A Better Virtual – USA Virtual Offices

MIAMI-A glut of new office space has come to Miami in the last two years—now virtual offices are adding to the mix. Intelligent Offices is the latest brand name to enter the Miami virtual office market.

It’s no surprise that Miami is seeing more virtual office providers. Virtual offices are gaining momentum on top of momentum because they offer a practical way for companies to simultaneously reduce overhead and serve up a big company image.

There are still many different takes on what a virtual office is. Virtual offices usually offer some combination of an 800 number, a premier business address and a live receptionist. Some virtual office providers also offer access to office space and virtual assistants.

Intelligent Office Miami is putting its own spin on the virtual office concept by providing office space, a receptionist and what it calls the next generation of virtual offices. Specifically, Intelligent Office is pushing the virtual office envelope with Intelligent Assistants serve as your specialized business support team.

“Intelligent Office helps clients grow their businesses by combining professional staffing with the physical and technological infrastructure of a virtual office,” says Allan Sirotkin, managing director of Intelligent Office Miami. “With more than 160,000 businesses here employing fewer than 49 employees, there are many businesses in many industries that can benefit from the enhanced services Intelligent Office provides.”

Intelligent Assistants are not your typical virtual assistant service. Indeed, they are called “Intelligent Assistants” for a good reason—each client custom trains the virtual assistant for its unique needs. The virtual assistant essentially learns your personalized phone script and otherwise works to get familiar with your business—just like an employee would. The Intelligent Assistant can even keep track of your schedule so calls can be addressed and routed without delay.

Intelligent Assistants can serve as a business concierge, handling reservations, preparing presentations, scheduling appointments, or fulfilling phone orders. And you don’t have to rent office space or virtual offices to tap into this resource. You can contract an Intelligent Assistant without any other officing strings.

“The Intelligent Office model is not based solely on office rentals,” Sirotkin said. “It’s a technology-based model where the support services and personnel assistance bring value to a business.”

Intelligent Office Miami is located on the 37th floor of One Biscayne Tower in downtown Miami. The location offers individual offices, conference suites, a kitchen, and private mailboxes, all of which are available 24/7. The facilities are available by the hour, day, week or month with prices starting around $18 per hour or $1,500 per month. On-demand personnel support services are tailored to address the specific needs of each business and are priced on usage.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH-Davinci Virtual Office Solutions is growing—and fast. How fast? Well, the virtual office solutions provider is officially the sixth-fastest growing company in Utah.

Davinci Virtual landed on the MountainWest Capital Network’s Utah 100 for 2011. That is a high honor in the Utah business community. The MountainWest Capital Network enjoys a unique position as the original, independent business networking group in Utah.

For more than 25 years, the group has supported entrepreneurs, investors and allied professional services firms with real-time information about capital creation and distribution through sponsored events that inspire, stimulate and reward successful business performance as they build relationships.

“Utah continues to prove its resiliency and economic prowess as one of the most business-friendly states in the country,” says Jason Watson, president of MountainWest Capital Network. “The Utah 100 aims a shining light upon the businesses who most exemplify this resiliency in Utah.”

Each year, MountainWest chooses the 100 fastest growing companies from a pool of thousands of eligible applicants across the state. Those companies include representatives from all industries, including information technology, biomedical, biotechnical, healthcare, retail, construction and financial services. There are rules to the game: A company has to be a U.S. organization based in Utah, and show significant revenue growth for five consecutive years, as well as innovation and performance.

Davinci Virtual Office Solutions accepted the award on October 6th at the Annual Utah 100 ceremony held at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. The event was lead by Mountain West Capital Network and Utah Governor Gary Herbert.

“We are honored to be selected as the 6th fastest growing company by the Mountain West Capital Network’s Utah 100,” says Bill Grodnik, CEO of Davinci Virtual. “The award is a tribute to our continued innovation and growth. Our unique virtual office services are in high demand—even in the current challenging economic environment.”

These days, small business owners need to answer the phone when it rings—no matter where they are when it rings.

They key is to balance staying in touch with high roaming costs and business-grade quality. What’s more, dialing out from your smartphone shows your personal phone number rather than the corporate number, in many instances, and customers could get confused as to which number to call back.

Virtual PBX is aiming to solve all those issues with the latest enhancement to Virtual PBX Complete. Dubbed VoIP Anywhere, the new service lets small business owners use their smartphones and computers as VoIP handsets with business phone capabilities. That means you can use VoIP to reduce or eliminate roaming charges from anywhere in the world—and outbound calls use your corporate caller ID info.

