Blog

In our decades of work at RCI, we've run cables for many jobs, in many buildings, and for many clients. For some, we were hired to run cables; for others, it was an incidental part of the job that was required to make the rest of our equipment work. And in many, we came across cables run by amateurs...

When you've serviced business phone systems for almost 50 years, you get a sense of what businesses need, what breaks most often, and what people get wrong. You also see a lot of changes. For the most part, manufacturers keep adding new things to help businesses work more efficiently, but...

Virtually everyone who's reading this today can't imagine a world without video. The only exceptions may be folks who spent their earliest years somewhere without technology, but video has been around for the rest of us as long as we've had self-awareness. Given that, since that time, it has changed...

Happy New Year! This month, we rang in another new year, the 49th since RCI has been in business! After all this time, is anything really new? Well, in the technology world, the answer to that question is always yes. But likewise, one thing that never changes is that IT...

With every bit of human knowledge (and what we’ll politely call lack thereof) available from a typed query or “hey, Siri,” it’s easy to think the need for experts to help us with our problems is now behind us. But anyone who’s followed a recipe to the letter only to...

As an active business since 1977, RCI has been an IT company since before the term "IT services" existed. We've seen 50 years of growth and changes in the field, perhaps best known for high-speed growth and changes. So, though we have a pretty good idea of what IT services...

There’s a decent possibility you or someone you know works or has worked at a call center. That’s partly because the definition of a call center has changed, and with it, so have advanced call center features, including ones you may not realize are already part of your IP phone...

Even if you don't have a brick-and-mortar storefront where people come to shop, chances are, on occasion, you will have visitors to your office. When they arrive, you probably show them around, introduce them to people, and maybe show off something special. But one place you probably don't share, no...

What is the benefit of having video storage for your surveillance? You may think that any business with a surveillance system also has video storage, but there are two kinds of surveillance (aka CCTV) systems: those with and those without storage. Some systems are set up to be monitored in...

If there's an unsung hero of RCI's business technology service offerings, it would have to be pulling cable. We've been pulling cable in Roanoke for about four decades, almost since the founding of RCI in the late 1970s. Though we've introduced ourselves as an IT company, a business technology company,...

You don’t have to look far to see that phones have come a long way! And you may be thinking that we’re referring to smartphones, but it applies for business phone systems as well! Many of the modern business phone features were considered cutting edge not long ago. Often times...

Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and the community, and many small business owners feel like they have to do it all. It's easy to understand this with employees' livelihoods on your shoulders and balancing a budget, but never forget how valuable your time is, too, both intrinsically...

Nearly half of all employed Americans work for small businesses. But small businesses can meet a lot of things – everything from a one-person show to a 1500-person business! But as much as those businesses differ, they also have a few things in common, like the necessity of local IT...

It’s a New Year with New Tech but the same old story. Businesses continue to be on the front end of developing technology while we question the ethics of some changes and get frustrated with the speed (or lack thereof) of others. So, let’s talk business tech trends from 2023...

Every business is different, so therefore, so is every business telephone system. But, even though we combine them differently, there are some general phone system features that are either/or. In almost 50 years of business, RCI has identified some common business telephone questions that we are asked on a fairly...

As we return to work after sleeping off our turkey hangovers, we should take the time to reflect on what we're thankful for in our workplaces, too. Perhaps it's simply having a job, the people you work with, or even the equipment you use daily. Some of that equipment may...

There are a lot of camera systems and a lot of people who install them. Prices range from a few bucks for out-of-the-box plug-and-play models to tens of thousands for state-of-the-art custom systems. So how do you decide what’s for you? To start, you need professional surveillance installation. While it...

At RCI, during our busiest weeks, our office is mostly empty. The techs are in the field installing cameras and telephone systems, reprogramming phones for new users, running cable, or giving IT support to the people who need it where they need it. So, we deeply understand the need for...

In a world where you can make calls, process information, listen to music, and watch television, all without plugging into a phone or data cable, it would be easy to believe that cabling infrastructure no longer matters. And while you'd be forgiven for that misconception, it's a mistake nonetheless. You...