InterGuard is a modulated cloud or premise-based software which offers a combination of employee monitoring and data loss prevention.
In this review, we will focus on InterGuard’s cloud-based solution.
InterGuard’s main module is Employee Monitoring, which records and provides reports as well as alerts for all computer-related activity.
Four additional modules can be bundled together at a discount or purchased individually, these are Web Filtering, Data Loss Prevention (SONAR), Laptop Recovery (Laptop Cop), and Mobile Monitoring.
We would like to point out immediately that to get the most out of InterGuard you will have to bundle at least 2 to 3 modules together. Given that InterGuard also has 5-user minimum for any module you choose to buy, this can be a limitation. For example, if you choose a monthly subscription, the Employee Monitoring Module will cost $125 a month per user. If you are looking for flexible pricing with consolidated modular features, this solution may not be the right choice for you.
Although the dated user interface, installation, and onboarding processes may not be as refined as Editor’s Choice KnowIT, which offers flexible month-to-month pricing and a superior and more intuitive features set, InterGuard’s versatility makes it worth your consideration.
Some of InterGuard’s best features include file tracking, web/application blocking, screenshots, keystroke logging, mobile device monitoring, as well as the ability to remotely lock and wipe PC laptops. Furthermore, compared to other employee monitoring solutions, we found InterGuard’s detailed reports, logs, and customizable alerts to be comprehensive.
However, a major limitation of InterGuard is that Data Loss Prevention components including its USP feature Laptop Cop does not work on MAC or IOS. In fact, the only modules compatible with Apple operating systems is Employee Monitoring and Web Filtering, which combined costs $185 per year per user. In our opinion, the best employee monitoring solutions should offer full cross-platform compatibility for all its best features.
When starting up the software, we highly recommend having a member of InterGuard’s customer service team on hand via live chat to guide you through the various functionalities and where you can find them.
Focusing purely on PC capabilities, the extent of detail that InterGuard offers with regards to data gathering, reporting, and user activity monitoring combined with adequate data loss prevention make InterGuard a solid choice of employee monitoring software, once you get the hang of it.
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What should you be looking for?
We believe there are a few crucial components that an employee monitoring software should offer. Let’s take a look at how Interguard compares to other solutions.
Attendance & Productivity Tracking
In this review, the Attendance and Productivity tracking sections have been combined due to InterGuard’s limited scope of features offered in these categories.
The only attendance tracking feature offered by InterGuard is timekeeping via Device Login and Logoff times. In our opinion, employee monitoring goes beyond just time tracking functionality of simple clock-ins and clock-outs. More advanced solutions such as KnowIT provide finer metrics of attendance such as biometric timekeeping, holiday accounting, scheduled breaks, extra hours worked, and more.
InterGuard’s Productivity Tracking focuses on time spent on applications and websites, pre-defined user actions and the frequency of those activities. In its User Behavior Report, InterGuard provides an Unproductive Score which is expressed as a percentage based on the amount of time employees spent in assigned productive, unproductive, and undefined applications and websites. This provides a simplified idea of employee productivity but lacks deeper metrics such as taking into consideration total hours worked for all employees and the average productivity of all employees.
With the limited information that InterGuard provides, the manager’s ability to analyze, interpret, and implement changes to increase productivity becomes all the more important. Ultimately,
In our opinion, any productivity and attendance use cases or insights gained from using InterGuard can be regarded as a bonus.
Data Loss Prevention
Interguard’s SONAR module offers comprehensive data loss prevention features to protect your company’s critical information and data. However, this module is not compatible with MAC or IOS.
In a nutshell, InterGuard allows you to receive reports or block sensitive data from leaving your company via email, cloud, data storage devices, and even off-site laptops.
The following are some of the features offered by InterGuard’s DLP module.
With SONAR, InterGuard offers File Tracking which allows you to set folder paths you can specify to be monitored. While Dropbox File Monitoring monitors all file modifications in a user’s dropbox folder. Both cover situations when files are created, deleted, modified, or renamed. Download File Monitoring monitors all files downloaded via browsers, while a Daily User Overview Report provides a summary of employee activities.
The next two features we will discuss are DataLock and LaptopCop, two add-ons for InterGuard’s SONAR module.
