Setting up a time tracking system: try it out for yourself

I'll start with the background. In the company, the manager wanted to know what his employees were doing during working hours. Employees were assigned to monitor the computers of the system administrator, but this had to be clumsy and not always ethical.

Finally, the admin's patience snapped and he proposed to establish a time tracking system. And not simple, but one so that she herself analyzes how much time the employees “kick in the notions,” and how many “they are busy”. Yes, yes, I agree with you, the unkind was a sysadmin. I ruined the lives of the employees, now the bosses will find out how much time they spend on their favorite women and social networks. But that's another story.
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Initial system requirements:

- so as not to slow down on a large number of PCs (for example, 200 cars with the prospect of adding about 100 more);
- to be as automated as possible;
- so that the data is stored on the internal server (does not like the cloud management in any way);
- so that it is convenient to work and not long to teach managers to use;
- well, “salt and pepper to taste”, that is, other useful functions are not forbidden.

“Let's go!” (C)

So, we decided to install the system. Scratched the bottom of the Google search, found five candidates. CrocoTime and Yaware pop up first in the search, then, with varying success, try to get around each other Office Metric and Discipline , but the fifth system, Stakhanovite , undertook to test because of longing for the Union.

Yaware

On the site, in order to “try Yaware for free”, you need to fill out a form and register. I did not find anything about the Standalone version, I wrote to tech support. Responded promptly, asked to register on the site, the manager gave a link to download. Standalone-version of Yaware, comrades, weighs almost 4 gigabytes. Stock up on popcorn and patience.

In the package I found the instruction and the image of the operating system with the installed program. In order to avoid data leakage, at the time of testing, I covered the Internet. I installed a VMware virtual machine, launched the program, downloaded the OS image along with Yaware. When I tried to launch an image, I got an error. Installing VMWare on a guest VirtualBox failed.

I try to install on the computer, it turned out in a couple of minutes. I performed the settings of the virtual machine recommended by Yaware, I started it, I could not get the IP address to enter the interface. I wrote in support, sent all sorts of screenshots, but within 3 hours I did not achieve anything.

I decided to work through NAT, the address appeared, entered the web interface. To generate an activation key, you need to follow the link. I am obedient, go. Next you need to log into the account on the site. I could not login, after a couple of dozen attempts I had to write again to technical support. I asked to send the key directly, after a small dispute, I changed the password. War is war, as they say, but lunch ... I went to eat, I did not turn off the car.

Returned, open the tab, write the address in the web interface, and get ... nothing. By tradition, I am writing to tech support, asking to send a screen. Thought an hour, asked to send logs. I read the instructions, I realized that this can be done only through a web interface that did not start. I thought badly about tech support, wrote them kind words. After half an hour, they offered to take everything down and start over. At the same time, register again on the site, the distribution kit will receive a new one, the keys will also be new.

It was getting dark. Decided to think about it tomorrow.

CrocoTime

After suffering with Yaware, he postponed the second attempt at last. I switched to installing another search engine leader - CrocoTime. I had to fill out a three-kilometer form on the site: they require the name of the organization, position, phone number, number of PCs. I lied about everything except the name and number of the PC (I thought that apparently a trial license was issued for the indicated number).

A normal exe file was downloaded, launched a standard installation. In the browser, the system opens on the instructions page. I chose the method of obtaining the statistics collection agent manually, since I decided to first try the system on three computers. After installing the agents, after 5-6 minutes from two came the statistics. One apparently fell asleep. I called technical support, explained that the problem is in the network access to the machine. I went further.

It is strange that the site does not have a manual for setting up the system, but technical support, upon request, sent a pdf. Everything turned out pretty easy, I slowed down at the stage of setting up updates. There is no possibility to configure a proxy server. I called technical support, they said that I need to put exceptions on the proxy server for the company on which the program server is installed. For a long time I set up the regulations, everything is logical, but the time costs are significant.

I liked that there is a division of schedules into working hours and lunchtime, statistics is issued as productive time and unproductive. Monitors tardiness, absenteeism, early departures. Provides an API for integrating the system with third-party software products, you can install through group policies, import employees from Active Directory. Chip systems - alerts about violations to the post of the head, so that each time not to enter the program. The boss liked it.

For 7 software users for free. What for? The head of the 7th staff will not trace? If only for remote workers.

Discipline

The site again requires personal data (I generally noticed that this is the “style” of the developers of such systems - to give nothing without contacts). To lazily fill out the form, you can scroll down the page, there is another menu, the demo starts immediately, without a questionnaire.