“Our launch of Virtual PBX Complete has generated tremendous demand from our customers. As they embrace our system, they are increasingly seeking the freedom to access their VoIP business features on any device, wherever they are,” says Greg Brashier, COO of Virtual PBX. “By introducing Virtual PBX Complete with VoIP Anywhere, we are delivering that freedom and flexibility to carry their business extension anywhere in the world.”

Clients travelling internationally, for example, often can access Wi-Fi from their branch offices or hotels. By using their smart phones as VoIP phones, they can receive business calls with no roaming charges and get a U.S. dial tone to make outbound calls. That equals huge savings over international dialing rates.

As with any Virtual PBX-branded solution, you can access VoIP Anywhere capabilities using any standard softphone, such as those available for Android phones, iPhones and computers. VoIP Anywhere also allows these devices to appear as VoIP extensions in the Virtual PBX system, so calls to and from the softphone have full access to all system features, such as business caller ID for outbound calls, call recording, call transfers, presence management and reporting.

With limited budgets in a tough economic climate, small businesses often find themselves in a difficult position trying to keep pace with major players in any given market. Implementing cloud computing virtual office services is a resourceful way to manage a small business infrastructure because they offer robust and innovative technologies at a lower cost without sacrificing scalability.

The Customer
Vacation Holdings provides vacation rental homes in the United States and the Virgin Islands. All of the property listings are owned by the 10-year old company and are well-appointed by Vacation Home Interiors, the design arm of the company.

The Challenge

Lisa Strauss, managing partner of Vacation Holdings, and her husband run a mobile company, literally. Their offices are maintained in a Recreational Vehicle or RV, giving them the freedom to work with clients and properties anywhere, anytime. However, Lisa realized that there was one drawback to this set-up.

Working primarily on her cell phone, Lisa struggled to maintain an office as inviting as her properties and to deliver the same individual attention she provides to her visitors. On a moment’s notice, Lisa needs to respond to a query, act on a request to rent one of their properties, or address a location’s maintenance issue. In addition, contract agreements need to be sent and received to lock in lease dates and rates.  With minimal resources and assistance, Lisa needed the right services to instill the same sense of luxury and professionalism her clientele expect when vacationing at one of her properties.

The Solution

Lisa discovered eVoice, which quickly helped solve her phone issues. eVoice offered several features and benefits that would transform the quality of operations of the company to the same level as her properties and provide the flexibility and efficiency she needed to get ahead of the competition.

Lisa set up separate phone extensions for each property to connect with her directly. When the phone rings, she knows exactly who is calling and which property will be part of the conversation. This allows Lisa to begin the call with a personal touch by greeting her customer by name.

Multi-tasking with eVoice is an additional benefit.  She can read the transcribed voicemails when she is on another call or in a meeting.  This was particularly useful when she was on a call with one client and received a voicemail from another client. Without missing a beat, Lisa is able to read the transcribed message about hurricane damage to a property in the Cayman Islands and send the transcribed message to the appropriate staff member who could make repairs.  She had a solution already in the works by the time she called her worried client.

eVoice also helps save time with maintenance requests. Lisa’s renters leave information on the designated message line, which is transcribed by eVoice and sent to Lisa and the maintenance crew. This streamlines the process and eliminates the time she needs to take to manage the maintenance issue.

Lisa was so impressed with eVoice that she added its sister brand, eFax to her operations. Although they don’t have a typical office, eFax enables Vacation Holdings to operate like a brick and mortar office with far less equipment. Always on the go, Lisa conveniently sends and receives faxes via e-mail and her cell phone.

The service helps solve Lisa’s document management problems as well. “eFax’s Large File Sharing feature is extremely helpful with managing our vacation rental contracts,” said Lisa. “Now we don’t worry about emails bouncing back because the files are too large.” Features such as digitized signatures and searchable fax save the time and money normally associated with using a traditional fax machine.

The Result
Both cloud computing services provide Lisa with a big business feel even though she is actually a business of two. She is now able to manage her business more efficiently and professionally. Lisa’s high regard for eVoice has resulted in several plan upgrades that scale with her growing business. Adding eFax for her contracts and oversized documents has similarly increased the efficiency of operations.

“I am so pleased with the way eVoice enabled us to change the way we do business. eVoice has made a positive impact across operations from  guest arrivals, hospitality details and property upkeep,” Lisa stated. “And by using eFax, I can manage my business more efficiently and professionally. eVoice and eFax are invaluable services.  Even during the recent recession, these tools have contributed to the overall growth of Vacation Holdings.”

Lisa figures that eVoice and eFax have helped increase revenue by 10 percent. In fact, both services have saved them so much money, that Lisa views them as practically free.

Intelligent Office is a dominant player in Canada’s virtual office market—and it just spread its virtual wings a little bit farther. With its new location in Edmonton, Alberta, Intelligent Office now has 13 locations north of the U.S. border.

