Bloxx Web Filtering Greatly Increases Staff Productivity at North Texas Medical Center

“There is no room for comparison between my previous solution and the Bloxx Web filter: Bloxx is 100 times better! Staff productivity has increased tremendously and Bloxx has made my job easier allowing me to tend to more important things.”

Christopher Melita, IT Assistant, North Texas Medical Center

Organization Background

North Texas Medical Center (NTMC) is the general acute care facility owned and operated by Gainesville Hospital District.

NTMC’S mission is to provide high-quality healthcare which is accessible, personalized and affordable, in a fashion that will assure continued availability to the residents of North Texas. It is NTMC’s desire to provide the best care in its region, whilst constantly expanding upon services available locally.

The Challenge

NTMC’s previous Web filtering solution proved to be very time consuming to configure, operate and manage and it was very difficult to personalize and customize to NTMC’s specific user and network environment.

Christopher Melita, IT Assistant at NTMC, wanted a new solution that was more user friendly and adaptable. Key areas he wanted a new solution to improve were staff productivity and malware threats:

“I wanted a Web filter that could significantly reduce the number of virus and malware infections that were infiltrating our network. Another major requirement was to gain a solution that could filter effectively and flexibly. We really needed to increase staff productivity online, and how effectively a solution filters, is a major part of this.”

The Solution

Melita looked at a number of Web filtering solutions on the market and after investigating the Bloxx content filter, found it met all his needs.

The Bloxx Web filtering appliance range is powered by Tru-View Technology, which conducts deep page analyses in real-time to determine the type of content users’ attempt to access and blocks/allows depending on their policy. It doesn’t matter if the Web page has never been seen by anyone before, Bloxx’s Tru-View Technology can identify the type of content with unsurpassed accuracy providing higher protection for users and networks, increased user productivity and savings in IT Mangers’ time.

All Bloxx Web content filters ship with a wide array of standard features: from an http-accessible management console through to anti-malware, IM and P2P management options, and file download control.

The Results

After installing the Bloxx Internet Filter, Melita found all his goals had been achieved and more.

“Now with Bloxx installed, the malware problem we had has disappeared; we no longer get virus infections and my network is a lot more secure. Viruses and spyware are stopped at the gateway and staff who attempt to unwittingly access phishing sites, are blocked at the point of request, making my network much more secure and my users’ Web environment much safer.”

Melita’s other main goal, to increase staff productivity, has been achieved beyond doubt, as he explains:

“Staff productivity has increased tremendously. The Bloxx appliance comes with a Web-use reporting tool that lets me see who’s accessing what and when. For instance, when I pull a ‘Top Sites’ report now, it shows that healthcare related Websites are now at the top of the list instead of Facebook or gaming sites. This is a huge advantage to the Medical Center – Managers are now confident their staff are spending their work time productively to the benefit of the Medical Center and the community and I’m positive we’ll see huge cost and resource savings in the long-run.”

Melita uses the reporting tool to make intelligent conclusions and analyses of employees’ Web activity:

“I view the reports daily and present them to department heads to help them decide the level of access each department should be granted. The reports help us form Acceptable Use Policies according to the needs of individual departments, rather than applying a blanket policy for all. The ability to form numerous group policies like this is much more flexible and relevant to an organization’s needs than our previous solution.”

Installing the Bloxx Web filter has meant that the IT department’s time at NTMC is now used much more effectively, as Melita comments:

“Bloxx has made my job easier, allowing me to tend to more important things, like system administration. Bloxx does all the work I used to have to do manually; now all I have to do in terms of Web filtering is check and adjust the settings every so often and check the reports, responding accordingly. Bloxx has greatly simplified the management involved in Web filtering and made it much easier.”

Concluding, Melita enthuses: “There is no room for comparison between my previous solution and Bloxx: Bloxx is 100 times better!”