Virtual Office Resource

The virtual office is a great thing; with such an advance, we can effectively work from anywhere with a decent Internet connection. Home, home office, coffee shop, where ever people can sit and type for long hours is prime for virtual office operations. Virtual offices go nowhere without good communications, though, and that's where a new Vonage (News - Alert) and Google operation can really shine through.

Vonage—well known in the field for its cloud-based communications work—recently joined the Google (News - Alert) RCS Early Access program to help develop new Rich Communications Services (RCS) products and services.  With the new membership in Early Access, Vonage will be able to take the Vonage application programming interface (API) Nexmo and bring new services out to Vonage business customers.

This includes those using G2A.com as well as BlaBlaCar, and other Vonage business operations. The expanded experience, according to reports, is set to include things like chat functions for groups, photo sharing systems, read receipts and a variety of other functions.

Alan Masarek, Vonage's CEO, commented “RCS business messaging is a natural next step in our goal to reinvent how communications applications are built, providing our customers with the ability to streamline communications in an ecosystem where device and operating systems are irrelevant. RCS offers a much richer experience than either SMS or MMS, and it allows us to provide businesses with the ability to give their customers - no matter the device or operating system they use - the exceptional experience they need to stay competitive."

While it's a little narrow in scope right now, it's the kind of thing that could be expanded fairly readily and brought to a much wider field of users. That's good for Vonage, long-term; the more users its product line can appeal to, the more likely it will be to find users going forward and keep the current stock on hand. With added mobility, it becomes an excellent part of a virtual office, which requires the best in communications capabilities as well as the best in mobility.  Vonage offering both of those points in one package is a good way to advance its credibility as a mobile communications option. A further connection to Google's own mobility tools like Google Docs may not hurt here either.

Keeping in touch while mobile is a fundamental part of the virtual office, and Vonage is making great strides in maintaining its own position in this field. The new connection with Google should only make Vonage's presence even better known.