by administrator | Sep 14, 2023 | Business
Overview of Outcomes
- Partnership approach to determine how we could overcome specific challenges
- Support teaching for better accessibility for teachers and students
- Easier to deliver lessons through more visual means
Introduction
We partnered with the Irish Deaf Society to create a more interactive and accessible environment. We wanted to create learning spaces accessible to both Deaf educators and students to achieve this goal.
The Irish Deaf Society’s Story
The Irish Deaf Society seeks to achieve and promote the Equality and Rights of Deaf people in Ireland. Their mission is to empower and mobilise the Deaf community in their day to day lives and beyond.
With an awareness of their identity and their rights as individuals, Deaf people in Ireland are enabled to celebrate their culture and continue to ensure the upholding of Irish Sign Language. This helps break down the barriers of discrimination and promote awareness to those outside of the community.
The Opportunity The Irish Deaf Society Saw
The Irish Deaf Society are always seeking tools that will aid their members to deliver more accessible teaching and learning.
They had the opportunity to update some of their classrooms, and create a more user-friendly environment. This was a chance to create a space that would allow students to collaborate and really benefit and enhance how teachers deliver lessons.
Why The Irish Deaf Society Chose Smarter Surfaces
They immediately jumped at the opportunity to create more visual classrooms, partnering with Smarter Surfaces to deliver this. The ability to teach a whole lesson on the board, using interactive formats too, would make it easier to explain all aspects of a lesson.
Another key consideration was having enough space for everyone in a class to interact at the board. A visual means to carry out collaborative breakout sessions where students could focus on a problem on the board would really add to their lessons.
How They Used Smart Whiteboard Paint
One example of how our products were used effectively was in Johnny Corcoran’s lessons, a graphic design teacher from The Irish Deaf Society.
“By installing Smart Whiteboard Paint and Smart Whiteboard Wallpaper – Low Sheen (Whiteboard & Projection), suddenly aspects of my lessons that were difficult to explain to students became really easy. With the image projected onto a writable surface I can deliver my course in a visual way. This has made it much easier for me and my students.”
The Result
We worked with the teachers in The Irish Deaf Society to understand what they needed and delivered a solution to overcome these specific challenges.
This resulted in a more accessible environment for teachers and students making it easier to deliver lessons through more visual means.
There’s no limit to the wall space that can be covered by Smarter Surfaces’ products. We installed Smart Whiteboard Paint and Smart Whiteboard Wallpaper – Low Sheen on entire walls. This allowed students to take a greater part in lessons as they had greater means to visually collaborate with one another.
To learn more about our product range and the benefits it can bring to both educators and students click the link below to access our updated Education Hub.
Learn more on our Education Hub
Alternatively, you can register to join our Educator’s Network where you can receive exclusive discounts and offers as well as expert support from our team when it comes to finding the most suited product for your classrooms.
by administrator | Sep 14, 2023 | Business
It has been a busy couple of months at Smarter Surfaces.
Recently we embarked on an exciting project, working with SAP to transform their new offices.
SAP is a worldwide leader in enterprise software and related services, working in over 130 countries and employing over 55,000 people.
When SAP set about designing their new state of the art offices, Smart Wall Paint was chosen as a tool to help increase office productivity. SAP literally transformed their ordinary walls into borderless creative spaces. (bold-events.com) Over two floors, general office walls, meeting rooms, conference rooms, boardrooms, hallways and even the staff canteen were turned into places where employees can brainstorm and work out their next big ideas.
The SAP team now use their Smart Walls to collaborate with colleagues and discuss problems on a large creative canvas. This has proved so successful that SAP have decided to convert areas of their Headquarters and smaller offices into creative spaces to inspire new ideas within their workforce.
by mj | Oct 19, 2020 | Business
The global coronavirus pandemic is unlike anything we’ve experienced in recent times and is likely to leave a world fundamentally different to the one that we knew before. As we enter uncertain times, it is important that businesses unite to minimize the human and economic effects that this deadly disease will have. The long lasting effect can be minimized the faster we act to contain this pandemic, which will lead to a quicker return of consumer confidence.