I didn’t find any information about the server version, again I was bothered by technical support (the first company whose number is not free, so I decided to communicate via Skype). The manager offered to install the program remotely through Teamviewer, I refused for the sake of the purity of the experiment. Agreed that the distribution will be sent.

Of the minuses: a bunch of additional software for the system, including IIS. Then Postgres, ASP.NET MVC4 package, the latest Windows update, .Net Framework 4 was required. I downloaded a whole distribution kit, then it turned out that half of the package was not needed.

After unsuccessful picking in ext. programs, yet decided to install a program through remote access. They fiddled with the installation for about an hour, I drank coffee tequila and watched this movie. There were problems with the activation of the program, an error was issued. At that end, the wires decided to recompile the distribution, but the problem persists.

As a result, we stopped at the fact that I will test on 10 machines that are supported by default. If you like it, tech support will install a license for more PCs by itself.

So, we test on 10 PCs. I did not like the fact that users need to add manually. The interface is inconvenient to use, these statistics run over each other. I liked that you can change the type of employee account - you can assign administrator rights to any employee. There is a distribution of reports (at a certain time, a report on the activity of the employee or department is sent to the selected employee; the parameters are set up) and the access rights of managers and employees.

Office metric

I did not find Standalone-solution again, I wrote to tech support. They sent a link to download the program and a key for 5 licenses. Normal executable, when installing the package Firebird is additionally installed. Slightly hung, seconds to 40. Immediately offers to enter the key, you need more mail.

When generating the tracking module, the following message appeared: “the file of the data collection module was not found in the Programs folder”. Posted in tech support. Recommended to rename files in the folder. After that, I received a tracking module, but the second time. For the first time, the folder was empty.

I installed tracking modules on computers, the statistics come every 30 minutes (compared to the same CrocoTime - it’s unrealistically long). The interface is convenient and intuitive. There is a sorting of employees by departments, you can see the user's activity both graphically and in the table. Only the button “show the graph” spontaneously blocks, it is not clear why. You can set up late and departures. There is a cool jackdaw “to compensate for the delay with a later departure.”

Stakhanovets

There are three types of product: Home Stakhanovite, Cloudy and simply Stakhanovite. Server Stakhanovets - our option. It is installed as a regular executable, you need MS SQL Server 2008 and at the same time (!) MySQL. The server receives information about the time of arrival / departure of the employee, the list of sites, the use of programs. There is no division into useful and unproductive time. It intercepts everything: pictures, screenshots, correspondence, texts, graphics, clipboard, data from a webcam, and even listening from a microphone can. Concentration camp, but not the office will turn out.

There is a chip: the program collects the configuration of iron, i.e. if someone snoops on something, the system will display it. The interface is not convenient, but earned immediately. The problem is that you cannot view the data online, you must download the report.

Debriefing

Yaware - software on the fan. Who is ready to be confused and install the Standalone solution, you are welcome. The second time I installed it: it takes screenshots, there is an opportunity for employees to write “explanations” - why they were not at the computers during working hours. For me, it's a little silly: I can always write that I was at the meeting, even if I actually drank tea. From the appropriate functionality: automatic division of time into useful and not, accounting for tardiness and absenteeism. Not satisfied with the speed of work on 50 PCs, which will be 200 - I'm afraid to imagine.



CrocoTime is solidly written, installed immediately, does not slow down (later installed agents on 50, and then on all 200 computers, the speed of issuing reports did not change). Complies with the requirement of automation (installation through GPO, import of employees through Active Directory, automatic calculation of productive and unproductive time by employees and departments). Does not make screenshots, does not intercept the correspondence. A fly in the ointment - problems with the proxy server, a long adjustment of the rules.



The discipline raised doubts: if the specialists of the company did not cope with the installation and abandoned the case, under the pretext of “test for 10 PCs for a while”, what will happen if the program, already purchased, will fail? She did not add points and manually adding users, a clumsy interface and a strange gradation of utility programs - from 1 to 3 stars.



The office metric was pleased with its ease of installation, graphical presentation of data and operational support. The essential minus is that the statistics come once every 30 minutes; the program does not divide time into productive and unproductive. Instead, there are statistics on the number of keystrokes, scrolling and mouse clicks. And what to do with it?



Stakhanovets - a program frankly honed under espionage. I, of course, an evil sysadmin, but not enough to recommend her superiors. In addition, according to the criteria of automation and convenience, Stakhanovets is inferior to other solutions.



To avoid accusations in advertising any product, I will not say that I have chosen in the end (if someone is interested, write, I will share my impressions of the first month of using the system). I can only say that the system works stably, brings results. I think that the choice was not wrong.

If you have questions about the functionality or the installation of systems, I will be happy to answer in the comments. The work has been done a lot, I want it to benefit not only our company.