The company has done a fine job there of educating entrepreneurs, small business owners and others about the benefits of working smarter, faster and more efficient—or, as the company likes to say it “working more intelligently” with virtual office space.

As companies seek to cut overhead costs in a turbulent economy, Intelligent Office reports that the demand for its services has grown exponentially. And it’s not just hyperbole. Intelligent Office has driven the expansion to prove it. In the last three years, the franchise operator has seen strong growth in Canada with five new virtual office ventures in Ontario and the West.

But Intelligent Office Canada is now pushing the virtual office envelope with a new philosophy that aims to get the attention of a broader audience. The virtual office provider boldly stated, “New technologies and economic change have made the traditional office model impractical for many companies.”

That statement is true, and perhaps truer in recent weeks as S&P downgraded America’s credit rating and Europe’s debt crisis started sending ripple effects through world economies.

Intelligent Office’s solution is virtual from A to Z. The company offers virtual office space, as well as virtual assistants, telecommunications, and upscale temporary office space at a significant cost reduction. And the firm is attracting everyone from startups to Fortune 500 companies with its virtual office model.

If you are going to run a virtual office, an Internet-based fax service is a must-have.

Why have a dedicated phone line to receive faxes if you rarely receive any? And why scramble to plug your telephone line into your fax machine to receive a fax because you don’t want to have a dedicated line? And why waste all that paper receiving faxes that you could just as easily read online? Why waste the ink? Get the picture?

There are plenty of Internet-based fax services on the market today. But one stands out as award-winning. PC magazine awarded eFax with its highest editorial honor last week: the Editor’s Choice Award. According to PC magazine, eFax has “a number of business-friendly features (digital signature, unlimited fax storage) that make it a must have.”

Here’s how eFax works: When you sign up for eFax, you’ll choose the location for a local or toll-free fax number. When someone faxes you, you receive the fax in your email inbox as a file attachment. Just double click the file to read it. You’ll be able to check your faxes anywhere you can access your email. You also have the option to route your incoming faxes to up to five different e-mail addresses.

In its review, PC magazine also says, “all-in-all, eFax is an excellent, well-rounded service for business customers who want to save on paper and ink.” Editors also noted that eFax’s standout feature is the ability to provide a digital signature which can be added to a document using either the Web interface or the free-to-download eFax Messenger.

“Our mission with eFax begins with making it easy to send and receive faxes by e-mail, but it goes far beyond that,” says Mike Pugh, vice president, marketing of j2 Global Communications, parent company of eFax. “With a focus on business-critical needs for more efficiency, mobility, and security, eFax has added advanced features like online signatures, searchable fax archives, large file sharing, and mobile apps for faxing in the field.”

j2 Global communications is also the parent company of eVoice, a virtual phone number service. eVoice answers and routes your calls, transcribes your voicemail to text and other features. eVoice works with your existing phone number, so you don’t have to change it.

When virtual law offices start getting recognized by industry organizations for the quality of life they enable, you know a trend has hit stride.

That’s just what has happened with Virtual Law Partners. The Bar Association of the District of Columbia presented the virtual law firm with its annual Constance L. Belfiore Quality of Life Award. Constance Belfiore called Virtual Law Partners a “new type of law firm that offers an appealing alternative for lawyers. VLP is exploring a new frontier and is doing so successfully.”

The award recognizes legal employers who demonstrate innovative efforts to promote quality of life, both professional and personal, within the firm. The award honors the firm for providing an exceptional quality of life in the workplace through policies that support significant flexibility and autonomy for its attorneys and staff.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the BADC,” says Cathryn Chinn, CEO of VLP. “Our firm was founded with a goal of creating a new type of law firm that provides a platform for our attorneys to have sophisticated legal practices while maintaining balance between their professional and personal lives.”

Since 2008, Virtual Law Partners has been working to create a firm that allows its attorneys to pursue their individual interests while practicing law at the highest level. The BADC pointed to the firm’s innovative compensation model as one reason for the recognition. Virtual Law Partners attorneys determine when and where they work and how much they work.

BADC also noted the firm’s “state of the art” technology platform that promotes collaboration. Virtual Law Partners’ model allows attorneys to work from the office location of their choice. For attorneys who choose to work from home, this eliminates commute time and gives the firm’s attorneys and staff more flexibility to balance their client work, business development activities, pro bono and community projects, and personal time.

“Working for VLP has increased my quality of life by giving me control over my practice,” says Lisa Stone, an Energy and Environmental Law attorney based in D.C. “Without minimum billable hours, office ‘face time’ requirements, and with compensation that is directly tied to my receivables according to a set formula, I find that I am able to truly focus on practicing law for my clients.”

