Employees, contractors, and vendors have unparalleled access to company data, requiring careful adherence to data privacy best practices to secure personal information. Unfortunately, many employees are either unaware of these practices or are unwilling (or forgetful) to regularly implement them into their workflows.

Some of the most iconic brands started during crises. As documented in an Entrepreneur article, the Hyatt hotel franchise launched during the 1957-1958 economic recession. Microsoft was founded during the oil embargo in the mid-1970s, and several prominent tech brands, including Uber and Airbnb, were created during the Great Recession. For today’s entrepreneurs, the lesson is simple: Don’t let these uniquely disruptive times deter innovation. Many are already embracing this mindset.

As digital security and data privacy become increasingly caustic issues, regulatory compliance is exceedingly challenging. Not only are various regions implementing unique standards, but industries, municipalities, and platforms are issuing new guidelines as well. While CTOs have many solutions for ensuring system compliance, the human element remains more difficult to oversee, mandate, and manage.

For many small businesses, a hybrid workforce is the new normal, creating novel opportunities and unique challenges that organizations will need to navigate in the year ahead. Change is never easy, and the past year has been a constant exercise in disruption. From shifting consumer demands to a radical reorientation of workplace structures, most organizations are becoming even more proficient at navigating uncertainty than ever before.

Last year, Gartner estimated that 80% of companies would implement some form of employee-monitoring software, a noteworthy 50% increase in five years. I’m a vice president at an employee-monitoring provider, and the surge in software sales reflects a growing desire for companies of all sizes to achieve oversight in an increasingly digital environment.

Similar to Workpuls (check out our Teramind vs. Workpuls review here), Hubstaff is primarily a timesheet management and productivity tracking solution that has some employee monitoring capabilities such as app and URL tracking, screenshots capture, and basic notifications features.

Many organizations only embrace cybersecurity as a bottom-line business priority after years of unprecedented, expensive and significant data breaches and cybersecurity incidents. More than 80% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) view IT security as a top business concern, and 75% of corporate executives rank cybersecurity enhancements as a pressing issue in the year ahead.

It has been nearly a year since COVID-19 hit the Western world, bringing most of our in-person interactions to a grinding halt. As face-to-face commerce became far less tenable at the old brick-and-mortars, more of our businesses moved to the virtual. With companies no longer able to greet their customers with a smile, the responsibility for maintaining relationships with customers shifted increasingly over to the contact centers.

These are anxious times for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 70% are concerned about financial hardship due to pandemic-related disruptions, and more than half are worried about having to close permanently. At the same time, SMBs are tasked with personnel management in an increasingly distributed and frequently fraught environment where employees are stressed and burned out. Collectively, it’s a sizable challenge for SMB leadership.

These two companies have very different approaches when it comes to their products. Teramind is designed with a comprehensive set of features: granular activity monitoring, time tracking, productivity analysis, insider threat detection, user behavior analytics, data loss prevention – you name it, they have it. Whereas, Workpuls went for a more minimalist approach. Its product basically does two things: employee productivity and time tracking, but it does them well.