Using A Virtual Office: Why It Makes Sense

The concept of a virtual office stems from the age of technology and improvised communications. It cuts down on office space and eliminates the need for employees to battle their way to work each morning through heavy rush hour traffic or on crowded public transportation links.

It can involve working from home, which can be particularly economic if that staff member has no requirement to meet clients face to face, or from another branch closer to the home of the employee.

London has become a capital where homes are much too expensive for people to live and office rental space is extremely high. In fact the entire broadcasting network of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) decided to cut costs by moving out of London and relocating in Manchester, some 200 miles north of the capital.

However, there are now several so-called virtual offices located in smaller towns dotted in and around the Greater Manchester region. In the south-west of England the largest city is Bristol. This can be difficult and expensive to live and work in the centre of the big city.

If you travel further south and west to some of the coastal villages and hamlets in Devon and Cornwall, you will find them awash with virtual offices where graphic designers, game developers, Information Technology software programmers and database coordinators live and work.

The virtual office is nothing more than a small bedroom with an internet link and a fully checkable work station. The employee is often linked to the central office by means of a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) link. This way the employee can join in on business meetings and the work submitted is all monitored in real time. The cost of this kind of technology is very low and has helped the virtual office thrive exponentially.

Cost drives the firm to consider a virtual office over the city centre office with its high rents. The virtual office can blend the efficiencies of being in the home and at work. Expenses usually attributed to the office are not there in the virtual one. A standard office will have to provide vending machines, a cafeteria or restaurant, washrooms, maintenance staff (to repair the lighting and electrics), window cleaners, housekeepers and on site security. And there are probably many more extras not even mentioned. A virtual office has none of the above expenditures.