By being proactive we can all contribute to the collective safety and welfare of our employees, ensuring that we do our utmost to contain the spread of this virus and protect our communities. You can read the advice from the World Health Organization, but hopefully you are already putting their advice into practice – hand washing, social distancing and avoiding touching your face.
Last week the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published a report on how behavioral science can be used to fight the coronavirus. Some of their recommendations for dealing with self-isolation are staying in contact with others and keeping up a routine. As businesses, we are well placed to provide support to employees, keeping everyone productive and maintaining collaboration, even though work dynamics might have completely shifted for your business. Looking at how our own business has been affected we thought we might share some of the practices we’ve put in place and resources we’re relying on to support employees, the business, and keep things going during this difficult time. There’s no point in sugar coating how difficult things have become in the last week, particularly for small businesses, especially those that are public facing, but hopefully we can provide you with some useful and practical ideas to keep soldiering on.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Working in a sector that facilitates and promotes communication we know how important this is. In this current climate, good communication has taken on an all too serious note, and is more important than ever. In your business you need to keep all your stakeholders up to date – your team, your customers, your network, your suppliers. By being informative, calm and confident you can help avoid panic.
We are all being subjected to a lot of misinformation, and over the past week it has sometimes, if not often, been difficult not to feel anxious or confused. As business owners, managers and team leaders we have a responsibility to minimize the damage this does, mitigating fears though good, informative and reassuring communication. To implement this, and because we suddenly have so many remote workers at Smarter Surfaces, we have a remote daily morning huddle so everyone gets direction on the rest of the day and how we are handling these unique times. It sounds simple. It is simple. And it’s also effective.
Remote Working
Many businesses that can, have been thrown into allowing employees to work from home, and, it seems, most of these businesses are coping well with this changed dynamic. If you haven’t allowed your employees, but can, there’s really no reason not to; your business will continue to function and your employees will respect you for putting their safety first. There are many articles covering this topic. If you need a bit more convincing here’s a great Trello guide covering all the benefits, considerations, and best practices of remote working.
As mentioned, a considerable amount of our office is now working remotely and helping each of our employees build a daily routine has benefited them greatly. Make sure they are getting out for some social distant fresh air! When thrown into this unanticipated remote working scenario, there can be a tendency for employees to prove they’re working. This may lead to sacrificing breaks and working right through the day, which isn’t good for productivity, so you need to ensure they know it's okay to take breaks.
Review Internal Processes
Some of the issues we face with remote working can be down to not having the right processes in place. This might be a good time to look at other areas of the business where your approach might be outdated or misguided. With employees having more capacity, you can use this time to identify not only problems but also solutions and put new processes in place so you’re more efficient when you return. If you’re looking for a step by step guide, this ProofHub post is a great place to start.
Maintenance
Similar to reviewing your processes, you may have internal systems or physical apparatus needing maintenance which you postponed due to potential disruption. With the external disruption we are now facing, it might be a practical time to carry out any maintenance that you were intending.
Think About Diversifying
As business owners, this crisis has pushed us into survival mode, thinking of any way we can to keep our staff, suppliers, and businesses going. Looking at how we can diversify the business can throw up opportunities that can at least sustain the business during this time of turmoil.
In a Financial Times article on this point, Brendan Greeley writes about a Seattle bakery owner specialising in pastry, having to put her “15 contract workers on standby, but still has 53 people working in her bakeries, including all of her full-time employees. In addition to converting to bread baking, she has shifted her catering staff and food truck into a delivery service, and will soon be able to take online orders directly from her website.”
We have to think about how we adapt to survive the coming weeks in ways that we might never have directed the business, like the pastry baker shifting to bread, directly delivered to the door. This kind of change might not be an available shift for your business, but there are other ways to diversify. This might involve partnering with another business where you mutually complement one another. People are going to be stuck in isolation, so look at how your business can adapt to this change and deliver a positive impact to them. At the very least your business might need to overcome the challenges of social distancing - an Irish burger restaurant came up with a quick and clever solution to stay open and keep their customers and staff safe.
