Coffee & IT: Our Atlanta Roots

By Joshua Flail

Some people might wonder what a semi-automatic espresso machine is doing in the office of an IT company. The truth is, that silver beauty says as much about our values as a company as it does to our roots as an Atlanta startup.

During Ripple’s formative years, Mike met Tony Riffel, a fellow transplant to Atlanta who was starting his own small business: Octane Coffee Company. Mike approached him about Octane being an early adopter of Ripple’s Free WiFi campaign, and explained that it would benefit Octane as much as it would Internet-hungry Atlantans, who were eager to have more WiFi-enabled places from which to work. As a former employee of Octane myself, and a current Rippler, I was able to get Tony to spill the beans (horrible pun intended) on those early years.

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Social Networking for Business

By Joshua Flail

Being in a Results-Only Work Environment company means that the lines of communication between coworkers must always be open, particularly when people are working both in and outside the office. Ripplers not only have to stay in communication with each other, but we’re always aiming to improve our processes for finding information and solving problems.

Part of how we do that is by using applications that inform other Ripplers of where we are, what we’re working on, and when we’re done for the day. One tool we’ve really taken to is the social networking application Yammer.

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Pardot is the best place to work in Atlanta

By Mike Landman

If you haven’t seen, Pardot was awarded the Best Workplace in Atlanta by the AJC last week. It was no fluke – they earned it.

I have known David Cummings (one of the Pardot co-founders) since 2007. I’ve watched as he built – with great discipline, the culture that makes Pardot such a great place to work.

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The Stages of IT: Part Three

By Joshua Flail

We’ve already talked about IT in the lean years (Part One), and discussed some of the more traditional options for startups and small companies (Part Two). So, this is where we get right down to what makes the most sense to us Ripplers. That is, providing IT services that are proactive about potential problems, upfront about costs, and most importantly, humanizing.

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The Stages of IT: Part Two

By Joshua Flail

SMALL BUSINESS I.T.

In Part One of The Stages of IT, we discussed the options for very small businesses and beginning startups. But what’s best for those companies that have made it past the very lean years? Well, there are two traditional options:

1. Hire an IT technician that can be in the office all the time.

2. Pay hourly for call-in IT consultants to fix problems when they happen.

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The Stages of IT: Part One

By Joshua Flail

WHY INVEST IN I.T.?

This morning my roommate asked me, “So, why do these companies hire you guys? Don’t any of your clients have people that know about IT?” It’s a valid question if you’ve never been part of an office structure. But before I could start babbling at him about what Managed IT is, I had to give him a breakdown of the way most companies start out.

COMPANIES OF ONE

Self-employed people who are businesses of one or small startup companies with only 2-3 employees don’t usually consider IT support in their business model, generally because of a lack of capital. And managing a network that consists of just a computer and external harddrive is something most people can figure out on their own (back it up). It’s when startups grow to include either more employees or begin to collaborate with each other outside the office that IT support shows its worth.

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Adobe Introduces Subscription Licensing

By Homer Bartlett

One of the great aspects of cloud computing, or software-as-a-service, is that it scales efficiently (making it a good strategy for operating in tough financial times). Paying per mailbox per month for email hosting, for instance, scales down gracefully when your summer interns go back to school. But if you had an internal Exchange server you would have had to purchase Exchange Client Access Licenses (CALs) for those interns to have mailboxes, CALs that now sit idle for 9 months, money wasted.

With the introduction of Creative Suite 5.5, Adobe has introduced Subscription Licensing, whereby you can pay per month for the software you need, rather than buying the licenses outright. This makes a lot of sense for creative companies who might have some number of permanent creatives on staff and bring in contractors and freelancers on a project basis. Bringing in a freelancer for a 3-month project? Not sure you’ll still have enough work in a couple of months to keep that new designer you just hired? Don’t shell out $1,700 for CS5.5 Design Premium, “rent” it instead for $139/month.

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Why Nice is The Killer IT Skill

By Mike Landman

"How can I help you?"

There are a lot of skills companies look for in IT people. Smart, analytical, experienced. Windows, Cisco, Dell. The one most often overlooked is Nice.

When I started Ripple, it was in no small part because of the way IT people were acting. Busy, smug and secretive. So I set out to build an IT company with a culture of being nice, friendly and approachable. Pretty regularly people will say to me “well, that’s neat, but does it really matter?” Yes, and it’s a meaningful IT skill. Here’s how I know: continue reading

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How small business should think about cloud computing

By Mike Landman

I was interviewed for Smart Business Magazine a while back, and we discussed The Cloud. These were my thoughts: SBM: The cloud seems to be everywhere. What should businesses be thinking about? Is the cloud right for everyone? Me: The short answer is: Yes, it’s right for everyone. The long answer is: Maybe not right now, and not for everything. continue reading

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Computer Warranties

By Homer Bartlett

We always recommend replacing computers every 3 years and maintaining a next business day (“NBD”) onsite repair warranty on them for those 3 years. It’s one of the core principles of successfully delivering managed services and IT support for small business. Why? On average roughly 1 in 5 laptops fail in the first 3 years (1 in 3 if you include failures due to accidents). Desktops are typically more reliable, but these days more of our clients in Atlanta are opting for laptops than desktops. After year 3 the failure rate goes up about 20% per year, and the likelihood of downtime from malware and viruses goes up even faster. Not to mention the headaches involved when trying to upgrade a piece of business-critical software on an older PC that doesn’t meet the new minimum requirements. When your computer fails, and all of them eventually do, if you have no warranty you’re looking at either a potentially expensive repair or an emergency replacement. Even with overnight shipping it’s a couple business days of downtime and disruption to your work. With a mail-in warranty, you’ll get a box from the repair center (1 business day), send it off for repair (1-2 business days), the center will repair it (1-2 business days), then they’ll ship it back to you (1 business day). How many days of business did you just lose? With NBD onsite repair service, a repair person trained by the manufacturer will be at your place of business the next business day, and they can almost always complete the repair in a couple hours. So given the average failure rates, and the process involved in repair, we think NBD onsite service is a wise investment. It typically adds about $180 to the price of a business class laptop, and for some business laptop lines a 3-year NBD onsite warranty is the standard service (you have to opt out of it if you don’t want it). For folks who travel often or are accident-prone, NBD onsite warranties with accidental damage coverage can make sense too. More Info

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