Virtual office

A virtual office is part of the flexible workspace industry that provides businesses with any combination of services, space and/or technology, without those businesses bearing the capital expenses of owning or leasing a traditional office.

A virtual office can be used by entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses that do not need or cannot afford a traditional office space. It can also be used by larger companies that want to establish a presence in a specific location without committing to a long-term lease.

Some virtual office providers offer additional services such as meeting room rentals, administrative support, and live receptionist services. These services are usually provided remotely, but also some virtual office providers have a physical office space where clients can have access to these services. This can be an attractive option for businesses that want to project a professional image without the cost of a full-time office.

Virtual office services started in the 1960s as serviced offices and have evolved with technology to include a wide variety of personnel, physical space, digital storage and communication services. Customers pay a contract fee for these services which may be offered à la carte, as packages or membership subscription. The concept is popular with companies of all sizes, including self-employed entrepreneurs. One of the primary allures of the virtual office is the flexibility it offers for employees and freelancers to work from a satellite office, home office, remote location or even on-the-go via a mobile device. At the same time, a company can offer its clients and employees a stable home office with access to amenities such as receptionist, conference rooms, desk space, mailboxes, printing and faxing at a permanent address, which are owned and maintained by the virtual office provider or a third party.

In 2021, a number of companies set out to fix the challenges of virtual meetings. This led to the appearance of virtual office software. When referring to a company having a virtual office, this no longer refers to a standard set of business services. Rather a virtual space for employees to gather and perform business-related activities.

Virtual office providers may also include digital capital such as cloud storage, web hosting, email and other web-based applications.

Also, according to the research, the attitudes and policies of employers in the virtual platform affect their employees' personal lives and productivity. Employees will be more productive if they believe their company trusts them, recognizes them, cares about them, and receives the proper training (including online processes, etc.), project management, and support to perform their tasks productively. When employees don't have to spend time, money, or resources on transportation between home and work, it positively impacts employee productivity. That is why it became necessary to create an appropriate software environment to ensure these processes' functioning.

History

The concept of a virtual office had roots before and during the Industrial Revolution, where parallels to current work styles, specifically working from home, have been drawn. The virtual office concept is an evolution of the traditional executive suite. As an executive suite, lease became increasingly impractical for certain types and stages of business, it naturally opened the door to a virtual office concept.

In the mid-20th century, professionals and executives began to examine ways to make more efficient use of the rising cost of real estate, personnel and other capital. Below are some milestones in the resulting evolution of the virtual office, along with the advent of technologies that help shape the industry.

Prerequisites for the spread of virtual offices

The most significant factor in the spread of virtual offices was the forced transition to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Society introduced remote work quickly, so new technologies and operating systems must be adequately tested and trained.

Communication and getting to know other team members come naturally when everyone is working in the same place, so when working remotely, employees and managers have to make more effort to maintain relationships with colleagues. New employees need to learn organizational habits even while working remotely.

Services

Virtual office infrastructure may include a variety of physical locations and services, as well as digital services. The infrastructure is shared across individuals and entities allowing resources to be used more efficiently. This allows users the flexibility of only renting or using the services they need.

Physical

* A business address
* Mail services (receive, pick up and/or forwarding)
* Conference rooms
* Desk space and private offices
* Printing and related services such as copying, binding, faxing, scanning, laminating, and shredding.
* Receptionist services and answering services
* Storage space
* Photography studio

Digital

* A phone number
* Online phone system (VoIP)
* Virtual assistants
* Virtual receptionists
* Website domains and email
* Instant Message, chat and other web-based RTC platforms
* Video conferencing, including webinar-hosting or other screensharing platforms
* Online digital storage
* Project management tools
* Cloud-based applications (e.g. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides or Office 365)

Emerging Trends

Coworking is a related trend in flexible workspaces that places an emphasis on users interacting with each other to create an organizational culture without working for the same company. Similar to virtual offices, coworking venues offer serviced workspaces and customers can use these on an as-needed basis.

Virtual reality technology is another trend that may soon impact virtual offices. Virtual reality applications have the capability of creating offices spaces that are physical spaces within the virtual world where users can meet and work side-by-side.

See also

*Virtual team
*Virtual workplace

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Virtual Office
Business terms
Office work