If you are responsible for managing the computer network, you know the complexity to control the use of the internet in your business through conventional tools. This tends to get worse when internet control is in a company that has branches and the professional needs to keep everything working in perfect condition.
In this article I will list what problems a company with branches normally faces to ensure data security and avoid the loss of employee productivity with internet access.
And finally, let's get to know a platform that will help us increase information security and increase employee focus on the workplace.
Data security
When you are an analyst or IT director of a branch company it is important to make some important decisions of network control and safety. Especially when the internet is the main tool for the company's full operation. If this responsibility were not enough, the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks that aim to harm organizations, including publishing an article with some tips to protect themselves from these attacks. Therefore, it is relevant that professionals in the field have knowledge of tools that can help block these attacks to avoid loss of information, productivity and billing.
In addition, the network security investment budget and internet control is always limited to most small and medium -sized companies. With this in mind, it is necessary to study the entire scenario of the networks, act quickly and find an integrated solution to improve digital safety without excessive spending and overloading team productivity.
Employee productivity
The internet is the main villain against focus and productivity in companies. The waste of time is so much that according to research , employees are interrupted on average 14 times a day by tools on the internet. Worse, after an interruption, the employee may take more than 20 minutes to return to the original task.
Multiplying this by the number of employees your company has and we will have a total number of hours wasted per day. And we are not including the hours available for rest.
Without any control or internet access policy, it is normal for employees to use a part of the time by accessing personal email, social networking profiles, YouTube videos, WhatsApp messages, or researching issues of interest.
Therefore, control of internet access to the company with multiple branches is a fundamental policy in team management, as it reduces the waste of time with increasing focus, as well as avoiding various security problems with access to harmful websites or famous internet blows.
Multiple branches or multiple problems?
Some say that the synonym for multiple branches is multiple problems . Well, depending on the case this analogy is not wrong.
After years of contact with professionals responsible for managing the network and internet of companies, we hear many reports of problems that cause unwanted expenses, in addition to headaches with safety and productivity, described above.
See what are the main problems of using the internet with branches.
Scalability
In most cases companies do not have a security and internet access control tool. And when they have, this tool does not become scalable for other branches.
For most professionals, the news of a new branch is usually seen as good news: " Wow! We're growing up !! 🚀 ," they think. Already the person responsible for IT: “PQP! I will have to install and configure everything again! 😥” , complains.
Traditional Internet access control solutions often depend on installation and configuration of servers coupled with infrastructure spending. It is a delayed process that increases costs for the company.
Displacement
Companies live with unnecessary expenses with travel every time a new branch is opened or a problem in the network or computer of a distant branch occurs.
And we will not even include the lost time with the professional's displacement.
But rest assured! From now on I will show you how to solve problems through a single platform and at a low cost.
Internet access management with Lumiun
Lumiun is a service to manage internet access to companies. In a single platform you find the following features:
- Access control:
- Release and block of applications, websites and categories of websites. Including for time;
- Protected search ( safesearch ) on Google, Bing and Youtube to ensure that inappropriate content are not displayed in the results of the search;
- Domain research where Lumiun scanns and finds its category, reputation, description, last accesses and a preview of the page.
- Security:
- Option to define the minimum reputation level to access a site;
- Blocking sites that belong to categories considered harmful such as hacking, malware, phishing, etc.
- Firewall:
- Forget the old concept and difficult to implement firewall rules on your network. In Lumiun it is possible, with few clicks, to add blocking rules and release by doors, protocols, origin and destination. In addition, there are predefined settings that help the most lay people on the subject.
- VPN Business:
- Lumiun's VPN is a solution that will bring external employees closer, joining everyone in a single network, increasing safety and productivity.
- Speed:
- With this feature you can limit the amount of download and upload to equipment groups. This way you can distribute your internet link as you find it better or according to the demand of each group.
- Reports:
- There is no point in all these resources if it was not possible to follow the result. At Lumun you can track in real time which are the most accessed or blocked sites, access per period, security blocks, firewall logs, equipment that most consumes the Internet band, VPN -connected external employees and more.