For an additional fee, you can purchase the DataLock add-on for DLP. Similar to SONAR, Datalock works by scanning all outgoing emails, files, and attachments and checks for policy violations. It can then decide to block, allow, or report any violations to the administrator. It also tracks USB drives and other storage devices allowing you to block any activity you consider risky.
DataLock is useful to companies that wish to protect confidential customer and employee data such as credit card numbers, social security, and intellectual property. Effectively stopping such data from leaving your company unless it is supposed to.
We are unsure why DataLock is only available for an extra cost as opposed to being part of the SONAR DLP module, which at $8 per month per user, already represents a significant outlay. Furthermore, there is no clear pricing for DataLock, InterGuard requires you to submit a request for a quote for this add-on.
A better option may be to consider can add KnowIT once dedicated DLP module is completed.*
The next add-on we will discuss is Laptop Cop, a data recovery and anti-theft system for your portable computer. In the event of a laptop theft or loss, this feature allows users to geolocate a lost or stolen laptop as well as delete or retrieve stored data.
In our run through of Laptop Cop, we found a couple limitations. Firstly, Laptop Cop is not an in-house service, you are reliant on the responsiveness and aptitude of InterGuard’s recovery team not to mention the speed and bureaucracy of your local law enforcement. To expand, in order to retrieve files, you will first have to submit a file retrieval request. Upon approval, Laptop Cop will then store the files on a server, which can only be accessed once you provide InterGuard with a police report.
Secondly, once you are ready to download the files, Interguard specifically recommends that you submit your file requests in several small groups rather than trying to get all your files at once to avoid long download times.
These aspects limit the real-time implementation of this feature, especially in situations where time is of the essence.
InterGuard’s DLP features can only be considered comprehensive if you choose to pay for all modules. In our opinion, the lack of any DLP for MAC and IOS is a significant limitation of this solution.
Application Management
InterGuard provides Application Management features as part of its main module Employee Monitoring and Web Filtering add-on.
The solution gives you control over access to websites and applications. Specifically, it allows you to block any application you deem unproductive or risky and prohibit websites by category or URL.
Like many other employee monitoring solutions, Interguard shows application usage by device. It also provides application and installation audit trails, so managers have complete information on what applications are being used and installed on their devices. However, it is worth noting that unlike more advanced solutions such as KnowIT, InterGuard only shows apps usage per device and lacks a Global Application Directory that allows you to view all applications installed on every device in your company.
Compared to other employee monitoring software, InterGuard offers a basic approach to Application Management.
Network Activity Monitoring
InterGuard provides inadequate network activity monitoring when compared to industry leaders KnowIT and Teramind.
Interguard only tracks bandwidth usage.
This is insufficient given the realities and demands of modern-day cyber threats such as phishing, ransomware, botnet, and DDOS zombies.
More fully-featured solutions provide measures to detect anomalies which could pose a threat to your network. For example, KnowIT lets administrators set thresholds for irregular network activity, allowing for the detection of DDOS zombies, botnets, and spambots. Threshold-based network monitoring will allow you to detect, identify, and troubleshoot network issues before they infiltrate your network and compromise your data.
With only one feature on offer, Interguard offers subpar Network Activity Monitoring.
Communications Tracking
As part of its Employee Monitoring and Web Filtering modules, InterGuard offers most of the communication tracking features you would expect to find in an employee monitoring solution.
The software offers Keystroke Logging which records and monitors all employee keyboard activity. Furthermore, Alert Word Notifications can be triggered based on rules you set up. For example, if an employee searches for a “job” while on company time, an alert and/or screenshot can be sent to the manager who can then warn or take other appropriate action against the employee.
Interguard provides IM Tracking for most popular instant messaging services except for Line, QQ, and WeChat. It also has Browser, Search Engine Tracking, as well as a Web Audit Trail which allows managers to stay informed of all their employee’s online activity.
Furthermore, like many employee monitoring solutions, Interguard allows you to take Screenshots of employee activity.
Interguard offers 3 different ways to record activity with screenshots. Continuous Screenshots will record activity in set intervals (5-60 seconds). The Smart Camera Screenshots feature will record all activity in selected apps or websites in set intervals. Lastly, Alert Word Screenshots will trigger every time an alert word is typed or viewed on-screen. However, once you exceed the allotted 1000 free screenshots you will have to pay 17$ per 10,000 screenshots. Depending on the type, duration, and interval of screenshot recording that is set up, this can end up costing a lot of money.