Virtual PBX is on an award-winning roll—and it’s building major momentum in a competitive marketplace as it stacks up its industry recognitions.

In its latest pat on the back, TMC has named Virtual PBX Complete as a 2011 TMC Labs Innovation Award winner. The award was presented by TMC’s Internet Telephony magazine.

The TMC Labs Innovation Award honors products that display innovation, unique features, and significant contributions toward improving communications technology.

“The Innovation Award exemplifies the best and the most unique products and services that this industry has to offer,” says Tom Keating, CTO and TMC Labs Founder. “Virtual PBX has proven its commitment to quality and the further development of the IP communications industry through its Virtual PBX Complete solution.”

In case you aren’t familiar, Virtual PBX Complete is a hosted PBX solution that aims to meet the needs of both traditional and VoIP telephony customers. You might call it a hybrid solution, and it’s certainly unique. The new product promises flexibility, easy installation and a strong feature set at an attractive price. Virtual PBX Complete differentiates itself from competing virtual PBX services by blending analog and IP telephony while at the same time incorporating open SIP peering.

“This recognition demonstrates the significant impact Virtual PBX Complete innovation has had on our market,” says Greg Brashier, COO of Virtual PBX. “This award, coupled with the enthusiastic responses from our customers, is a testament to Virtual PBX’s hard work and commitment to provide services that meet the wide range of customer needs.”

Davinci Virtual Office Solutions is one of those companies that is proving over and over again what a strong demand there is for virtual offices, virtual receptionists, virtual assistants and the like. The company just keeps expanding.

Davinci points to a single significant driver for the spike in demand for virtual office space: rapidly changing work patterns. What is driving those rapidly changing work patterns? As Davinci sees it, a challenging global economy. So while many other business models suffered through the economic downturn, virtual office providers like Davinci actually benefited.

Indeed, virtual offices are one of the fastest growing segments of the office industry. Instead of renting a traditional office space for hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month, a start-up can start up with a virtual office space for as little as $50 a month. This is an amazing value proposition.

“Demand for virtual services has been so strong since the beginning of 2011 that we have been forced to relocate to larger office ourselves so that we can bring in more staff to handle the volume of enquiries and continue to deliver what we’re known for, an exceptional and consistently high quality end customer experience,” says Steve Golding, Davinci’s UK General Manager.

Golding says he’s seeing a growing number of dynamic start-ups coming onto the scene, as well as changing work patters among larger organizations looking to deal with staff commuting problems in the face of rising fuel prices and train fares.

“Increased flexibility in working hours and locations are also being implemented by organizations worried about the implications of impending changes to legislation covering parental leave, where the temporary loss of key staff could have a major impact on small businesses,” Golding says.

Golding represents Davinci’s UK operations, but there is a similar story in the U.S. Davinci Virtual recently opened a new headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah to accommodate its growth stateside. In all, Davinci has more than 750 virtual office locations in its worldwide network.

If you want to know how virtual offices work, some vendors offer a free trial. Others offer a set-up fee that makes it prohibitive to try their service. So, again, be sure you understand all of the restrictions and contracts before you engage with a virtual office provider. All that said, virtual offices are a dream come true for many entrepreneurs because they can offer convenient services, a professional image and cost-savings that brick and mortar competitors can’t match.

You’ve heard of the cloud, but what about cloud virtual offices?

That’s the phrase Pacific Business Centers is working to turn into a virtual office industry buzzword. Pacific Business Centers is offering these so-called cloud virtual office services to companies large and small in cities like San Mateo.

So what is a cloud virtual office?

An on-demand office solution for mobile workers, telecommuters, home-based entrepreneurs—with a hosted model. Essentially, the services are delivered from the cloud.

“It is no surprise that our concept of virtual office productivity enhancements is meeting such enthusiastic response in large enterprises, but the economy is obviously giving our business an additional boost as lower cost coupled with maximum flexibility is exactly what businesses need in these very challenging times,” says Pacific Business Centers CEO Laurent Dhollande.

As Dhollande sees it, with office space costs rising it is hard for companies to justify the cost of having a high-priced office, especially when many employees can be just as productive from home. Virtual offices let companies maintain a presence throughout the country and still keep operating costs at a minimum.

Although shared office space is still popular and isn’t going away, the corporate world is more and more often turning to virtual office space to meet the officing needs of some workers. Virtual office space gives companies the best of both worlds, letting them rent conference rooms on demand if a physical meeting is needed.

At Pacific Business Centers, the average full-service virtual office space costs about $200 a month. By contrast, even a small office in an out of the way location will cost over $1,000 a month. When you rent a virtual office space from Pacific Business Centers, you get access to physical office space for client meetings in five California markets for one price.