SMART Blog

Foldable phones undeniably saw a very slow start when they were introduced a few years ago, high prices and horror stories about their fragility scaring away all but the earliest of early adopters. However, thanks to an enthusiastic fanbase, the concept has persisted and has become a legitimate option amongst flagship devices. 

Let’s consider some of the predictions that have been made surrounding the future of the foldable smartphone market, and why business users might be drawn to the flexible form factor. 

The United States Federal Trade Commission’s mandate is to prevent fraud and promote consumer protection in today's interconnected world, where the digital landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace. The FTC recognizes the importance of safeguarding consumer information and has implemented their Safeguards Rule as a means to ensure that businesses protect sensitive data from unauthorized access and misuse. Let’s take a look at the Safeguards Rule and what you need to know about it in regard to your business. 

Today’s technology can be used to help optimize and elevate just about any of your business’ processes, including your sales processes. Let’s run through a few examples of how your sales team could (and really should) be using tech to their advantage.

The cloud has turned out to be a complete game changer for the way people compute. For any business, this can offer opportunities that would not be possible without cloud computing. This week, we take a look at the different types of cloud computing with an eye toward how small businesses can gain value from choosing them.

Professional sports has witnessed a significant shift in the way teams and organizations approach their strategies. Gone are the days when gut instinct and intuition were the sole driving forces behind decisions. Nowadays, sports are increasingly relying on analytics to gain a competitive edge. In this week’s blog, we explore the growing influence of analytics in sports and the ways in which data-driven insights have revolutionized the game.

When a business strikes a deal, there is usually some sort of paper trail or contract involved to hold both parties involved accountable. However, the traditional method of managing paper documents is both time-consuming and wasteful. With eSignature tools, businesses can change the way they handle signing documents for the better.

Mobile devices like smartphones have become synonymous with productivity, allowing people to get work done while on-the-move, yet in the same breath, you could say they are synonymous with distraction. With the right practices and the right apps, however, you can mitigate these challenges and be quite productive with a smartphone. Let’s explore how.

The cloud has enabled managed IT service providers, or MSPs, to fill a uniquely shaped void in many companies’ business models. Working with a managed service provider can make up for all of the traditional challenges of technology maintenance and management while also affording you unique opportunities to reduce costs, minimize waste, and maximize productivity.

With technology serving such an indispensable role in modern business the looming threat of disaster is one that needs to be considered. With so many consequences on the line, it’s important that your business is prepared to deal with these disasters effectively and efficiently. Let’s run through some tips for properly preparing for your potential disaster recovery needs.

How often does your company take it upon itself to ensure that those working for its success—your employees—are kept up to speed on cybersecurity? If your approach is to have your team sit in a room and watch a presentation once a year, it’s time to reconsider your training strategy. Let’s talk about the impact that proper cybersecurity training can have, and who tends to have access to it.

Your network is a crucial part of your business, insofar as it is quite literally what powers your operations and enables you to work productively… at least, most of the time. Unfortunately, there is always the risk of a network bottleneck, or a limited capacity for data to move due to a lack of available bandwidth. So, how can these bottlenecks be avoided?

AI has been a hot topic in recent months and years, which only makes sense. Not only has it been used in more public applications, but it has also caused a bit of controversy as it seems to “compete” with people. Back in September, art made by using an artificially intelligent platform caused a stir by winning an art competition, and workplace fears of a computer taking one’s job have seemingly become more well-founded than ever.

Most modern organizations will have digitized their businesses to at least some degree without really putting much effort or thought into it. This massive and often unconscious change has created a lot of benefits for businesses with perhaps one of the most overlooked benefits being document digitization. Today, we want to discuss the great benefits that come from this initiative and why you should consider it.

The keyboard that you may very well have used to access this blog is, in a word, gross. While we aren’t going to go into too much detail about what makes keyboards so grimy, we did want to outline how you can easily clean up your keyboard every so often, just to make sure that it’s A: more hygienic, and B: less likely to malfunction at some point.

Whether you love them or hate them, passwords serve an important purpose in the realm of cybersecurity. They are the first line of defense against potential threats, yet they are also notoriously easy to crack. Some of the biggest names in technology have been working on ways to get around the challenges presented by password security, including one that we are excited to highlight in today’s blog.

Ah, the business telephone solution. You know you need it, but you dislike working with your current telephone provider for a number of reasons. You know you can get a better deal if you look around, but we bet that the best deal around is a hosted Voice over Internet Protocol solution from SMART Services. How can our VoIP solution save your business time, energy, and resources?

Our blog last week covered how patience is an important part of the most successful and productive employees’ arsenal. This week, we want to cover how you can help your employees be more patient. If you know someone in your office who could take things down a notch, this is just the blog for you with four suggestions that might do the trick.

It hasn’t been very long since T-Mobile experienced its latest major hack, but unfortunately, here we are again. Hackers have again accessed customer data, with 37 million customers being affected amongst both their prepaid and subscription-based accounts.

Let’s dive into the situation, and what can be learned from it.

A lot of the time, user productivity is just about getting down to business. Sometimes, however, there are simply just too many different tasks to complete and it can bog down the production process. One way that users can use Windows to help them manage tasks is through the use of virtual desktops. Users can utilize multiple desktop experiences to separate the myriad of things they need to do. For today’s tip, we tell you how to utilize multiple virtual desktops in Windows 11. 

The modern threat landscape is vast and unpredictable, and even if you think you know enough about cybersecurity to protect your business, we bet that you don’t. It’s not even just in the business world, either; individuals also struggle against cyberthreats, and so too do IT administrators. The next couple of weeks will be dedicated to cybersecurity to get across everything you need to know about it.