SMART Blog

Smart Services has been providing independent agents with proactive, fast, and expert technology services since 1991.

Azure Platforms Are Increasingly Providing Value

Azure Platforms Are Increasingly Providing Value

Microsoft is best known for its operating system and productivity software, but these days one part of its company is growing faster than any other: its Azure cloud platform. Let’s take a look at the Azure cloud, some features that businesses use it for, and how it can fit into your IT strategy.

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Employees Are the Key to Productivity

Employees Are the Key to Productivity

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.

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Locking Down Your Network with Active Directory

Locking Down Your Network with Active Directory

Active Directory is a feature of most Windows Server operating systems. In other words, if your organization has a Windows server, you most likely have Active Directory. Active Directory essentially dishes out access permissions to your users as they are logged in to the network.

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Your IT Budget Says a Lot about Your Business

Your IT Budget Says a Lot about Your Business

Budgeting anything can be difficult, but with many business’ organizational reliance on information systems, finding the money to get your IT initiatives off the ground can be a challenge. That hasn’t stopped the IT sector growing fast. In fact, IT spending in business is at its highest levels since 2007. Let’s take a look at how your IT budget actually helps keep your organizational technology initiatives moving forward.

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Microsoft Will No Longer Offer Support for Popular OS Platforms

Microsoft Will No Longer Offer Support for Popular OS Platforms

The End of Support for a Windows operating system sends ripples across all industries, as it signals an end of an era. Is your organization one of the many that still cling to Windows 7? If so, you need to take measures now to prepare for its End of Support date. If you fail to do so, you’ll be putting your organization at unnecessary risk.

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Keep Small IT Issues Small

Keep Small IT Issues Small

Your employees appreciate when you give them all the tools they need to complete their day-to-day tasks. If you take the time to provide them with everything they need to do their jobs, then they will, in turn, provide you with a higher rate of productivity and work quality. One way you can make this happen is by giving them access to the technical assistance they need to succeed.

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We Can Put You With the Right Technology

We Can Put You With the Right Technology

Businesses need hardware and software to keep an infrastructure running, but not all organizations specialize in the management and acquisition of these systems. Furthermore, some businesses don’t even know what their specific needs are, which is shocking to think about. We’re here to help you make the best decisions possible with your hardware and software acquisitions.

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Can Technology Work Against a Business?

Can Technology Work Against a Business?

Technology has forever changed the culture of some office environments, for better or worse. While we tend to err on the side of implementing IT as being worth the risk, it’s always best to go into implementing a new technology solution with the thought of not just how it will affect operations, but how it might influence your organization’s company culture. We’ll go into detail about ways that implementing a new IT solution might affect the way your staff interact with each other, as well as what you should look out for when implementing such solutions.

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AI and IT: A Natural Match

AI and IT: A Natural Match

Artificial Intelligence is one technology that garners excitement and fear. People’s imaginations tend to run away with them when they have conversations about AI. Businesses of all types are starting to figure how they can utilize advanced artificial intelligence platforms and machine learning to facilitate better business, but is it working? Let’s take a look at how AI innovation is changing business and see how ready AI is for primetime.

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The Many Threats that Come from Leaning on Technology

The Many Threats that Come from Leaning on Technology

Your business is susceptible to countless threats and vulnerabilities, all of which aim to bring your organization crumbling to the ground. These include all types of technology-related problems that cause downtime and other terrible situations that your business has to overcome. Let’s look at some of the threats you face from day to day, and try to establish an appropriate response to each.

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A Private Cloud Doesn’t Have to Be a Massive Expense

A Private Cloud Doesn’t Have to Be a Massive Expense

Databases are exceptionally useful for allowing access to important data, but they by default expose data to risks depending on how they are stored. If a database is stored in the cloud, for example, it could potentially be exposed to threats that put the future of your business in jeopardy. Compared to the public cloud, a private cloud database can give you more opportunities for security, flexibility, and customization.

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Teamwork Requires Innovative Collaboration Tools

Teamwork Requires Innovative Collaboration Tools

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.

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Password Practices that Work to Secure Your IT

Password Practices that Work to Secure Your IT

You may be surprised to find out that your business is constantly under threat of being hacked. For this reason it is extremely important that you have an idea of how to keep unwanted users out of your network and out of your applications. Passwords are often times the last (only) line of defense against all manners of threats. Therefore, you need to make them as secure as possible to mitigate the threat in any way you can. We’ll walk you through this process.

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Lean on Your Staff When Upgrading Technology

Lean on Your Staff When Upgrading Technology

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.

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A Cybersecurity Overview

A Cybersecurity Overview

Cybersecurity is one of the most talked about problems facing the modern business. This is because cybercrime has increased precipitously while businesses have moved more of their processes onto the computer. Planning how to protect your business’ crucial digital resources from corruption and theft has never been more important. We’ll take a look at some of the problems we are seeing that are negatively affecting small and medium-sized businesses' ability to do business effectively.

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Build a Business Continuity Plan that Works

Build a Business Continuity Plan that Works

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.

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Companies Look to BDR for Business Continuity

Companies Look to BDR for Business Continuity

Data backup is one of the most important parts of maintaining a business, but it’s not something that some organizations even consider until it’s too late to undo the damage done. In any case, data backup is a critical part of any successful business, but it’s not as simple as implementing a solution and hoping it works. We’ll walk you through the proper steps for making sure your organization has a successful data backup solution when it’s needed most.

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Add VoIP Today for a Better Telephone System

Add VoIP Today for a Better Telephone System

For many businesses, the struggle of how they keep in contact both internally and externally is very real. Some companies are still at the mercy of their telephone providers, which is far from the ideal approach to communications. Indeed, there is a better option for companies in need of a comprehensive telephony platform, and it’s Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP for short.

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Break-Fix Basically Breaks Budgets

Break-Fix Basically Breaks Budgets

Small businesses with limited budgets and staffing have always had trouble managing and maintaining their technology solutions. Working with limited resources doesn’t have to be a challenge, but more often than not, technology creates problems for organizations that don’t have a dedicated IT support system. What if we told you that it didn’t have to be this way, and that accessible IT management is something that all businesses can achieve?

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E-Waste Continues to Be a Major Problem

E-Waste Continues to Be a Major Problem

The world produces over 50 million tons of e-waste every year as consumers and businesses throw out their smartphones, computers, and appliances, less than 20 percent of which is properly recycled. The other 80 percent ends up in a landfill or broken down improperly. Today, we will talk about our growing e-waste problem and what industry professionals are doing to reduce it.

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