Pearl Software Echo Suite
While technology has provided a lot of great benefits to businesses and organizations, it has also caused a lot of headaches when employees get side tracked researching about irrelevant topics, joining the conversations on social networking sites, or watching the latest viral videos. With all that there is to do on the Internet, employees often get caught up in all of the fun and aren’t working as efficiently as once before. Not only that, but using the Internet for recreational purposes also puts a company’s network at risk for viruses or slower connection speeds that can immobilize a whole office. In order to combat this issue, many businesses find that employee monitoring software helps managers regulate what their employees are doing on company time and equipment. We have analyzed and reviewed today’s most popular Employee Monitoring Software Systems so you can determine which best meets your needs and can help you increase efficiency at work.
Read on to learn more about Pearl Software Echo Suite.
Product Overview
Pearl Echo Suite is an enterprise-class monitoring, filtering, and control software program that also integrates its WebSite Echo and IM Echo software into one package. This combination of software tracks web browsing, file transfers, news, chat, instant message, company email and web-based email activity of all company employees, including remote and mobile workers. Echo Suite accommodates the Internet monitoring needs of any Internet setup, including those with multiple locations and roaming or mobile Internet users, making it very convenient for nearly any company. Pearl Echo also monitors keywords and phrases to protect against the dissemination of confidential information in blogs, instant messages, web postings, e-mail and even in e-mail attachments. This system promises that their customers will get a lot of great benefits from using their software, like ensuring a positive environment by eliminating inappropriate Internet use, an increase in productivity by reducing nonproductive Internet usage and preserving access bandwidth for its planned and intended use. Licensing begins at $71.95 per computer with significant discounts starting at 50 computers, and certain tools are offered as stand-alone modules which can be purchased individually for more targeted use.
Who Should Use This Product
Almost any company with a Windows network would find this software beneficial to their overall goals of increasing productivity and efficiency. Pearl Echo has solutions for businesses, government, schools, mobile access computers, and teleworker management. Managers and administrators will find the software helpful for monitoring the department they head and the employees they oversee to make sure that everyone stays on task. But this software can be useful for those working outside of business management. For those working in information technology, Pearl Echo also provides a lot of great benefits. This package caters to thick or thin client workstations in a Terminal Service and Citrix MetaFrame environment. Pear Echo’s flexible design ensures simple deployment yet can handle a company’s most complex and evolving network infrastructures.
Web Usage Monitoring
Pearl Echo’s unique “agent-server technology” provides administrators and managers with the ability to oversee Internet activity on client stations no matter where those machines are located. The software’s Mobility Monitor tools can automatically follow specific users so all of their activity is monitored, and any inappropriate web surfing or illegal transactions over email or instant messaging cannot be circumvented by users going off the corporate network and onto another private network or WiFi. Managers have the ability to block access to Web sites based on categories of content within the EchoFilters tool. With this comprehensive web URL filtering database, administrators can choose from over forty categories that they wish to block as well as run reports on users accessing web sites in these categories. The optional EchoFilters URL module allows administrators to set specific access rules to Web pages based on its category content.
Surveillance Features
While some companies have screenshot capabilities or computer take-over tools, Pearl Echo uses automatic and manual updates to keep surveillance on user computers. Automatic updates to the URL database are done four times an hour and the technology scans over web content on a monthly basis looking for inappropriate or harmful content, like malicious sites that most often generate harmful viruses. When Pearl Software scans a site it will also download and check for viruses in setup files, zip files and executable files. If viruses are found, the site is recorded on the EchoFilters Malware list.
Reporting Features
The Pearl Echo Report Manager tools is very helpful when trying to consolidate all of the important data and information about employee web and computer usage. This tool consists of over seventy-five standard reports that can be customized and run interactively or be scheduled for automatic generation and distribution based on users and groups specified by administrators.
The Pearl Echo Report Manager allows for reports to be saved in many different file formats for deep analysis and interactive filtering in areas like cost on site, general statistics, time on site, hourly bandwidth, top web sites, top users, and more. Reports can be published to any accessible directory including an organization’s intranet so all network users can easily access reports through their web browser. This tool can also distribute reports via e-mail using Pearl Echo’s built-in email feature.
Other Features
One great feature that is unique to Pearl Echo’s software suite is its Mobility Monitor tools that accommodates customers who have employees and computers extending beyond the company’s internal network. Out-of-office employees can still be monitored with this system, and their Internet usage and reports will be generated in the same way as the networked computers are. In addition, Pearl Echo also offers various ways to monitor each network computer. A supervisor or administrator can customize Pearl Echo to display a message when a user tries to access a forbidden resource, warn the user periodically that Pearl Echo is running, or display a simple warning message or a summary of an Acceptable Use Policy on their screen. By default, Pearl Echo is configured to run in stealth mode where warning messages do not appear.
Pearl Echo provides a lot of great tools for managers and administrators who want to monitor their employees and their technology helps businesses ensure efficiency and increased productivity no matter where their employees are located.
