SMART Blog

Productivity is always going to be a big issue in the workplace. While you want to encourage your employees to get work done, you don’t want to be too overbearing, as it could have the exact opposite of your desired effect. How can you make sure that your employees are staying on-task and focused on their goals? You can take the first step by understanding their motivations and long-term goals.

Collaboration is critical to the success of your organization, and in a lot of ways, productivity can’t happen without it. Some modern collaboration tools have improved operations so much that they have completely changed the workplace dynamic, making meetings easier to manage, clients easier to communicate with, and managing in-house processes in a more efficient way. It’s no surprise that the right collaboration tools can help your organization overcome just about anything.

Sometimes a business focuses too much on what they think they need without asking for the opinions of the ones actually responsible for utilizing it--the end user. Implementing a new technology solution in this way is like asking a client what their favorite ice cream is, then giving them the one you think it should be. In terms of your company’s IT, productivity can go a long way if you just take a moment to listen to your organization’s employees.

Business continuity is one subject that not a lot of people know a lot about. This is largely because there isn’t a curriculum that presents a comprehensive outline on how to deal with disaster. This month, we’re going to share some continuity strategies that work, regardless of the situation, to get your business coordinated and back up and running fast following an unfortunate situation.

Innovation takes many forms, whether it’s implementing automated solutions to ensure tasks get done or implementing new ways to get work done by your in-house staff. Collaboration is one of the ways that your business can benefit from innovation, as the right solutions can make a world of difference. We’ll discuss some of the more innovative collaboration solutions that you can implement for your business.

All businesses need to take preventative measures to secure their futures, but did you know that data backup isn’t just about making sure your business survives in the event of a disaster? While natural disasters, user error, and other means of data loss can all be reduced through the development of a substantial data backup plan, your organization will find use for your backup even during normal everyday operations, providing a significant return on your investment.

Many organizations that don’t have the same breadth of funding and services might wind up spending more capital in attempts to compete with these larger organizations, but the way forward isn’t always clear. For small businesses that have trouble managing the many moving parts of their business, communication is key--especially in an age where so many businesses have remote employees who are not always in the office to speak to directly. We’ll discuss what the modern face of communications looks like with a particular focus on conferencing services.

Starting a business is certainly no easy feat. It was likely a hassle just to get things up and running at a basic level. While most organizations that provide a product likely had to focus on getting that product to market, technology has begun to help aid this endeavor considerably. Unfortunately, it’s easy to fall into the trap that your organization uses too much technology--so much that it negatively affects your bottom line.

Productivity is a major consideration in any business environment - that’s largely why so many solutions designed for a business’ use focus on increasing productivity as much as possible. One method of doing so that many businesses have found effective is the adoption of Unified Communication and Collaboration solutions.

Business owners know that streaming in the office can be a considerable detriment to productivity, but the type of media that is being streamed can play a large role in whether or not the workplace is enhanced or affected adversely by it. How does your organization approach streaming? Depending on its policies, you might want to change the way that you approach this touchy subject.

Spring seems to be the natural time, after what are commonly dreary winter months, to revitalize and refresh your environment - why shouldn’t your business be included? Not only does it help your operations, a clean environment also has many direct benefits for your employees. Let’s review the effects of keeping your business, and its technology, in order.

The holidays are a time when everyone questions whether they will be able to spend their time at home with their families, or be stuck at the office trying to beat a nasty deadline. The increase in mobile technology hasn’t made getting away from work any easier, but it has made it easier to work away from the office. Since this constant How can you achieve a precious work/life balance for your workplace duties?

When people talk about a business’ efficiency, it’s typically referring to the ability for the organization to bring a product or service to market quickly with a small amount of wasted resources. The prevailing theory is that an efficiently-run business costs less, makes more, and grows faster than one that is inefficient. With the way business is headed--that is, with smaller profit margins than ever before--boosting efficiency has become a core business strategy. In fact, in today’s technology-driven marketplace, there are many that would argue that the efficient business is the only good business.