“Almost 40% of enterprise network bandwidth is being consumed by recreational or non-business applications [facebook, linkedin, youtube]”
~Blue Coat Systems Survey

USA Today mentions that Proctor & Gamble “…has shut down access to Pandora and Netflix for its 129,000 employees…” sparing sites such as Youtube and Facebook because of possible business use. As more people use their devices both at work and at home, recreational internet usage is rising. Web apps and streaming services gobble bandwidth and stagnate productivity with large audio and video files which are mostly unrelated to work.

Don’t Throw Out the Baby With the Bathwater

Not all browsing is bad for business, though. Social media shows huge marketing benefits for businesses. Completely blocking sites like Twitter and Facebook can actually hamper your sales and marketing people. Getting control over who has access to what leverages the business benefits of social media while eliminating the temptation to slack.

Get Control

So what should you do? Putting a content filter/firewall solution into your network allows you precise control over who can view what on the web. You can block sites like Facebook and YouTube for your general staff but leave them open for your marketing department to allow them access to social media marketing.

Having a flexible solution means you can be ready to leverage the power of certain sites when they are useful for growing your business and block the ones that hinder productivity. Contact us at (973) 882-4644 and ask us about our content filtering solutions.