Thanks for Big Brother watching? Software keeps an eye on employees' communications at work.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: AROUND INDIANA

BIG BROTHER MAY BE watching you, and if he is, you should be thankful.

That's the message from an Indianapolis company that's in the Big Brother business. CTI Group develops software for billing and communications management, and its newly released Proteus Enterprise 6.0 lets corporate users keep tabs on all kinds of communications traffic, including telephone, wireless, email, instant messaging and voice over Internet protocol.

Proteus was one of the Greek sea gods, though most of the characters in Greek mythology were not as omniscient as CTI's software seems to be. The software keeps tabs on quality of service, the accuracy of invoices and the rates a company is paying for communications, but employees using Proteus-equipped communications technology will be most interested in, or fearful of, its ability to watch for unauthorized or abusive activity.

"It's used in the finance sector to monitor trading managers," says CTI chief technologist Sid Rao. Such users are always on the lookout for insider trading, and Proteus has the ability to track and record phone calls made by employees to high-profile clients (you know, like Martha Stewart).

Proteus also can keep a watchful eye out for scandalous Internet content, putting a stop to the browsing of online porn on company computers. It can let managers know if employees are spending too many of their precious work hours following eBay auctions, or chatting with their significant other on the phone or via instant messaging.

For those turned off by having an electronic watchdog looking over their shoulder or listening in on their conversations, Rao offers a different perspective. It may seem like Big Brother, but Proteus may offer employees significant protection along with the potential intrusion.

Rao recounts the story of one employee who was doing some authorized Internet surfing for a legitimate, work-related task. But just as a coworker walked past, up popped a Victoria's Secret advertisement...