By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor

The office has come a long way since its ancient inception. Centuries ago, offices were actual rooms where scrolls were kept and scribes did their work, and as time progressed, they served the pre-industrial era as reference rooms. Eventually, the 20^th century arrived, and our industrialized society used offices as places of business, all consisting of rooms to support the people who worked within the walls.

Globally speaking, it was always a rather large world, and the telephone made it that much smaller. Now that we have the age of the Internet, the figurative space seems infinitely smaller than that, as it has managed to bring together people from all over the world into one conference room either via Web conference or other forms of live chat. This idea of the virtual office, an idea that seemed so far fetched in science fiction films of the 1980s, is very much a reality, so much that it’s becoming a normal part of every day office function.

In five years, what will the typical office space look like? It may not be as big as the offices that Sears, Roebuck and Co had opened back in 1906. In fact, offices, while still wide-spread throughout the globe, will likely shrink in numbers as telecommunications becomes more sophisticated. What the virtual office is enabling companies to do is save on overhead costs like rent for buildings, travel reimbursement expenses and other costs associated with a brick and mortar location.

By simply investing in a solid telecommunications platform upon which to build a virtual environment, nearly all employees can work from their respective homes or on the go. The money saved on physical location can be better used for other assets, equipment, or smaller locations that do not require the upfront capital costs associated with a larger, more complex office location.

What’s more, a virtual office is fairly quick to set up and requires very little compared to setting up a fully operational physical office. The virtual office system can provide any business or company the capabilities of maintaining productivity from virtually anywhere. It is based on the principle that a business entails effective communication. It can significantly save time and money while providing superior technologies.

With the way technology is growing, particularly at its rapid pace, companies might find it compelling to move towards a virtual model for their future offices for the sheer benefits that come with maintaining one. Given that, it’s only safe to assume that within five short years, technology will bring us to a more virtualized world as we find office spaces going by way of plain old telephone systems; not exactly necessary, but remains as a basic form of connection for a precious few.