Cyclope-Series Team Blog

Save school budget by controlling printer’s usage

Anca Suciu — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:00:49 +0000

Many educational institutions have problems in managing their budget. There are so many fields and activities that require significant parts of the budget that schools often face difficult situations when it comes for allocating resources. In this case, reducing cost has become a common issue for schools as well.

First thing to do when improving school budget is desired is to monitor every field and activity and try to reduce corresponding spending. And costs associated with printing activities are a considerable field that can be controlled and where significant funds can be saved.

Let’s face it, if students can print unlimited number of pages (with their favorite music star or their favorite soccer team) they will do it. And when other school activities have to suffer because of budget limitations, this is getting unfair. Schools have to be informed about the way their resources are being used and all the necessary actions must be taken in order to stop wasting ink, paper and printer wear and tear.

Here is a set of questions whose answers should provide the solution to this issue: Who is printing, what is printing, where and when is printing? By identifying printing habits of the students and by efficiently allocating resources, paper waste can be significantly reduced by eliminating reprints and identifying faulty devices. A malfunctioning printer with faulty paper feed can cost a lot in wasted time and wasted paper because of frequent paper jams resulting in reprinting.

As a solution to this issue, more and more schools, colleges and universities invest in print management solutions to control printers’ usages within their institutions and to reduce their spending. Beside the monitoring features of these kind of software, there are also restricting features available. Printing rules can be created based on different criteria: for example, students can be forbidden to print documents containing specific words in the title or in the body of the document, documents exceeding a specific size, a specific number of pages, costs can be associated to each printer and bill the person responsible for each excessive print, and so on.

As for the investment, this really pays back very quickly and savings could be reinvested back into school (let’s not forget about the constant need for upgrading equipments, PCs, printers, etc). Monitoring and controlling printers’ usage will definitely save significant school budget, not to mention the educational institutions support to eco/green paper reduction objectives. So, schools can save money and go green in the same time.

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Create the Internet Usage Policy within your company with version 4.0 of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy

Anca Suciu — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:12:28 +0000

Version 4.0 of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy has just been released. The new version comes both with a new user interface and new reports. One of them is the Overview report added to the statistics section.

At the first run, the overview section will guide the application manager to client configuration, to define the filtering policy and to check statistics. On the normal usage of the application, the overview section aims to provide application’s manger summary statistics like the number of users currently using the product, the total amount of traffic that was recorded for the current day and the breaking rules attempts.

Backup-Restore page was also improved, the “Block ALL except the White List” filter has been enhanced and predefined profiles for keyword blocking filter have been added:
•    Aggressive / Violent
•    Chat / Instant Messaging
•    Games / Online Games / Virus
•    Hacking / Warez / Virus
•    Mail / Web Mail
•    Phishing
•    Proxy
•    Sport / News

Here are some screenshots of the new version.

You can download version 4.0 of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy from www.cyclope-series.com and you can evaluate it for free for 15 days.

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Create printing rules in your company with version 4.0 of Cyclope - Print Management Software

Anca Suciu — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:21:43 +0000

Researches showed that up to 3% of company annual revenue is spent on printing activities. The new version of Cyclope Enterprise Printer Monitor, which includes new features and improved reports, will help companies save up to 30% of these printing costs assuring effective print management.

The new version comes with great new features, reports and enhancements. Here are some of the new product’s features:

- possibility to preview print jobs content before sending it to the printer
- pause or lock all new print jobs
- define printing cost for every printer
- set printing restrictions (number of pages, number of copies, document title containing certain strings, cost exceeded, etc)
- notify users when printing is restricted (or quota is exceeded)
- notify managers by e-mail when breaking rules attempts occur.

You can download the latest version, install it on your company and evaluate it for free, for 15 days, to convince yourself about the benefits it brings you. All new features are available on the website. Make your printers do what you want them to do and think about the money you save this way.

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Prevent confidential data leakage with version 5.0 of Cyclope Employee Surveillance

Anca Suciu — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:23:28 +0000

Protection of intellectual property and confidential information leakage issue has become one of the biggest security headaches for companies around the world. Now, it is very simple for employees to copy confidential files on diskettes, CD / DVDs, USB flash drives or any other similar drives. And technology’s evolution plays an important role here too.

Now, it’s time for managers to prevent confidential information from leaving the company. The new version of Cyclope Employee Surveillance Solution, version 5.0, comes with a new report that helps managers to monitor data transfer both from fixed and removable devices. The “File Activity” report provides information about all created, modified, copied or deleted documents and files.

Existing customers can upgrade to this version while other interested companies can download and evaluate the application for free for 15 days.

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Cyclope Print Management Software – major release coming soon

Anca Suciu — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:57:10 +0000

Since the end of 2008, when we released the latest version of our printer monitoring software we have been working on a major release of Cyclope Print Management Software. As usual, the feedback we have received from our customers, evaluators and partners has played an important role in our development plan.

Now, we are glad to announce everybody that the new release is very close. We are currently performing the last tests so that the version 4.0 of Cyclope Print Management Software to be launched this week.

Here are just some of the newest features included in the new major version of our print management solution:

o View the print job content

o Preview print job content before sending to printer

o Pause or lock new print jobs

o Set quotas and restrictions

o Notify users when quotas are exceeded

We will keep you in touch with the progresses we make in this respect. To make sure you don’t miss the launch day, you can subscribe to our blog, if you haven’t already.

