Virtual Office Featured Article

Enterprise Mobility Makes Virtual Offices a Reality

April 29, 2016
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor

While we’re not ready to ditch the physical office all together, technology has certainly afforded businesses the opportunity to need these spaces less. The emergence of virtual offices has seen many businesses shift from brick and mortar locations to ones that rely on devices and an Internet connection. A virtual office is basically a setting that allows those who work from remote locations to share files and become office mates even though they may be geographically dispersed. The work is handled by the employees and delivered to respective clients’ accounts just like in a traditional office setting.


Such is the case in India where one of the country’s leading media publishers, Jagran Prakashan, whose workforce is now about 30 percent mobile; with sales staff armed with tablets, the need to return to the office is no longer a requirement. The firm employed Oracle (News - Alert) WebCenter Portal to facilitate workflow processes, minus the physical office space. The company has noted an increase in efficiency and agility, thanks to the virtual workspace, and the trend is only spreading farther and wider across the country.

Safexpress, a supply chain management company, has seen improvements in its delivery operations with tablets and handheld terminals.

“Mobile environments have emerged to be one of the key areas of focus for businesses in India. Companies are evolving at a rapid pace and are engaging with prospective customers to provide engaging mobile app experiences. Multi-channel, mobile environments were the new normal in 2015,” says Mitesh Agarwal, Vice President, Sales Consulting & CTO, Oracle India, according to Express Computer.

While these examples are just tips on the iceberg of the mobile workforce, here in the U.S., cloud-based telephony has offered small businesses the ability to set up shop without ever having to pay rent for a physical office space.

With a cloud-based telephony solution, businesses can choose from a variety of highly cost-effective self-service functions like selecting DIDs, adding extensions, setting up voice mail, configuring an auto-attendant, personalizing IVR, and call forwarding.

The advantage of virtual offices, apart from reducing overhead costs, is the many levels of different, flexible services. Having post redirected or forwarded, using an international phone number, making low-cost (or, internally, free) calls or benefiting from meeting-room discounts: in an increasingly digital and mobile world, benefits like these are persuading businesses that traditional, fixed office spaces might no longer suit the way they operate.

Solutions like phone.com give users the ease of setting up a virtual office simply by signing up, choosing a number, and configuring the features that best meet the business needs.

Where enterprise mobility has made virtual offices a reality around the globe, domestic small businesses, including start-ups and home-based businesses, are leveraging cloud-based telephony solutions to complete the circle. A virtual office can mean instant credibility and flexibility, and without the additional costs of a physical space, more money is kept on the bottom line.




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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