Look Out for Other Business Owners
According to Professor Pete Lunn, Head of the Behavioral Research Unit at ESRI, “some of the most important findings concern collective action – we are all in this together… The evidence shows that public-spirited behaviour is much more likely when there is frequent communication of how we can best help each other and strong group identity, not only nationally but also in smaller groups like workplaces, schools and local communities.”
The current environment is difficult for everyone, but we don’t know to what degree this is impacting business owners on an individual level. Reach out to your network. Share anything that you might have put into practice that’s keeping the business going, and keeping staff motivated. This is a completely abnormal situation and it’s vital that as many businesses make it through as possible, so a recovery can be more immediate.
If you know of businesses that are in distress, or if your business is struggling, consider setting up a local group on LinkedIn or Facebook so there’s a support network to fall back on.
Health and Welfare
With so many people depending on business owners, managers and team leaders, it can be hard to deal with the extra pressure of this responsibility, and it’s likely to take a greater effect on your mental and physical health. However, this added pressure can apply to anyone - we are all experiencing this increased pressure knowing loved ones who may be a higher risk to this virus. We all need to ensure we do something everyday that takes our mind off things. We’ve listed a few of our favourites below:
- Don’t read the news - some members of our team have deleted certain apps for a few days just so they won’t check them
- Go for a walk, run, cycle or sea swim, but keep your distance - you may not be able to go to the gym anymore but there are plenty of home exercises you can do
- Relax with some yoga or meditation - some people in the office have been using Headspace
- Get the cards and board games out
- Watch some lighthearted movies or tv, but try to do something active rather than spending the whole day in front of a screen
Prepare to Return to Your Office
Our thinking on this has been twofold. We need to be prepared to return to the office so the transition back is well managed, but for many businesses that have had to quickly implement remote working this should be a slightly easier task to take control of.
But it’s our mindset to get back to the office that is far more important to us. There are far worse off businesses out there, but even for the worst off, let your staff know that everything you are working on is towards returning to the office. This can offer some assurance to your staff. Negativity is going to surround us, but we have to work towards a positive goal.
This is really all about keeping the business going, but when you start to talk about business survival it can become a bit negative, so we decided to make the focus about preparing to return to the office so that we could maintain a positive outlook. It also has us thinking about ways we can make sure there’s an office to return to with all staff thinking about diversifying our business to keep going.
Invest in Employee Development
With greater periods of downtime your staff may be more likely to sit idle. This could be a time to encourage them to develop their knowledge and skillset, so they were able to use this interval for something positive for themselves and the business.
LinkedIn Learning has made some courses free, including tips on how to: stay productive, build relationships when you’re not face-to-face, use virtual meeting tools (Microsoft Teams, Skype, BlueJeans, Cisco Webex and Zoom), and balance family and work dynamics in a healthy way. These might be a good place to start for the current environment, while you may want to move on to ones closer to your area afterwards.
Cambridge University Press is making higher education textbooks in HTML format free to access online during the coronavirus outbreak. Free access is available until the end of May 2020.
We Need to Stay Positive
This is a very tough period we are entering but we are seeing an unprecedented instance of people uniting for a common goal. As businesses, we need to look at how we can help each other so we all hopefully return to the office, even if employers allow just a little more remote working in the future. At Smarter Surfaces, our mission is to promote collaboration, teamwork and productivity - more so than ever, we hope businesses can promote this between one another, because we are all in this together.
by mj | Oct 19, 2020 | Business
Like most businesses, we share the names of some customers to help others buy from us. This thinking comes from the school of advertising which suggests that “if X customer buys from you, then I should be able to trust you too”.
So for that reason, when you look at our websites and marketing material, you will see big brand names that should be recognisable to the general public.
However we have lots and lots of interesting customers as well as the blue chip brand names and we thought you might enjoy this.
Heading out on the Town ?
A well known company who manufacture teeth cleaning, hair removal and hair spray products (If you don’t need any of those, lucky you!).
In the mood for sport ?
You could sign up for F1 Simulation in Australia with Simulator World or just cut to the chase and quality for the real thing with Formula One.
Or maybe try Crossfit if cars are not your thing ?
Exercise the Mind Instead ?
Check out these universities : Edinburgh, Melbourne, Manchester, London, Glasgow
Shopping Instead of Sport ?
Then consider Ikea
Weekend away ?
