Sheridan said Spector CNE paid for itself – and then some – within the first few weeks of implementation.

“We found everything we needed,” said Sheridan. “As a result, a gentleman was let go. This person was the first on our list of concerns. After running Spector CNE for just about a week, the boss said ‘let’s take a look.’ The report came up and it was ‘oh my God’ … in your face, clear as day. We just played the screen snapshots through … we were able to review five days in less than 10 minutes.

“We saw extensive hours of surfing porn, hacks and cheats related to games… 3-D accelerated games pumping through our network … almost no work time. It was hands-down: pack your stuff and get out … we don’t need people like you in our organization!

“On this one man alone, considering his compensation package, we saved $65,000 to $70,000.

“This could have gone on for 10 years. That’s $700,000 … nearly a million dollars … on video games, surfing porn, and Instant Messaging.”

“We approve of Instant Messaging in-house, it’s a phenomenal tool,” said Sheridan. “But with it comes a responsibility … some adults don’t seem to understand. There had been multiple complaints on this individual … but before Spector CNE, nothing could stick. I warned him four times, but he continued to be blatant.”

Sheridan said that at first he was somewhat concerned over the potential of monitoring software casting a pallor over the work atmosphere. However, the need to maintain a functional, efficient computer network outweighed the slight uncertainty.

“I didn’t want to set up a negative atmosphere,” Sheridan said. “But I did want to see who was fooling around and why my network was not working right … why it was going slow.”

Thanks to Spector CNE’s flexibility, Sheridan said he devised a two-level monitoring policy.

“Level One is set low … a screen snapshot once every minute,” said Sheridan. “Going to Level Two goes into effect only if a manager comes to me with authorization, in writing. At that point I might increase the screen snapshots to once every 30 seconds.”

Sheridan said the Housing Authority had an Acceptable Use Policy prior to the advent of Spector CNE, but it was not as comprehensive and hard to enforce.

“Spector CNE has helped us strengthen and redefine the usage agreement,” said Sheridan. “Everyone signs the paperwork at hiring, and it’s amended every year.”

“We don’t have a Big Brother-type, militant organization,” said Sheridan. “We don’t work under the thumbs of oppression … and even with monitoring in place, that attitude has survived … I’m so pleased.”

Sheridan said Spector CNE has lived up to its billing.

“It’s true, it records EVERYTHING,” said Sheridan. “If you sneezed, it would tell me. It gives me whatever I want to know. It has a tremendous amount of power, recording the daily events of everyone here.”

“SpectorSoft’s sales team was the turning point,” said Sheridan. “Spector CNE stands alone, but the sales team made the difference. I came in belligerent, chest out, saying ‘I need this, this, and this’ … SpectorSoft said ‘no problem.’

“I received a product evaluation, PLUS advice … that was the deal-maker. Also, there’s SpectorSoft’s live Technical Support. Given all of that, I said it’s too bad we can’t buy EVERYTHING through them!”

“I deal with enough technical stuff, so I wanted and needed something with boldface English, something I didn’t need to interpret,” said Sheridan. “For me, Spector CNE did that … it speaks plain English. Other products did not do that … and other products required lots of modules.

“Not only does Spector CNE speak English, but also the Technical Support department speaks English. The wait time is minimal and they’re courteous … they don’t treat you like you’re stupid. Plus, there’s a comprehensive online manual.”

“Nothing has broken … the only time I have called Technical Support is to ask a question about a feature … to see if we could take the Screen Snapshots and import them into a slideshow for use on a projector,” said Sheridan. “The answer was yes … we could actually create an AVI movie … so ANYBODY using Windows Media Player could just hit play and there you go!”

“Other product choices were client-based, and we needed to put it on the server,” said Sheridan. “With other products, we were constantly bumping into limitations.”

“The Spector CNE install was a piece of cake,” said Sheridan. “And I also like the ease of the update feature. I have one planned for this afternoon.”

“Spector CNE hasn’t needed much attention,” said Sheridan. “And that says something right there.”

“Spector CNE is user-friendly,” said Sheridan. “It’s very flexible. It lets me dictate … it does not run me. It does not affect my network at all -- the network actually runs better -- and that will happen when you remove 5MB movies bogging down the system!”

“We’ve had auditors come through and I showed them Spector CNE,” said Sheridan. “They were stoked … they saw it as a tool to weed out problems.”

“My bosses are happy and we’re saving money,” said Sheridan. “That’s kudos right there. Spector CNE is the best we could ever have, bar none.”

“Spector CNE has helped me change policy to protect the organization, to protect the network,” said Sheridan. “The estimated cost of our system being down is $1,000 to $1,500 an hour … you just can’t afford to let things run rampant.

“We spent $2,640 on Spector CNE … basically NOTHING when it acts as a deterrent to save us tens of thousands in one month,” said Sheridan. “Isn’t that worth it tenfold?”

“We put a stop to a $70,000 loss for calendar year 2005,” said Sheridan. “I can’t imagine the real impact … what we lost because of what he (the major offending employee) failed to do. It’s not just the lost wages, but the indeterminate amount of dollars … it’s horrifying to me. It’s hard to put a dollar value on it. I know this: thanks to Spector CNE, I can go home and get a good night’s rest.”

“With Spector CNE, we can’t miss a thing,” said Sheridan. “If Spector CNE had only HALF of what it has, it would be worth it.

“My thanks go out to SpectorSoft for being a 5-Star software vendor. Don’t ever stop what you’re doing … hats off!”

“It was like night and day between SpectorSoft and the competition,” said Sheridan. “Maybe there is no competition … maybe Spector CNE is in a class all its own … maybe there’s no other program like it.”