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

More companies are blocking video streaming sites such as YouTube and Netflix to improve productivity at work..
USA Today mentions that Proctor & Gamble "Has shut down access to Pandora and Netflix for its 129,000 employees" Leaving sites such as Youtube and Facebook available since they are required for business. As more and more people have tablets and other mobile devices , the use of recreational internet usage stands to rise. Web apps and streaming services eat up a lot of bandwidth, sending large audio and video files, most of which are completely unrelated to work, and worst of all greatly stagger productivity.

Not all web content is bad for business, however. Social media has profoundly potent marketing benefits for businesses and completely blocking sites like Twitter and Facebook can put a hamper on inbound marketing tactics for your sales and marketing people. Having precise control to offer certain users specific access will help you take advantages of the benefits and plug up the time leaks.

So what can your business do about it? Implementing a content filter/firewall solution on your network can give you precise control over who can view what content on the web. This will let you block sites like Facebook and YouTube for your general staff but leave them open for your marketing department to allow them to take advantage of social media marketing. Depending on your business, you may want to allow certain services but specifically block others. 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.

Looking to take back your company bandwidth and improve productivity? Contact us at 360-528-6017 and ask us about our content filtering solutions.