What about Holiday Inn Express or Innside by Melia
Culture Customers
If it wasn’t so far way, we could visit this Opal Mine and Museum in Australia. Or check out Britain’s most famous sculptor (who also won a prize of €1m last year for his work for the Jewish community)..
Need Money ?
At the airport
Transfer money.
Borrow.
Too Much Money ?
These people will help you invest it. This customer will keep it safe for you. And these people provide the digital infrastructure for the insurance industry.
Nice Cup of Tea
Herbal
Whatever you do this weekend, you don’t want these people looking for you.
There are of course also lots of lawyers, heating company, digital marketing agencies, IT service providers, city councils, research institutes to add to the above.
Finally, if none of the above interests you, there is always the telly.
Have you any questions regarding our products? Call us on the relevant number below:
US: 1800 932 1609 UK: 0203 5145395
IE: 01 4126200 CA: 1800 948 9438
Want to find out about becoming a Smarter Surfaces’ partner? Then click here.
by mj | Oct 19, 2020 | Business
Save the Children is a world leading independent organisation for children. They strive to give children an environment in which human rights and needs are protected.
They contacted us through Smarter Surfaces Corporate Social Responsibility programme, looking to bring create a whiteboard wall with our whiteboard paint in their offices. They applied our award-winning whiteboard paint, Smart Wall Paint to three of their offices and are thrilled with the results.
They summed up Smart Whiteboard Paint in three words:
Innovative – it uses the as-built environment without having to drill, screw or damage a wall surface.
Streamlined – it provides a clean finished look for the user.
Inducive – people naturally want to try it out, it supports innovation, collaboration and the exchange of ideas. People of all ages fulfil a need to write on walls.
He went on to tell us, “our contractor who applied the surface had experience with other whiteboard paints from a different manufacturer. He commented Smart Whiteboard Paint went on much easier and had less fumes”.
The resulting finish was very nice and uniform.
They would ‘recommend the products to other companies looking for unique solutions for their surfaces.’ He was greatly impressed by the contractor’s feedback that ‘it was a lot simpler and less toxic in application compared to other products they have used in the past’.
In the past, Save the Children Canada used traditional whiteboards but now they have Smart Whiteboard Paint in three of their offices, each with their own Smarter Surfaces area.
All of their staff use new surfaces as they are a company who have ‘frequent meetings and value heavy organisation’.
How do they make use of their new whiteboard walls? Mark answered that question for us too. “We can use our new surfaces for financial information, project information, collaboration ideas, staff education and seminars.”
To learn more about Save The Children Canada, visit their website here.
by mj | Oct 19, 2020 | Business
Calling all restaurant and café owners ? If you thought our write-on wipe-off paints and wallpapers were just for offices, think again.
Congrats to James Deery and all the team in Stacks on creating such an innovative and collaborative space through writeable walls and tables.
We LOVE what Darren Toner of Smarter Surfaces Northern Ireland has done to transform the interior of Stacks Bistro when they recently moved offices.
Writeable Tables
The tables looked like this before they were “smartified”:
Now they look like this:
Writeable Walls
The walls looked like this before they were “smartified”:
Now they look like this
Opening Night
So the all important question ? what did customers think of the new writeable wall in Stacks ? See for yourselves :
Make Your Tables and Walls Writeable in 4 Easy Steps
Just follow these steps to get a writeable surface for your tables and walls. Want to customise it with your logo too ? No problem. Read on.
1. Apply Base Paint
Apply base paint in the colour of your choice (or to match your logo).
2. Stick Your Logo on Top of the Base Paint
Print your logo on a sticker (any high street printer can do this for you). When the base colour paint is dry, remove the backing from your logo on a sticker, affix to the table in your preferred spot.
3. Apply Smart Clear Primer
This has two benefits. A coat of primer will seal the bottom surface and it will act as a base for the final whiteboard paint that goes on top. Do not skip this step as it is very important for erasibility.
4. Apply Smart Wall Paint Clear
Mix this two part paint. Follow the instructions carefully.
Allow sufficient time for your whiteboard paint to not only dry, but to cure. Then you are ready to go!
Pop along to the new Stacks which is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
