Blue Ridge Technology

SHOCK STAT: A third of business owners don’t trust their staff Business success thrives on trust: to some degree, you trust that your customers and suppliers and vendors will all pay what they’ve promised, deliver goods on time, and keep the services running that you rely on to power your business. But trust is a tricky thing. And we’re often unsure exactly how much we can (or should) trust people. It’s one of the reasons some business owners struggled with the idea of remote or hybrid work. Too much trust is also a significant driver in cyberattacks, data theft, and any other sort of digital threat your business faces. One recent survey revealed something shocking: around a third of business owners don’t trust their own staff. Let’s take a look at why this is — both the good and the not-so-good reasons business leaders struggle to trust employees — along with what you can do to improve this crucial area. Why Leaders Struggle to Trust Many leaders struggle to trust because of past expe...

Businesses are spending more on IT this year Right now, prices are going up everywhere — from the gas pump to the grocery store to the latest consumer and business tech and hardware. That’s just a part of life during a period of prolonged inflation. And before you ask, no, we aren’t using this blog post to announce price hikes here at Blue Ridge Technology. But we do want to talk a little about how inflation and other factors (like continued tech innovation) are affecting what companies spend on IT. If you’re not yet a Blue Ridge customer, right now is the perfect time to switch to us as your new IT partner. Costs are escalating all around you, so why not switch to a provider that will take the time to right-size your IT spend, finding areas where you can save and strategic areas where you can focus your spend? Reach out today if you’re ready for that conversation. Otherwise, let’s talk about the overall spending trends for a minute. IT Spend Will Reach New Highs This Year New research...

When something’s wrong, you want a responsive IT helpdesk. It’s an all-too-familiar scene: in an office complex somewhere near you, an employee is fighting with a computer. Something that has always worked, something that’s supposed to work, something the employee needs to do their job— you guessed it, it’s not working. At this hypothetical company, there’s a structure in place to solve problems like this: the IT helpdesk. In theory, the employee should just call the helpdesk to get the problem solved. But the employee doesn’t call the helpdesk right away. They spend 30 minutes, an hour, maybe two trying to solve the problem themselves. They bother a tech-savvy coworker or loop in their manager. Two or three people — none of whom is trained for it — now sit around the computer, poking through menus and Googling the symptoms. This not-so-hypothetical scenario plays out countless times every day, wasting too many resources and destroying worker focus and productivity. If you’ve lived it,...

As an SMB leader, you know the challenges of budgeting and forecasting all too well. Certain areas of your business are trickier than others, too, with complicating factors and uneven or spiky costs. IT hardware spend is one of these challenging areas for many SMBs — especially those that keep all their IT planning and procurement in-house. Whether you’re going it alone or working with a managed IT partner, check out these strategies for simplifying and managing your annual hardware budgeting process. 1. Know What’s Due for Replacement By Planning Out Your Hardware Lifecycle If you’re like most business leaders, you’re used to a steady stream of complaints about hardware. Sometimes those complaints have to do with training or other issues, but sometimes the problem really is that the person’s computer is just too old and slow. But how do you keep track of what to replace when? By planning out your hardware lifecycle in advance. For most businesses, this means replacing every employee’s...

There’s a false notion out there among small businesses that can be unimaginably dangerous. It goes something like this: “We don’t need to worry too much about cybersecurity. We’re so small, no one would want to hack us.” If you’ve ever been tempted to think something similar — and if your digital security efforts reflect this mentality — your business could be in danger. The truth is, small businesses are big targets for cybercriminals. Your small business isn’t too small to get hacked, and it may even be an especially enticing target. Here’s why, and some initial steps you should take. Fort Knox and Convenience Stores It’s tempting to think that hackers will always and only go after big, juicy, lucrative targets. And don’t get us wrong: hackers do go after big global corporations. Sometimes they even succeed. But everyday hackers are just as likely — if not more likely — to go after smaller targets. To understand why, we’ll use an analogy from offline crime. Which would you rather r...