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Internet usage at work – statistics for 2009

Eli Ghidiu — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:08:59 +0000

2009 was a tough year, especially from the perspective of economics. As a consequence of the economics there was a “bad effect” which spread within all important sectors and departments striking all companies from small ones to large ones. There were drastic measures taken in order to face the financial crisis. Employees were requested higher productivity and there was a better control over their activity.

In 2009, 54% of US companies have decided to block social networks at work and 8% have already fired employees because of the use of Facebook during working hours.

Cyclope-Series has made a study on 200 employees monitored* with a non-invasive employee monitoring software to see which the trend of the internet usage within a company was. The study was conducted during June 1, 2009 – December 31, 2009 and dates were provided from more companies.

• Employees are checking personal e-mail up to 5 times per day during working hours*

• 24% of employees spend more than one hour on social networks during working time

• Facebook is the most popular social network and 90% of the employees are logging periodically into their accounts from work

• In over 90% of cases, time for lunch break is exceeded by employees
• The average time spend by an employee on chat is 30 minutes per day

• Employees start the activity on computers at an average of 30 minutes after the computer’s startup. If the program starts at 8, the computer opens at 8, but active applications can be observed from 8.30

• After monitoring, has been noticed that on Tuesday is being recorded the most active time spent at the computer, including overtime. Beside that, the days from the end of the week are less productive.

• 70% of employees were spending overtime at work.

As a conclusion, it seems that employees are indeed spending more time at work then the normal working hours. But there is also an increase usage of Internet for personal purpose. Even if employees are spending more time at work it doesn’t mean they are more productive.

* Employees were aware about the fact that their activity was recorded and before this action took place, they signed up an agreement

* The application used to collect the reports and dates is non-invasive: did not record the content of the e-mails, chat, documents or passwords but only the activity and time spend on each of them.

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55% increase in illegal downloads at work

Anca Suciu — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:57:43 +0000

Illegal software and music downloads at work have increased by 55% in the past three months. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by a web security firm that bases on data gathered from more than 100 countries and millions of employees.

This numbers shows us that employees seem not to understand the risks they expose the company to, when they illegally download software and music at work. Employees must understand that they cannot use the company computer and network in the same way they use their home computer. It only takes one person to download an infected file and all the company network is exposed to huge security risks. Not to mention the risk for legal liabilities.

Although the security risks of downloading unlicensed music and software have been discussed many times, the employees’ awareness in this domain still appears to be very low. Considering these statistics, we can conclude that employee education should be a top priority for businesses in 2010.

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Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy – new version coming soon

Eli Ghidiu — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:01:23 +0000

Happy New Year everyone! Cyclope-Series team is pleased to announce that a new version of Cyclope Internet Filtering Proxy will be soon released.

Our developers have worked really heard to a new version and their work will be rewarded when the new version will be launched. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, telling you many details about this new version but I can assure you that you will like it. A complete new interface, modern and fresh, a new overview page providing better organized information and new profiles for better control over Internet content. Other details related to the features will soon when the new version will be made public. Then you will be able to test and take advantage of it. Until then, have a nice week.

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Cyclope-Series wishes you Happy Holidays

Eli Ghidiu — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:28:55 +0000

So here it is! Christmas is knocking on our doors and it’s time to enjoy vacation and get fresh forces for the New Year. Cyclope-Series team wishes you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We thank our evaluators and users for their feedback and for being loyal and we hope the New Year will bring increased productivity and many benefits for your business.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

PS: As we are also on vacation until January 4, 2010 the answers to your e-mails might be slightly delayled. But, we want to assure you that everybody will get an answer as soon as possibe. Thank you for understanding.

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How to get back on track when your productivity slips

Christopher Bibey — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:24:00 +0000

Is your productivity slipping for one reason or another? From time to time you may feel like you are not as productive as you were in the past – this is quite common. Although common, you do not want this to last too long. If it does, many days or weeks (or longer) may go by without you getting your work done.

The million dollar question is: how can I get back on track if my productivity begins to slip? Everybody is different, but here are three things you should consider:

1. Go back to what has worked in the past. For instance, maybe you were working longer days in the past but recently decided to cut back. If this has led to less productivity on the job, you need to go back to your old ways for the time being. There is nothing you can do that cannot be undone in the future.

2. Know what changed. As noted above, any change could lead to less productivity which can turn into subsequent issues. If you know what you changed you can then do one of two things: tweak your new plan, or as mentioned in tip number one, scrap it altogether and go back to the way that things used to be. Change can be a good thing, but sometimes things just don’t work out.

3. Get back to the basics. Workers often times find their productivity slipping when they get off course and forget what made them successful in the past. Solid building blocks are important to your overall level of productivity. If you do not like where you are at right now, go back to the basics. This should help you restore your former level of productivity and success.

There is nothing worse than realizing that you are no longer being as productive at your job as you once were. This will make you feel bad about yourself, as well as the way you are treating your company. The good thing is that you can increase your productivity by following the tips above. Of course, you may have your own way of doing things and that is fine as well.

Has your productivity ever slipped in the past? Is this something you are dealing with right now? If so, let us know how you deal with these situations. One small tip can go a long way in helping somebody else get back on track.

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