Category Usage, available in all ActivTrak plans, shows the top categories of applications and websites teams and individuals use to understand role alignment and optimize training and technology investments.
To access Category Usage, navigate to Technology & AI Usage > Category Usage.
Tip: Add Category Usage to your Favorites for quick access.
This dashboard utilizes Live Data
This dashboard is powered by ActivTrak's Live Data, which shows real-time information as it happens with updates every 2-5 minutes. For a complete explanation of how Live Data differs from Insights, see Understanding Live Data and Insights.
Contents
When to use Category Usage
Category Usage shows how users and teams spend time across different technology categories, helping you:
- Evaluate if the time spent aligns with users' roles and job functions
- Ensure compliance with company technology policies
Note: Anything set to the Ignore category inside Settings > Classifications will be excluded. You can read more about this feature here.
Navigating Category Usage
Filter settings
Category Usage can be filtered by User, Group, and time period using the drop-down filter menu options at the top of the dashboard. Click the Refresh button after making your selections to ensure they are applied.
Category usage
The dashboard is split into two sections:
The left side shows the category name, the time spent on applications and websites within that category, and the percentage of overall category usage, sorted from highest to lowest duration.
You can directly change an application’s category classification from this dashboard by clicking the Update Category Classifications button on the right side. Group Classifications allow you to tailor them to each team's needs.
When you select a category on the left, the right side shows detailed information broken down into two tabs:
| Activities | View the top applications and websites in this category, along with the duration |
| Users | See the top users for the applications and websites in this category and the duration |
In the Summary View, you will see the total time spent for each category. Switch to Detailed View for a breakdown by Active and Passive time on both sides of the dashboard.
Hover over a specific Title, and new options will appear from a hidden menu, including:
| View Activity | Navigate to the Activity Log, filtered for that particular Activity |
| Open Link | Open the URL for that specific Activity in a new tab |
| Copy Link | Copy the URL for that specific Activity to your device’s clipboard |
Customizing the dashboard
Category Classification
Applications and websites in the dashboard will show their category classification based on your organization's settings. To adjust how applications and websites are classified:
- Navigate to Settings > Classifications
- Find the website or application you wish to reclassify (Tip: utilize the search bar in the top right corner)
- Change its Category from the dropdown menu
Classifications
For more information about setting up Classifications, see this Help Center Article: Guide to Activity Classification
Practical applications
Role alignment analysis
Identify whether users' digital activities match their job roles:
- Check if sales team members are primarily using sales tools
- Ensure marketing teams are spending appropriate time using creative and social media tools
- Verify that engineering teams are focused on development and collaboration tools
Optimizing technology investments
Category Usage provides an introductory view into website and application usage that can help you identify:
- Which category of websites and applications are being used most frequently
- How usage varies across teams and departments
- Potential opportunities for consolidating similar tools
- Categories where usage is lower than expected, indicating potential adoption issues
This dashboard is a helpful starting point for organizations making strategic decisions about software investments. However, for more comprehensive license optimization and technology ROI analysis, ActivTrak offers specialized solutions:
- Technology Utilization (available in select plans) - Provides deeper insights into website and application usage patterns, adoption rates, and unused licenses with detailed visualization of technology utilization across teams.
- ActivTrak for Power BI - Technology License Optimization Report - Delivers advanced analytics to maximize software investments through intelligent license management, helping organizations reduce technology costs and make data-driven decisions about software renewals.
Pro Tip: Technology Utilization displays both application and website usage in a single view, which is particularly valuable for tools that can be accessed via either method (such as Zoom, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Teams) to gain a comprehensive picture of actual usage.