – make your time count
• Whenever you want to use a template, just type “>” and chose – life can be as simple as that
• Use templates together with other hints like “@” or “#” – to make your everyday work more efficient and pleasant

Protocol profiles

• Create your own document templates (protocols)
• Choose the attributes to be covered by the protocol (both standard or additional)
• Use macros to make the documents flexible

Better Knowledge Base

• Embedding multimedia
• New formatting options
• Make your knowledge base as appealing and useful as possible

A new edition of MUI application to take IT Asset Management to a higher tier

MUI application is designed to and carry inventory and manage IT resources from your mobile devices. They have already been recognized as extremly useful tools in everyday IT-administrative work.

These functionalities now reach another level of usability, as they introduce new features and intuitive interface on every platform you may use. MUI is compatible not only with Android and Windows Phone - now, iOS is also an option!

The simplicity of usage has always been our motto, and in case of MUI we reached the peak of intuitiveness. After installing the application, the user ought to insert appropriate credentials and uplook server's IP address. By doing so, the access to devices registered in statlook system will be established.

This solution comes in handy especially for administrators who work "in-field", within multiple localizations and those who maintain the technical issues of company's devices.
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Why go mobile?

Imagine that a worker reports a problem with a serious computer damage. Most frequently, an administrator has to go the workstation and - first of all - identify the damaged device. Usually, it proves to be difficult - especially if the damage causes the computer to be unaccesible.

Because of that, these seemingly simple questions may appear to be very difficult to answer:

• Which computer are we dealing with?
• Is the damaged workstation still covered by the guarantee agreement?
• Have similar technical problems with this particular workstation appeared earlier?

Accessing such information in certain facilities is often difficult, as it demands consultation with another departments, e.g. the accountancy one. It is a vast nuisance, as it takes your valuable time, which could be used to deal with other important tasks.  Mobile Uplook® Inventory allows you to check all the necessary data concerning both the devices and their incident history much quicker:

1. You can scan a barcode of the device (be it a PC, a laptop or a printer) via phone with Mobile Uplook Inventory,
2. The application connects with the database, giving you a full access to data concerning its configuration, its user and maintenance history, 
3. Basing on the gathered data, the IT administrator can proceed with maintenance procedures - and moreover, divide and organize the work via online report database. 

Using Mobile Uplook Inventory saves your time while handling servicing requests. It comes in handy especially if you are working within multiple locations. Yet, it also is an invaluable asset in case of smaller companies, as localizing and identifying a computer also can appear to be a difficult task to do. Altogether, using MUI will influence the profitability of IT departments, thus accelerating the return on investment in statlook system.

Mobile Uplook Inventory visibly enhances the comfort of work for both IT administrators and managers. A constatnt accessiblity to most crucial data about IT infrastructure via mobile phone is a must for many administrators. MUI application is one of the factors that highlights A+C systems from other Polish IT Asset Management systems' producers. None of them offers such a variety of possibilities.

Download MUI

The application can be downloaded for Android, Windows Phone and App Store. Enter its name to the browser below and download an appropriate version.