Bloxx helps Aberdeen FC to Quickly get Web Access Onside

“The beauty of the Bloxx web filtering appliance is that once it is installed and configured there is very little administration required to keep it going.”

David Bowman, IT Manager, Aberdeen Football Club

Company Background

Aberdeen Football Club competes in the Scottish Premier League and is one of the most successful teams in their country, having won four league titles and seven Scottish Cups. They are also the only Scottish team to have won two European trophies, both in the same year.

In addition, the commercial arm of the club markets and sells a range of complimentary services including match day hospitality, advertising, sponsorship and conference and meeting facilities.
With a staff of around 100, the Internet is a vital resource in helping the club run a successful and efficient business.

The Challenge

The club was operating with some very limited web filtering capability which required considerable IT management time to search user logs to help identify excessive personal or inappropriate usage of the Internet.

With the growth and dynamic nature of the Internet, the club had concluded that they needed to deploy a more sophisticated web filtering solution.

“We identified that we needed to be able to effectively monitor Internet usage across the entire company, block access to unsuitable sites such as social networking sites and easily restrict access when required,” said David Bowman, IT Manager at Aberdeen FC.

“In addition we wanted robust protection from any unsavoury, illegal or phishing sites that are too easy to find on the Internet.”

The Solution

After evaluating a number of web filtering solutions, the company determined that the Bloxx web filtering appliance provided a comprehensive and cost effective way to address its needs.

“The fact that the Bloxx appliance was an all-in-one hardware solution, that came complete with anti-phising, anti-virus and spyware software, and could be easily installed and integrated into our network with no cost per user charges, ticked all the boxes for me. In addition, the no cost per user model was attractive as it meant there were no ongoing monthly costs to worry about.”

The Bloxx appliance uses Tru-View Technology to automatically analyse and categorise web pages when they are requested, and so virtually eliminates the need to manually block or allow access to web sites.

The Results

David has configured the appliance so that all employees use the same filtering policy.

“At the moment it is the same filtering policy across the whole company but there are certain departments like Customer Services that employ casual staff where a customised policy may be required in the future.

The reporting capability of the Bloxx appliance has also been invaluable.

“Automated reports are run daily, and are checked probably about every one to two weeks by myself and the line managers. The detailed information provided by the reports makes it easy to spot excessive or inappropriate Internet usage and is used to ensure staff comply with our usage policy.

“The reporting has certainly saved me a huge amount of administration time as it now extremely straightforward to extract the relevant information for line managers without having to trawl through users’ Temporary Internet Files.”

“Occasionally we have had to remind some users when their Internet usage is thought to be high during working hours, but on the whole staff now know what is and what isn’t acceptable. I certainly believe that this has helped boost staff productivity.”

David has also been impressed by just how easy the appliance is to manage.

“The beauty of the Bloxx web filtering appliance is that once it is installed and configured there is very little administration required to keep it going,” enthuses David. “It is great having a black box solution you can just install and leave running to perform its job effectively.”

The automatic categorisation of web pages by Tru-View Technology has also proved its worth.

“Before Bloxx was installed, I had to block sites like Myspace and Facebook by IP address on the firewall; this was time consuming and difficult to keep up to date. The Bloxx appliance is significantly easier to manage, as sites can be blocked automatically and easily by category.”

“With Bloxx installed, managing Internet access is now night and day compared to before. Accurate Reporting of Internet usage throughout the company is now straightforward, we have reassurance knowing the sites we don’t want accessed are blocked, we have the ability to restrict internet access when required and we have enhanced security and protection from phishing sites,” concludes David.