The agent on the employee's computer
A lightweight Windows app that runs quietly in the background and records active and idle time — the hours actually worked — plus the applications used and the domains of the sites visited.
Case study2024
Employee productivity monitoring system
Windows agent + cloud platform + admin dashboard
The client had no objective picture of how work happened on company computers. We built a complete system that measures active hours, applications and visited domains — and that, by design, can't log keystrokes, take screenshots or read messages. Declared monitoring, not spying.
StackC# / .NET 8ASP.NET CorePostgreSQLReactSQLiteCloud
- Client
- Company with 20–100 staff on company PCs
- Project type
- Full-stack product from scratch: desktop + cloud + web
- Our role
- Architecture, development, GDPR compliance
- Status
- Delivered and rolled out across the PC fleet
The context
Productivity decisions, made on gut feeling.
The client had a problem that's easy to state and hard to solve: they had no objective picture of how work happened on company computers. How many hours were actually worked, which applications were used, how much time went nowhere. Without data, decisions were made on impressions — and conversations with employees were tense and unarguable.
The commercial products on the market were either far too expensive at their scale, or did far too much: keylogging, screenshots, reading messages. Exactly the kind of surveillance that, in the EU, is a serious legal problem — not a feature.
- No objective visibility into hours actually worked
- Productivity conversations held on impressions, never numbers
- Commercial products — too expensive at their scale
- Or too invasive: keylogging, screenshots, reading messages
“
They needed real data about how work happens — without buying, along with it, a legal liability they could show neither their staff nor their lawyer.
What we built
Three components, all built by us.
A complete system, from the app running on the employee's computer to the screen management opens. The agent measures locally, the cloud platform collects from the whole fleet, and the dashboard turns it into numbers anyone in leadership can read without technical knowledge.
Windows agent
Cloud platform
Admin dashboard
The agent measures on the employee's PC, the platform collects across the fleet, and management sees the result by department and by person.
The components
The cloud platform
Collects data from every computer in the company, stores it securely and makes it available to the administrator.
The admin dashboard
A web interface where management sees, per department and per employee: active hours, top applications and sites, day-by-day trends — with Excel/CSV export for reporting.
The decision that defines the product
Declared monitoring, not spying.
We deliberately built the system so it can't be abused. It doesn't log keystrokes, doesn't take screenshots, doesn't read the content of pages, messages or files. From web addresses it stores only the domain — youtube.com, never the full page URL. And browser tracking is off by default: it only turns on if the company explicitly asks for it.
The reason is pragmatic, not just ethical. In the EU, covert employee monitoring is generally illegal and exposes the company to fines and employment litigation. A monitoring system that can't be used legally isn't a product — it's a liability. The client got one they can show to their staff and to their lawyer without a problem.
No keylogging, no screenshots
Not the keys, not the screen, not the content of pages, messages or files. The limit lives in the code, not in a promise.
The domain, never the page
It stores “youtube.com”, not the full URL. And browser tracking ships switched off by default.
GDPR documentation shipped with the product
Implementation checklist, legal basis, DPIA, retention policy, and a notice template for employees to sign.
Engineering challenges
A fleet of PCs doesn't behave like one PC.
01
It works without internet
The network drops, the laptop goes home, the server goes into maintenance. An agent that depends on connectivity loses exactly the hours it was meant to measure.
Engineering challenges
The agent stores activity locally, in its own on-device database. Data syncs automatically when the connection returns, and anything already delivered is cleaned up locally. Nothing is lost.
02
Fleet-wide install without touching every machine
With dozens of workstations, installing and updating by hand — PC by PC — would turn every new version into a project of its own.
Engineering challenges
We built a web installer: the administrator opens a link and the app downloads and configures itself on that machine. The agent then updates automatically, with nobody walking the floor.
03
Several users on the same computer
A subtle problem most simple solutions miss: on a PC shared by several employees, or with multiple sessions open, an ordinary app only ever sees one of them.
Engineering challenges
We solved it with a system service that launches the right agent inside each user session — so every employee is measured on their own activity, not a colleague's.
04
Every computer proves its identity
If any machine can push data to the platform, the numbers in the dashboard stop meaning anything.
Engineering challenges
Enrolling a device generates a unique token, shown once and stored encrypted on the server. An unenrolled computer can't send data, and dashboard access sits behind separate authentication for administrators.
The outcome
Real data, not impressions.
Management now sees who works how much, on what, and on which days — in an interface anyone in leadership can open without technical knowledge. Productivity conversations are held on numbers.
And employees know exactly what is measured and what isn't — because the system was built to be shown, not hidden.
0
Keystrokes logged, screenshots taken or messages read
3
Components built from scratch: agent, cloud, dashboard
100%
Of activity kept locally and synced once the network returns
GDPR
Compliance documentation shipped with the product
Want data on how work happens, without buying a liability?
We build systems that measure exactly what they should — and that hold up in front of both your staff and your lawyer.