Selective blocking of websites is a common solution to help organisations control and reduce the extent of personal Internet use in the workplace.
Temperus can be used on its own or as a complement to blocking, depending on requirements.
Used on its own, blocking can have a number of limitations:
Maintaining the list of sites to block (or permit) is often a time-consuming exercise.
Blocking is frequently unpopular with staff who can be significantly inconvenienced, even though they may only have made very limited personal use of the Internet.
Blocking some applications (most notably instant messaging programs such as Yahoo Messenger) can be notoriously difficult, as many such applications have features explicitly designed to circumvent blocks.
Unless used in conjunction with some form of Web usage monitoring, it is impossible for organisations to evaluate the effectiveness of their blocking regimes. A common way to for users to bypass a block is to use 'proxy sites' that replicate the content of popular destinations under a different domain. To see some examples, take a look at Google's search results for the phrase 'unblock facebook'.
Blocking is an 'all or nothing' solution. Some organisations lift restrictions on a scheduled basis (e.g. over lunchtimes) but this forces staff to schedule their breaks accordingly, can result in sudden loading of network infrastructure and causes abrupt termination of sessions when blocking resumes.
Blocking does not provide any insights into patterns of behaviour at work (e.g. variations in work habits by time of day, day of week or work location) that can provide valuable insights for management and be used to refine working practices in order to boost productivity.
Blocking can be technically difficult as all Internet traffic must be forced to pass through a small number of firewalls or other devices. This can be especially problematic for organisations that operate across multiple sites or those that support home working.
Blocking does not accommodate a facility for staff to make appropriate use of social networking and other sites for legitimate work purposes.
Several organisations have experienced angry backlashes from employees resulting from the introduction of blocking regimes. You can read about some examples on our news page.
Alternatively read about some of the benefits of the Temperus system here