Turn on the Lumiun Box on each branch
With Lumiun it is very easy to manage the internet of all branches. Lumiun Box equipment on each branch . From this, the Internet access requests of your network will be consulted on Lumiun's servers. This will make your network faster and more secure! In this consultation, the access rules created for your network are evaluated, involving criteria such as the site category, the level of security and reputation and time of the request.
If the request is approved, access occurs normally. There are no other interventions that could modify traffic or generate problems. If the request is blocked, the user views an informative page, which can be customized to your business.
All simple without the need for technical knowledge or installation and server configuration.
You may be wondering: What if the equipment stops working? Will I have to buy another equipment and configure everything again? No! The Lumiun Box equipment is just the intermediary to identify the equipment on the network, redirect DNS requests to our servers, apply firewall rules, and add speed limit to the internet. All configuration data is saved in the cloud, accessible through the control panel. If the equipment stops working, which rarely happens, we ship another at no cost. And then, just replace the equipment and all your settings will be applied automatically.
Control Panel
After connecting the Lumiun Box on the branch network, you must access the control panel and finish the configuration. The Lumiun Control Panel is available at APP.lumiun.com , accessible from anywhere or device. Enter your email and password and, if you are an administrator, enjoy all available features.
Okay, so far I have only shown how to configure and access Lumiun. But the intention of this article is to demonstrate how Lumiun is efficient for controlling the use of the internet in the company with branches. See below.
Advantages and Benefits of Lumiun
After accessing the Lumiun Control Panel, on the first page you already view an access summary and internet status on all branches. See part of the dashboard in the following two images:
Note that in the card some insights are displayed on the accesses of the selected period at the top of the image. Already in the right card Green status means that the network is working normally, orange color means that is a maximum of 2 hours without connection and the red color that is more than 2 hours without connection to the internet.
See another view of registered networks, with more details:
Another great benefit with Lumiun is to join the equipment (computers, notebooks, cell phones) regardless of the physical location in a single group and apply access rules for all.
For example, it is possible to create a group called “financial” and drag the equipment that belongs to the financial sector of each branch. Any rule change in the group will be automatically replicated for all equipment. See an example in the image below:
With the groups defined, simply access a feature, such as “access control” and applying release and blockage rules, as illustrated in the image below:
With the access policy created, the time has come to follow the effect of actions through reports. Lumiun has several analytical and managerial reports that help in decision making.
The image below represents the most accessed sites by the financial group.
Facebook application report with filter by the financial group.
With Lumiun you can get complete information about using the internet at your business, branch or specific equipment. Know all reports available on the Lumiun website .
In practice
I understand if you are still in doubt about Lumiun's efficiency. Most of our customers also suspected that a single tool could do so much and in such a simple way without the need for massive courses or training.
This was the case of MB Pharmacies, which hired Lumun to manage its 36 branches and increase the safety and productivity of its 500 employees.
Before Lumiun, MB suffered from cyber attacks and its owner wanted something that could increase employee focus avoiding access to websites outside the scope of work. After the implementation of the service, the company no longer had problems with attacks, which also increased the confidence of its customers, ensuring the protection of sensitive data. “I feel the security of having control over access to my company,” said owner Eder Fernandez.
See more about the success case of MB Pharmacies .
The icing on the cake
If you have read our previous articles here on the blog, you should know that Lumiun has launched VPN Empresarial . But for those who are here for the first time, know that the VPN feature is included in the Lumiun Enterprise package.
VPN Business is being an important ally to companies in the current pandemic scenario. Through this feature, employees who are working remotely can connect to the local network of any branch and have access to the files, servers and , safe and encryption work area
I hope this article has helped in search of a solution to control the use of the internet from a company with branches. But if you still have questions, you can schedule a demonstration without commitment. See how this all works in practice.
Any questions you can also write in the comments below or send an email to alex@lumiun.com .
To the next!
