Case Study - American Hakko Products, Inc.

Company: American Hakko Products, Inc.
Location: California, USA
Industry: Manufacture and distribution of soldering, desoldering, and rework systems
Number of employees: 39
Product in Use: GFI MailEssentials™, GFI FAXmaker™, GFI WebMonitor™ & GFI MailArchiver™

Quick read

American Hakko Products, Inc. is a manufacturing and distribution of soldering, desoldering and rework systems company that has seen considerable growth in recent years. The increase in users on the network has also called for an increase in available bandwidth. However, the company noticed that excess amounts of corporate bandwidth were being used by staff to browse websites that were unrelated to business needs and the threat of web borne viruses became a concern. To address this growing problem, they decided to install a web monitoring system to have greater control over users’ Internet activities. After successfully deploying other products from GFI Software, they installed GFI WebMonitor.

Challenges

The majority of companies use the Internet on a daily basis in order to do business, communicate and work more efficiently and faster. Most companies also allow employees to use the Internet because it is an intrinsic tool for them to do their job, however being connected to the Internet also raises a number of issues, not least cyberslacking, the risk of malicious code or viruses being downloaded as well as access to illegal or improper websites.

Chris Stuber, IT Manager at American Hakko Products, Inc. commented that the company felt the need to install a technology solution to control this issue due to the “allocation of a limited corporate bandwidth to non-essential use that was in no way related to the business at hand; as well as the need to provide an additional layer of virus protection due to the increased number of users and increased HTTP traffic.”

American Hakko Products, Inc. had been aware of these problems when the company was smaller and when an employee was found to have abused his/her Internet privileges they would be spoken to and made aware of the possible threats that uncontrolled and non-work related browsing could have. However, as the company grew and employed more people, management needed to tackle the problem and educate users in a different way because the one-to-one talks were no longer convenient.

Mr. Stuber said, “Previously, when the organization had fewer users, it was easier to address the issues directly with the users, who reacted responsibly and curbed usage that was not work related. With fewer users, it was also easier to train them in how to mitigate possible virus and/or adware infections. As we increased the number of users, we found it more difficult to address the issues with the users directly and making it stick. We would see a reduction if the issue was brought to their attention, but the old habits would quickly return.”

At that point, the company decided to look for a software product that would provide them with reports about Internet usage within the organization and allow them to block sites that were unproductive to a working environment or might cause offence to workers. They also wanted a product that would scan downloads from websites for viruses and other malicious packages, thus reducing the risk of malware infections and unauthorized material being downloaded. American Hakko Products, Inc. had already been using GFI products and so they added GFI WebMonitor to their setup.

“We started using GFI MailEssentials six years ago; we trialed GFI WebMonitor a year later after implementing Microsoft’s ISA Server. GFI FAXmaker was added three years ago, and we purchased the full version of GFI WebMonitor at the end of 2007. We added GFI MailArchiver this year,” Mr. Stuber said. “After we started using GFI MailEssentials, I was very happy with how well it integrated with the other Microsoft solutions we had in place in our network. I was also very impressed at how well the GFI products worked and the very reasonable cost.”

Mr. Stuber said they did evaluate other software products before choosing GFI WebMonitor however it was the best product that suited their needs and existing setup.

“We considered some other alternatives from Symantec and from Blue Coat Networks. We have had a lot of experience with Symantec and their systems have worked very well for us, but cost and complexity ruled out the Symantec solution. The option provided by Blue Coat Networks would have taken us down an unfamiliar path, and I did not want to implement a solution that adds another vendor into our network’s mix. The fewer vendors, the less likelihood of the old problem of vendors pointing fingers at, and blaming, each other when the customer has a problem.”

Implementation

Since American Hakko Products, Inc. already had GFI products installed, the implementation of GFI WebMonitor was a smooth process as all GFI products integrate easily with each other and with other Microsoft software applications.

“Applications were very simple to install and typically worked immediately after install with no special configurations needed. They work extremely well with the other Microsoft products we have on our network, including ISA Server, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. While benchmark testing can detect latency in our network at certain points due to the added services that are now running, and the added steps that must be completed, users do not see any reduction of network performance.”

Within minutes of installing GFI WebMonitor American Hakko Products, Inc. were able to generate the reports and results that they needed to exercise the necessary control over their employees’ browsing habits. The level of antivirus provided by the software also proved to be very effective and necessary as it identified an infected file in the system.

“After implementing GFI WebMonitor, we could easily identify those users that needed to have their use of the Internet monitored and managed. We were also able to identify bandwidth loss due to processes running on workstations that were non-essential. Within the first month, the virus scanning ability of GFI WebMonitor also proved the need for multiple layers as a file provided by one of our vendors was found to have a virus, even though the vendor’s own antivirus software did not detect the problem.”

Benefits

One of the various benefits of installing GFI WebMonitor is that it automated the task of manually having to sort through logs of Internet activity thus freeing up time for the IT team to work on other projects. Management also started receiving reports on the use of the Internet and it served as a deterrent for employees who started thinking twice about using the Internet for non-work related stuff. Furthermore, it helped to close the door to possible infections via web-borne threats.

 As Mr. Stuber explained, “it provided management with a method to validate effective allocation of corporate bandwidth and reduce concern over workstation downtime due to infections of viruses and/or adware on workstations. It also provides excellent audit trails that helped us identify questionable activity by a former user. It also allowed for more effective use of IT staff resources on other projects rather than performing the role of web traffic cops.”

The technical benefits revolved around the seamless integration that the software had with their existing setup. “It provided excellent integration into the existing LAN environment and worked very well with other services without the need of excessive tweaking. Integration with Microsoft’s ISA Server is excellent and the GUI is very simple requiring very little time to train new IT staff on how to use the product,” Mr. Stuber added.

In financial terms, GFI WebMonitor proved to be a cost-effective solution in terms of both time and money.

“While the pricing model used for WebMonitor was higher than we had seen in the past, the cost savings in recovered hours lost more than paid for the purchase. Previously, IT staff would have to parse out the logs from Microsoft’s ISA Server in order to identify bandwidth loss, or to answer questions from management on the use of certain resources by certain employees. This process would typically take hours to complete, but by using the GFI product, the information can now made available in seconds.”

Support is also another important factor especially the availability of online and phone support for licensed products: “Whenever I have a question regarding the products, I am very impressed at the support I get from GFI,” he said.

Target Reached

“After installation, the added ability of the IT staff to quickly identify problem users actually provided a deterrent for all users, keeping non-essential use of bandwidth very low. There was no longer a need to parse huge log files for the data needed to identify the problem areas, and the ease of use made it as simple and reliable as turning on the lights to our IT Center when the staff arrives in the morning.”

“The use of GFI WebMonitor has allowed us to leverage human resources toward work related tasks more effectively, decreasing the hours lost by 60%.”

Links

For more information about GFI WebMonitor, GFI MailArchiver, GFI MailEssentials and GFI FAXmaker visit: http://www.gfi.com/webmon/, http://www.gfi.com/mailarchiver/, http://www.gfi.com/mes/ and http://www.gfi.com/faxmaker/ respectively.

^{May 2009}