More advanced monitoring solutions such as KnowIT will allow you to take as many screenshots as you need without incurring extra costs.
Mobile Device Management
The only Mobile Device Management feature offered by InterGuard is GPS location tracking.
Although InterGuard does not offer any other device management features it does allow you to monitor mobile devices. The software allows you to view applications, websites, searches, and call logs. This can be useful, but it lacks the ability for administrators to take preventive or remedial action against data leaks.
More comprehensive Employee Monitoring Solutions such as KnowIT will allow you to record calls, disable camera, and remotely lock or even wipe a device. This helps to ensure that the flow of any sensitive information on mobile devices is fully managed by administrators.
With InterGuard’s Mobile Monitoring being priced as much as its main Employee Monitoring module at 8$ a month, you may want to look at better value for money options such as KnowIT or Endpoint Protector.
Ultimately in an emergency data leak situation, Interguard’s mobile features offer very little compared to other solutions.
Pricing
InterGuard offers modulated pricing with discounts based on volume pricing. The software’s cloud-based solution’s primary module, Employee Monitoring, starts at $8 per user per month.
The four additional modules are: Web Filtering ($2 per user per month), Data Loss Prevention ($8 per user per month), Laptop Cop ($4 per user per month), and Mobile Monitoring ($8 per user per month). There are also 3 additional add-ons, Geolocation for PC ($19 per license), Web Blocking for PC ($15 per license), and an Enterprise Package which includes file tracking, Dropbox and download tracking ($14.70 per license).
When paying a premium, we expect all features to be readily available with clear modulation. Unfortunately, this is not the case with InterGuard. For example, it is hard to understand why we would have to pay extra for file tracking, download tracking, and print monitoring as opposed to these features being included as part of the Data Loss Prevention module.
While InterGuard’s pricing can be discounted based on the duration of your subscription with many add-on options, it can get confusing depending on the options you choose.
A feature unique to Interguard is its Total ROI Calculator located in the Utility Dashboard. Here, you input data for Number of Employees, Average Salary Per Employee, Average Time Wasted per Employee Per Day ranging from 30 minutes to 8 hours, and % of Waste Reduction with InterGuard ranging from 10-100%.
In our opinion, the purpose of this feature is to entice a buying decision based purely on estimation and assumption. For example, it asks you to input what % of lost work will be saved by using InterGuard, then calculates the monetary value of that assumption, the results of which will always be a positive return. [IMAGE]
Although it may provide a picture of potential savings, this feature does not offer any true insight into ROI. Instead, it assumes that by using Interguard software, your company’s annual costs will be reduced by at least 10%.
Lastly, InterGuard requires a minimum 1-year subscription for any module you would like to purchase. To get any real value out of this software, we recommend at least the Employee Monitoring and Web Filtering Modules which combined will cost you $185 a year per device. This lack of flexible pricing and payment options is another limitation of InterGuard.
If you are not looking to commit to an employee monitoring solution in the long-term you may be better off looking at other options such as KnowIT [LINK], which starts at $2.99 per month and offers clearer modulation of features as well as month-to-month pricing.
Considering the features that you get per module and the costs of each, as well as the lack of MAC compatibility for most of its features, we believe that InterGuard’s pricing is on the expensive end compared to other employee monitoring solutions.
The Verdict
While the dated interface, UX, agent installation, and advanced monitoring functionalities are not as smooth and seamless as KnowIT or Teramind, InterGuard offers enough features and customizability to provide users with a solid employee monitoring solution.
However, any value that InterGuard provides your organization depends significantly on which add-ons you need and are willing to pay for. In our opinion, only if you purchase most of the modules and add-ons can InterGuard be considered a comprehensive monitoring solution.
That being said, we do not recommend InterGuard for SMEs due to the significant costs associated with bundling at least 2-3 modules together, as well as the minimum 1-year subscription requirement. Larger organizations who are looking for modulated pricing and features may consider InterGuard, even still we would recommend opting for discounted pricing by obtaining 2, 3, or 5-year subscriptions, which will provide you with a 15%, 25%, and 35% off respectively.
When compared to other employee monitoring solutions, there are several limitations to InterGuard. These include minimal attendance and productivity tracking features, lack of compatibility with MAC OS for most features, poor pricing and modulation, MDM only offers GPS tracking, and lack of meaningful network analysis, to name a few.
As such, you may want to look at all options in the market before making a purchase decision.