We’re a managed service provider (MSP) with a difference. We don’t just sell other people’s software – we also develop it ourselves.

The reason? We understand that our customers want convenience. As a provider of business phone systems and IT services, we’re able to offer businesses a pretty comprehensive service. But our in-house software developers allow us to go even further.

We always listen to customer feedback. And sometimes, it becomes clear that there’s demand for something quite particular. Thanks to our in-house developers, we can then make it – to the benefit of all our customers. This is all about how we did that for monitoring remote workers’ productivity. We’re talking about one of our most popular software tools, Omni – and how it can benefit your business.

The backstory

We all remember how COVID transformed work. It’s not as if remote work was unheard of before the pandemic, but it was still fairly rare. And then suddenly, it became the ‘new normal’ overnight.

Now, in our line of work that was nothing out of the ordinary. We already specialised in cloud-hosted phone systems, which allow you to work from anywhere. Still, it was natural for businesses to feel uncomfortable about productivity. And even when they had the technology to do work from home, what about tracking it?

The need for remote employee monitoring tools

More and more of our customers were asking about software to monitor employees working from home. Now at this point, most MSPs would say something like this:

“It sounds like a good idea. Maybe someone will develop it.”

The difference between us and them is that we actually can develop it! And that’s exactly what we did. Our team of specialist software developers got to work. The result was Omni.

How our remote worker monitoring tool works

Omni does a lot of complex work, and presents it in a simple, user-friendly way. It collects the following info for all of your team:

• Their most-used applications.
• Total calls in and out, thanks to phone system integration.
• Total emails sent.
• Their start and finish time.
• Idle and active time.

You can get this info live, so you get a real-time snapshot of productivity across your team. That’s handy in itself, especially when some of them are home-based. But you can also get detailed reports and statistical breakdowns, for individuals, departments and the whole team. It’s all accessed via a simple web app, so it could hardly be easier to use!

Benefits

1.     Insight

Understanding business performance is always worth it. If you don’t know how you’re doing, how can you do better? Omni presents the data that matters in an easy-to read format. This allows you to benchmark expectations more accurately.

That makes resource allocation a whole lot easier, whether you’re managing special projects or just the day-to-day. And that’s all because Omni is offering insights into one of the most important things of all: productivity. Which brings us to …

2.     Boost productivity – and quality too

By understanding performance better, you’re more able to improve it. And with Omni, you’ll see exactly who’s doing the most. You can then compare that to your team’s actual output, and make informed changes.

This allows you to identify issues and fix them, all rooted in evidence. This can go two ways too – it’s not just about identifying ‘slackers’. Someone might have good stats on the face of it, but lower quality output. This would be a sign that they should slow down! In other words, Omni helps you strike that crucial balance between quality and quantity.

3.     Accountability (and not just for your team!)

Omni makes your team accountable to you in a measurable way. The stats are right there. But accountability isn’t a one-way thing. Managers are accountable to their teams too. An open, transparent relationship is a must, to keep everyone honest. With Omni, your feedback to your team is based on evidence – making it fairer for them.

4.     User-friendly

It’s all very well for software to do clever things, but as developers we never lose sight of user experience. That’s why we developed Omni with the user in mind at all times. In the back end, it’s automating a lot of complex work. But the interface is clean, elegantly designed and easy to read. It’s equally easy to navigate and operate. Ultimately, user experience is critical in realising the benefits of any app. We develop all our software with this in mind, and Omni is no exception.

Partner with Citytalk, and benefit from Omni

We believe in offering our customers a truly comprehensive suite of technology services. Whether it’s IT support, telecoms, security or internet connectivity, we have the tools and the knowledge to benefit your business.

We believe that our service and technical knowledge set us apart, and Omni is a great example. To find out more, get in touch.