Blue Ridge Technology

Back in August of 2021, Microsoft quietly announced a few changes coming to the Microsoft 365 program. They gave businesses a healthy six months of notice, and that time has almost expired. Starting in March of 2022, businesses need to be prepared for their Microsoft 365 subscriptions to change in some small ways — and to cost more. Here’s what you need to know about this upcoming change. The Big Change: Higher Prices The big piece of news is that Microsoft is raising prices across its various business plans. While no one likes to pay more, the move makes sense: since launching Office 365 back in 2011, Microsoft hasn’t raised pricing even once, despite adding 24 new apps, including Publisher, Stream, Bookings, Power Automate, SharePoint, and its stellar collaboration app, Microsoft Teams. If you think back to how you interacted with Office back in 2011 and compare it to how you use Microsoft 365 today, you’ll likely see the difference. Microsoft has continued to add features, function...

Phishing Emails: How Well Do You Trust Your Team? And Is Trust Enough? As we enter a new year, many of the digital threats targeting small businesses aren’t changing drastically. They’re just getting more sophisticated. Phishing was a top threat to your business’s cybersecurity last year, and it’s going to be this year, too. With attacks getting more and more believable and harder to detect, just how much should you trust your team to get this right? We believe business leaders should leave their digital security up to chance. Now is the time to go on the offensive. Phishing: a Refresher In case the term phishing isn’t quite ringing a bell, here’s a quick refresher. Phishing describes email-based attacks where people or groups send an email that looks like it’s coming from somewhere official (like Microsoft, a big bank, or a prominent supplier in your industry). They send you an urgent message and ask you to click a link (and usually log in). The link is malicious, though: clicking co...

You’ve probably seen the stats by now: data breaches can be massively expensive. The average cost of a breach in 2021 was $4.24 million globally, and for US companies that figure shoots up to $8.64 million (in 2020). No matter the size of your business, the financial costs of a data breach are concerning enough to get serious on your digital security. But the financial costs aren’t the sum total of what you’ll deal with in a breach. In fact, they’re only a small piece of the puzzle. Data breaches cause far more damage than just the monetary sort. Consider these hidden (and not so hidden) costs that you’ll face if your company goes through a data breach this year. 1. You Will Lose Clients First, if you encounter a data breach, you will with near certainty lose some of your clients. Your clients are expecting you to keep their information secure, and some of them will take a breach as serious enough to move on to a competitor. As a result, you’ll have to deal with the monetary costs of...

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...

If your business is like most, you have plenty to worry about in terms of keeping costs low, and you’re constantly looking for ways to improve efficiency and shed costs. This just makes good business sense. Still, savvy business owners know that there are areas where cutting costs can be strategic and other areas where doing so can damage the business, perhaps irreparably. In other words, saving money by making workflows more efficient is a great idea, but saving money by skimping on quality or service could be disastrous. Where does your managed IT services partner fall into this matrix? Should you look for the absolute cheapest deal around, or is choosing bargain managed IT support something that could cause deep problems in the long run? Here at Blue Ridge Technology , we believe the right answer is to take a holistic approach to managed IT support. Often, the best deals aren’t really the best: they don’t lead to the kinds of outcomes you want for your organization. Underpayment for...

As a business owner, you’re understandably worried about digital threats to your business. One of the most persistent and frustrating threats is credential compromise, where a bad actor gains access to systems and services simply by pilfering someone’s credentials. You may have heard password managers mentioned as a potential solution to this problem. Here’s what you need to know. The Problem: Too Many Passwords, Bad Choices The typical internet user has somewhere north of 80 distinct accounts on various sites, services, platforms, and so forth. Most if not all of these are secured with a password. (Not to get too far off track, but say “most” because of newer technologies now coming into their own, like multifactor authentication and passwordless logins. These are massive improvements on the old username + password model, but they’re not yet in place on many sites and accounts. If you have the option for either one at your business for key accounts and services, turn it on right away....

Connecting Shouldn’t be a Guessing Game... Does your business rely on scheduling appointments with customers? Most do, and this process of booking customer meetings or appointments can be an intensely manual one. You, your sales agents, or a scheduling assistant spend precious time (and, therefore, money) figuring out your own schedule, asking customers or clients about their availability, and trying to align the two to find the ideal appointment time. Scale this up across dozens if not hundreds of bookings in a given month, and you’re looking at a significant resource investment. Microsoft Bookings is a powerful app within Microsoft 365 that can greatly improve the process of booking customer and client appointments. Find out what this tool can do for you in today’s blog post. Microsoft Bookings: Overview Microsoft Bookings is more than just a calendar or scheduling tool. It’s, well, a booking tool. It helps you and your customers and clients book appointments, just like you might do ...